| Donna Rice | |
|---|---|
| Born | Donna Rice January 7, 1958 |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | University of South Carolina |
| Known for | Alleged extra-marital affair with Gary Hart and resulting political scandal |
Donna Rice Hughes (born January 7, 1958) was the key figure in a widely-publicized 1987 political scandal that ended the second campaign for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States of Gary Hart amid allegations of marital infidelity. Since the mid-1990s, she has worked as an anti-pornography activist.
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The daughter of a highway engineer and secretary, Donna Rice spent her childhood in Florida, Georgia (in Atlanta), and South Carolina. A self-described over-achiever, she began a modeling career at age 13 and maintained a high grade average in high school while also attending church services and working part-time as a clothing store sales clerk.
Rice graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1980, where she was both an honors student and cheerleader. Of her senior year, she said: "I began to compromise my Christian values — partying and dating guys who weren't Christians."[1] After she graduated from the university, Rice stopped attending church services.
Rice claims to having later been the victim of rape (by an older man she had been dating), and also of having been too ashamed to report the incident. She says the rape was "the turning point in my life, the catalyst that propelled me further into an unhealthy lifestyle".[1] She entered and won the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant, and went on to New York City to compete in the national pageant. While she did not win, she remained in New York to pursue an acting and modeling career.
After a relative lack of success in New York City, Rice moved to Miami, where she worked as a television commercial actress for a pharmaceutical company and a small marketing business. In March 1987, she met former Senator Gary Hart at a Miami fundraiser.[1]
Soon after meeting Rice, Hart announced that he would run for nomination as the Democratic candidate for President. Having mounted a surprisingly strong campaign in 1984 against the eventual nominee, former Vice President Walter Mondale, he was widely perceived as a front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1988. However, rumors shortly thereafter began circulating about his having an extra-marital affair, leading the candidate to challenge the media to surveil him, and to also claim that anybody who did so would "be very bored." The day before Hart's dare to the media was to appear in The New York Times, however, two reporters for the Miami Herald observed Rice coming out of Hart's Washington, D.C. townhouse, and their story was published on the same day that his challenge appeared in the Times. While Hart contended that the reporters could have no knowledge of exactly when Rice arrived or why she was there, his credibility suffered a major blow, and polls taken almost immediately afterward found him to be 10 points behind Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. Two days after their initial story, the Herald obtained a photograph of Rice sitting on Hart's lap in Bimini aboard a motor yacht named Monkey Business. The celebrity tabloid National Enquirer immediately published the photograph, and within five days, Hart had decided to drop out of the Democratic Presidential nomination race.[2][3]
Former National Security Council member, Roger Morris, suggests in his book, Partners in Power, the Clintons and Their America, that the Hart-Rice scandal was in reality the result of an intelligence operation, the objective of which was to deny Hart the presidency. Hart's major offense, according to Morris, was not his alleged affair, but rather his advocacy of "further investigation and exposure of the alliance between the mob and the US intelligence community."[4]
As a result of the scandal, Rice lost her job as a marketing representative for a pharmaceutical company in South Florida.[5] The enormous publicity generated by the Hart scandal resulted in numerous other offers, however, and while she refused most- including one for an appearance in Playboy magazine- she did work as a national spokesmodel for No Excuses jeans until Hart's unsuccessful re-entry into the presidential race in December 1987.[6]
Rice met her future husband, Jack Hughes, on a blind date in 1991, and they married on May 7, 1994.[1]
From 1994 to 1999, she worked as Communications Director and Vice President of "Enough is Enough", a non-profit, anti-pornography organization that works to assist former industry workers, and campaigns "to make the Internet safer for children and families."[7] In 1999, Rice Hughes was appointed by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to a congressional panel.[8] Since 2005, she has been volunteer president of "Enough is Enough" and has also co-written a book entitled Kids Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace (ISBN 0-8007-5672-X).
Donna Rice Hughes (born January 7, 1958) was a figure in the 1987 sex scandal that ended the second presidential campaign of Gary Hart.
   | "Enough Is Enough: Donna Rice Hughes" - Enough Is Enough: Donna Rice Hughes | Today's Christian Woman | Your Life. Your Faith. Your World. |
| | "Congress Aims to Protect Kids Online" - Congress Aims to Protect Kids Online (washingtonpost.com) |
| | "Stakeouts And Shouted Questions" - Stakeouts And Shouted Questions - TIME |
| | "Fall from Grace" - Fall from Grace - TIME |
| | "Donna Rice Hughes says enough is enough" - Salon.com Business | Donna Rice Hughes says enough is enough |
| | "Rice Loses Her Job" - RICE LOSES HER JOB - The New York Times |
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