21 0 60.9% 38.5% | 2,618,885 1,656,701 Start date November 8, 1988 | |
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Florida voters chose 21 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
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Florida was won by incumbent United States Vice President George H. W. Bush of Texas, who was running against Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Bush ran with Indiana Senator Dan Quayle as Vice President, and Dukakis ran with Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
Florida weighed in for this election as 7% more Republican than the national average.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for Florida, with more than 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only 4 candidates appearing on the ballot. Every county in Florida turned out in this election for Bush, except for North Florida's Gadsden County, which voted narrowly more for Dukakis than Bush.
Republican victory
Bush won the election in Florida with a 22-point sweep-out landslide. This is the last election where Florida voted reliably Republican, afterward becoming a regular swing state. The election results in Florida are also reflective of a nationwide reconsolidation of base for the Republican Party, which took place through the 1980s. Through the passage of some very controversial economic programs, spearheaded by then President Ronald Reagan (called, collectively, "Reaganomics"), the mid-to-late 1980's saw a period of economic growth and stability. The hallmark for Reaganomics was, in part, the wide-scale deregulation of businesses, and tax cuts for all Americans.
Dukakis ran his campaign on a notably socially liberal agenda, and advocated for higher economic regulation and environmental protection. Bush, alternatively, ran on a campaign of continuing the social and economic policies of former President Reagan - which gained him much support with social conservatives and people living in rural areas, who largely associated the Republican Party with the economic growth of the 1980s. Additionally, while the economic programs passed under Reagan, and furthered under Bush and Clinton, may have boosted the economy for a brief period, they are criticized by many analysts as "setting the stage" for economic troubles in the United State after 2007, such as the Great Recession.