4 0 54.3% 44.8% | 192,364 158,625 Start date November 8, 1988 | |
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Hawaii took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Hawaii voters chose 4 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
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Hawaii was won by Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis who was running against incumbent United States Vice President George H. W. Bush of Texas. Dukakis ran with Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen as Vice President, and Bush ran with Indiana Senator Dan Quayle.
Hawaii weighed in for this election as 9% more Democratic than the national average.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for Hawaii, with 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties. All four of the Hawaiian island districts voted in majority for Dukakis.
Republican national victory
Dukakis won the election in Hawaii with a solid 10 point landslide. The election results in Hawaii stand out from most in the United States during this election. The nationwide electoral results are largely reflective of a nationwide political 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 corporate interests, and tax cuts for the wealthy.
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 States after 2007, such as the Great Recession.