4 0 62.1% 36.0% | 253,881 147,272 Start date November 8, 1988 | |
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Idaho voters chose 4 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
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Idaho 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.
Idaho weighed in for this election as 9% more Republican than the national average.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for Idaho, with over 98% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only 4 parties appearing on the ballot. Most counties in Idaho voted in majority for Bush, while a band of counties in the middle North portion of the state, including Nez Perce and Clearwater counties, voted in majority for Dukakis.
Republican victory
Bush won the election in Idaho with one of his strongest margins nationwide: a triumphant 26 point sweep-out landslide. While Idaho has voted for the Republican Party in every single presidential election since 1952 (except for 1964), the election results in Idaho are also 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 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.