734,281 580,368 Start date November 8, 1988 | 55.5% 43.9% | |
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Kentucky took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Kentucky voters chose 9 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
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Kentucky 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.
Kentucky weighed in for this election as 2% more Republican than the national average.
The 1988 presidential election is also the last time that Kentucky voted for a different presidential candidate from neighbouring West Virginia.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for Kentucky, with more than 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only five parties appearing on the ballot. The vast majority of counties turned out for Bush, including the highly populated center of Louisville's Jefferson County. Conversely, several small clumps of counties in the far Eastern (surrounding Pike County) and in the far Western (surrounding McCracken County) regions of the state voted primarily Democratic.
Republican victory
Bush won the election in Kentucky with a solid 11 point landslide. While Kentucky typically votes conservative, the election results in Kentucky 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 1980s 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.