13 0 53.2% 45.4% | 1,401,406 1,194,644 Start date November 8, 1988 | |
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 8, 1988 as part of the 1988 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.
Massachusetts voted for Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, the state's own governor, over Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush. The Commonwealth was both candidates' birth state.
Dukakis, then the sitting Governor of Massachusetts, won his home state with 53.23% of the vote to Bush's 45.38%, a 7.85% margin of victory. This made it one of 10 states (plus the District of Columbia) to vote for Dukakis, while Bush won a convincing electoral victory nationwide.
Massachusetts was a solid 16% more Democratic than the national average in the 1988 election.
Although it was already a Democratic-leaning state, this would be the last time that Republicans would be at all competitive in Massachusetts, as secular liberal New England rejected an increasingly conservative Republican Party dominated by Evangelical Christians. Not only has it continued to vote Democratic in every presidential election that followed, but no Republican since has even broken 40% in Massachusetts, or even won a single county in the state.
This was also the last time that a Republican presidential candidate won any of the state's 14 counties. Dukakis won 11 counties in Massachusetts to Bush's 3. Dukakis's strongest county was Suffolk County, home to the state's capital and largest city, Boston, where he took 64.02% of the vote. Bush's strongest county win was suburban Plymouth County, where he took 54.62% of the vote.