5 0 60.2% 39.2% | 398,447 259,646 Start date November 8, 1988 | |
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The 1988 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Nebraska voters chose 5 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
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Nebraska 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.
Nebraska 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 Nebraska, with more than 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only 4 political parties appearing on the ballot. As typical for the time, nearly every county in Nebraska turned out primarily for the Republican candidate, with the exception of the Democratic stronghold of Saline County, and a few counties conglomerate with Sioux City, Iowa, in the Northeastern corner of Nebraska, which tended to vote Democratic at this time.
Republican victory
Bush won the election in Nebraska with a solid 21 point sweep-out landslide. While Nebraska tends to vote conservative, the election results in Nebraska 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.