3 0 56.03% 42.97% | 166,559 127,739 Start date November 8, 1988 | |
 | ||
The 1988 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. North Dakota voters chose 3 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.
Contents
North Dakota 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.
North Dakota weighed in for this election as three percent more Republican than the national average, a much smaller margin than usual due to the persistent farm crisis of the 1980s. As of 2017 this remains relatively the least Republican the state has been since Nixon’s landslide win in 1972, when a “favorite son” effect with George McGovern from neighbouring South Dakota was a likely influence.
Partisan background
The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for North Dakota, with nearly 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties. All major counties in North Dakota gave pluralities for Bush, including the (relativity) highly populated center of Cass County, which contains the city of Fargo. This is however the only election since 1952 when national bellwether Sargent County in the state’s southeast has supported a losing candidate, with the anomaly most likely due to the farm crisis.
Republican victory
Bush won the election in North Dakota with a solid 13 point landslide. While North Dakota has typically voted conservative in presidential elections, the election results in North Dakota 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.