1988 United States presidential election in Washington (state)

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Nominee Michael Dukakis George H. W. Bush Party Democratic Republican Home state Massachusetts Texas Running mate Lloyd Bentsen Dan Quayle Electoral vote 10 0 Popular vote 933,516 903,835 Percentage 50.05% 48.46%

County results Dukakis   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Bush   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Tie   40–50%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President George H. W. Bush Republican

The1988 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 8, 1988. All fifty states andthe District of Columbia were part of the1988 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president. The State ofWashington was won byDemocraticMassachusetts GovernorMichael Dukakis, who was running against incumbentRepublicanVice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush ofTexas. Dukakis ran withTexas SenatorLloyd Bentsen, and Bush ran withIndiana SenatorDan Quayle.

The presidential election of 1988 was a verypartisan election for Washington, with 98.5% of the electorate voting for either theDemocratic orRepublican parties.^[1] In typical form for the time and political climate in Washington – an East/West split can be seen in the voter turnout: with the coastalcounties voting in the majority for Dukakis, and the inland counties voting mainly for Bush.

Dukakis carried Washington state with 50.05% of the vote to Bush's 48.46%, a margin of 1.59%, making it the closest state in the election. This made Washington one of ten states (along with theDistrict of Columbia) to vote for Dukakis, even as Bush won a convincing victory nationally. Washington weighed in for this election as over 9% more Democratic than the national average. For decades prior to 1988, Washington had been aswing state, and it had gone Republican in the four preceding elections, even voting for losing Republican candidateGerald Ford in1976. But the state's strong Democratic tilt in 1988 portended the political direction the state would take in the modern era. Dukakis’ 1988 victory began a Democratic winning streak in Washington state that has never been broken since. Washington's Democratic trend was largely driven by the dramatic shift toward the Democrats among urban and suburban voters that began in the 1980s. While Bush won many rural counties, Dukakis won the two most heavily populated counties in Washington state:King County andPierce County.

• Asotin
• Clark
• King
• Kittitas
• Klickitat
• Mason
• Pend Oreille
• Pierce
• San Juan
• Skamania
• Thurston
• Whatcom

• Ferry

Swing by county

Legend

•   Democratic — +>15%
•   Democratic — +12.5-15%
•   Democratic — +10-12.5%
•   Democratic — +7.5-10%

Trend relative to the state by county

Legend

•   Democratic — +5-7.5%
•   Democratic — +2.5-5%
•   Democratic — +0-2.5%
•   Republican — +0-2.5%
•   Republican — +2.5-5%
•   Republican — +5-7.5%

County flips

Legend

• Democratic   Hold   Gain from Republican

  Republican   Hold

  Tied   Gain from Republican

King County, home to the city ofSeattle and its surrounding suburbs, was and is by far the most heavily populated county in the state, and a bellwether county for the state as a whole. In every presidential election since Washington achieved statehood, the candidate who won King County also won Washington state as a whole. While the city of Seattle had long leaned Democratic, the surrounding suburbs had long leaned Republican, making King County a swing county, and thus Washington state a swing state. In 1976, moderate Republican Gerald Ford had carried Washington state 50–46, while winning King County 51–45. In the1984 Republican landslide,Ronald Reagan won King County by a 52–47 margin. However, Michael Dukakis won King County by a 54–45 margin, a raw vote difference of 59,089 votes, providing more than the entire 29,681 raw vote difference by which he carried Washington state as a whole. The 1988 result started a yet-unbroken Democratic winning streak in King County, and would prove to be the start of a long-term dramatic shift toward the Democratic Party in the county and thus in the state as a whole.

As the city of Seattle grew, and its suburbs continued abandoning the GOP and increasingly trended Democratic in the 1990s and 2000s, King County would be transformed from a swing county prior to 1988 into a Democratic stronghold; twenty years later, in2008, DemocratBarack Obama would receive over 70% of the vote in King County. The Democratic dominance in King County that began in 1988 would solidify Washington as a strongblue state in the modern era. In the eight presidential elections since 1988, no Republican candidate has replicated the percentages of the vote received by George H.W. Bush in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Island, Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, or Thurston counties.

As of the2020 presidential election^[update] this is the last election whenKitsap County andSnohomish County have supported the Republican presidential nominee.^[3] This also is the last election where the state of Washington was decided by a margin of five points or less. Dukakis and Bush tied inFerry County. This is the second time in a presidential election in Washington (after1896) and the last time untilBill Clinton won Georgia in 1992 that two candidates tied in a county.

• United States presidential elections in Washington (state)
• Presidency of George H. W. Bush

• 1988 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Washington (state)
• 1988 Washington (state) elections

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