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 County Results Bush 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%
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| Elections in Wyoming | ||||||||||||
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The1988 United States presidential election in Wyoming took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states andthe District of Columbia, were part of the1988 United States presidential election. State voters chose three electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.
Wyoming was won by incumbent United StatesVice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush ofTexas, who was running againstMassachusettsGovernorMichael Dukakis. Bush ran withIndianaSenatorDan Quayle as vice president, and Dukakis ran withTexasSenatorLloyd Bentsen.
Wyoming weighed in for this election as 14.3 percentage points moreRepublican than the national average. The presidential election of 1988 was a fairlypartisan election for Wyoming, with nearly 98 percent of the electorate voting for either theDemocratic orRepublican parties, and only four candidates on the ballot.[1]
Bush won the election in Wyoming with a solid 22-point landslide, sweeping all 23 of the state's counties. Dukakis' best county, and Bush's worst, wasSweetwater County, which Bush won by 60 votes, or less than half of 1%. Sweetwater County is one of Wyoming's "Union Pacific counties" that traditionally formed the Democratic Party's base in the state.[2] Bush broke 70% in six counties, of which four were in the state's east and one,Park County, in theBighorn basin, traditional areas of Republican strength in the state;[3]Sublette County rounded out this group. Overall, however, Bush's 22.52% margin in the state made it 14.80% more Republican than the nation overall. TheMountain West had trended Republican beginning in the1952 election;[4] after voting forTruman in the nationally close1948 election, Wyoming had consistently voted to the right of the country in every subsequent election. In 1988, it did so once again, even as some other Mountain states' traditional Republicanism wavered, as inColorado andMontana. Bush's vote share of 60.53% made Wyoming his third-best state in the region (afterUtah andIdaho), and his sixth-best overall (after Utah,New Hampshire, Idaho,South Carolina, andFlorida). Along with New Hampshire,Nevada,Delaware, andMaine, it was also one of five states where every county voted for Bush.
| 1988 United States presidential election in Wyoming | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | George H. W. Bush | 106,867 | 60.53% | 3 | |
| Democratic | Michael Dukakis | 67,113 | 38.01% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Ron Paul | 2,026 | 1.15% | 0 | |
| New Alliance Party | Lenora Fulani | 545 | 0.31% | 0 | |
| Totals | 176,551 | 100.00% | 3 | ||
| County | George H.W. Bush Republican | Michael Dukakis Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Albany | 5,653 | 49.87% | 5,486 | 48.40% | 196 | 1.73% | 167 | 1.47% | 11,335 |
| Big Horn | 3,258 | 68.16% | 1,469 | 30.73% | 53 | 1.11% | 1,789 | 37.43% | 4,780 |
| Campbell | 6,702 | 73.55% | 2,288 | 25.11% | 122 | 1.34% | 4,414 | 48.44% | 9,112 |
| Carbon | 3,336 | 55.70% | 2,555 | 42.66% | 98 | 1.64% | 781 | 13.04% | 5,989 |
| Converse | 2,885 | 68.45% | 1,301 | 30.87% | 29 | 0.69% | 1,584 | 37.58% | 4,215 |
| Crook | 1,939 | 76.34% | 553 | 21.77% | 48 | 1.89% | 1,386 | 54.57% | 2,540 |
| Fremont | 7,681 | 59.59% | 5,020 | 38.95% | 188 | 1.46% | 2,661 | 20.64% | 12,889 |
| Goshen | 3,075 | 61.44% | 1,875 | 37.46% | 55 | 1.10% | 1,200 | 23.98% | 5,005 |
| Hot Springs | 1,490 | 64.11% | 800 | 34.42% | 34 | 1.46% | 690 | 29.69% | 2,324 |
| Johnson | 2,081 | 72.81% | 707 | 24.74% | 70 | 2.45% | 1,374 | 48.07% | 2,858 |
| Laramie | 15,561 | 56.04% | 11,851 | 42.68% | 358 | 1.29% | 3,710 | 13.36% | 27,770 |
| Lincoln | 3,237 | 66.10% | 1,592 | 32.51% | 68 | 1.39% | 1,645 | 33.59% | 4,897 |
| Natrona | 14,005 | 59.63% | 9,148 | 38.95% | 334 | 1.42% | 4,857 | 20.68% | 23,487 |
| Niobrara | 825 | 69.27% | 354 | 29.72% | 12 | 1.01% | 471 | 39.55% | 1,191 |
| Park | 6,884 | 70.95% | 2,646 | 27.27% | 172 | 1.77% | 4,238 | 43.68% | 9,702 |
| Platte | 2,253 | 59.16% | 1,482 | 38.92% | 73 | 1.92% | 771 | 20.24% | 3,808 |
| Sheridan | 5,980 | 55.48% | 4,655 | 43.19% | 143 | 1.33% | 1,325 | 12.29% | 10,778 |
| Sublette | 1,636 | 72.81% | 576 | 25.63% | 35 | 1.56% | 1,060 | 47.18% | 2,247 |
| Sweetwater | 6,780 | 49.47% | 6,720 | 49.03% | 205 | 1.50% | 60 | 0.44% | 13,705 |
| Teton | 3,616 | 61.02% | 2,217 | 37.41% | 93 | 1.57% | 1,399 | 23.61% | 5,926 |
| Uinta | 3,464 | 62.97% | 1,922 | 34.94% | 115 | 2.09% | 1,542 | 28.03% | 5,501 |
| Washakie | 2,538 | 67.36% | 1,197 | 31.77% | 33 | 0.88% | 1,341 | 35.59% | 3,768 |
| Weston | 1,988 | 72.98% | 699 | 25.66% | 37 | 1.36% | 1,289 | 47.32% | 2,724 |
| Totals | 106,867 | 60.53% | 67,113 | 38.01% | 2,571 | 1.46% | 39,754 | 22.52% | 176,551 |
