1988 United States presidential election in Nevada

The 1988 United States presidential election in Nevada took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

1988 United States presidential election in Nevada

November 8, 1988
 
Nominee George H. W. Bush Michael Dukakis
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Texas Massachusetts
Running mate Dan Quayle Lloyd Bentsen
Electoral vote 4 0
Popular vote 206,040 132,738
Percentage 58.86% 37.92%

County Results
Bush
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%


President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elected President

George H. W. Bush
Republican

Nevada 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. Bush carried Nevada with 58.86% of the vote, while Dukakis received 37.92%, a victory margin of 20.94%.

Nevada weighed in for this election as about 13% more Republican than the national average. This would be the third time in a row that Republicans swept every county in the state – however, it would become the last time any presidential candidate did so, as this was the last election in which Clark County, the most populated county in Nevada and home to Las Vegas, was won by a Republican presidential candidate.[1]

Partisan background

The presidential election of 1988 was a rather multi-partisan election for Nevada, with more than 3% of the state voting for third parties or for Nevada's "None of These Candidates" option.[2]

This would be the last election in which a Republican presidential nominee would win heavily populated Clark County, home to the city of Las Vegas, which beginning in 1992 would become a reliably Democratic stronghold in the state. Consequently, 1988 was also the last occasion in which a Republican presidential candidate swept every county in Nevada, and the last time a Republican carried the state by a double-digit margin.

Republican victory

Bush carried Nevada by a landslide margin of 21%, making the state 13.2% more Republican than the nation overall. He carried every county in the state, and both of Nevada's largest counties--Clark and Washoe--weighed in as more Republican than the nation. Only in one county, then-traditionally Democratic White Pine County, did Bush underperform his national vote share, and then only slightly. This was also the only county in which Dukakis cracked 40%, although in no county did he overperform his national vote share (with 'no candidate' garnering 4.9% of the vote in White Pine County).

The Mountain West had begun trending Republican in 1952;[3] in that election, Eisenhower overperformed in Nevada as he did in the rest of the region, after it had unanimously voted for Truman in 1948. However, Nevada, along with New Mexico in the Mountain West, voted for Kennedy in 1960, and was competitive in 1976. 1980 marked a watershed in Nevada's Republican turn, as it voted 25.9% more Republican than the nation, the most to the right Nevada had voted since statehood. Nevada remained a strong 15.7% more Republican than the nation amid Reagan's national 1984 landslide, and remained more Republican than the nation by double digits in 1988. This was at the same time as some other Mountain West states, such as Colorado and Montana, wavered in the strength of their traditional Republicanism, amid the 1980s farm crisis.

Nevada, which had been a bellwether state for most of the 20th century (having voted for the winner of every election between its third vote for Bryan in 1908 and its vote for Ford in 1976), returned to being closer to the national median in 1992, as Bill Clinton, the national winner, narrowly carried it. It remained narrowly to the right of the country in both of Clinton's wins, but George W. Bush only narrowly carried it in his own two victories in 2000 and 2004, as 1988 remained (as of 2020) not only the last election in which Clark County voted to the right of the country, but also the last election in which Clark County has even voted Republican.

Results

1988 United States presidential election in Nevada
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican George H. W. Bush 206,040 58.86% 4
Democratic Michael Dukakis 132,738 37.92% 0
"None of These Candidates" 6,934 1.98% 0
Libertarian Ron Paul 3,520 1.01% 0
New Alliance Party Lenora Fulani 835 0.24% 0
Totals 350,067 100.0% 4

Results by county

County or City George Herbert Walker Bush[4]
Republican
Michael Stanley Dukakis[4]
Democratic
No Candidate[4]
Independent
Ronald Ernest Paul[4]
Libertarian
Leonora Branch Fulani[4]
New Alliance
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Churchill 4,578 72.86% 1,481 23.57% 155 2.47% 49 0.78% 20 0.32% 3,097 49.29% 6,283
Clark 108,110 56.37% 78,359 40.86% 3,400 1.77% 1,535 0.80% 375 0.20% 29,751 15.51% 191,779
Douglas 7,074 67.02% 3,107 29.44% 214 2.03% 135 1.28% 25 0.24% 3,967 37.58% 10,555
Elko 5,722 68.35% 2,310 27.59% 220 2.63% 96 1.15% 24 0.29% 3,412 40.75% 8,372
Esmeralda 380 68.84% 143 25.91% 16 2.90% 11 1.99% 2 0.36% 237 42.93% 552
Eureka 413 70.96% 151 25.95% 11 1.89% 7 1.20% 0 0.00% 262 45.02% 582
Humboldt 2,378 66.50% 1,024 28.64% 87 2.43% 65 1.82% 22 0.62% 1,354 37.86% 3,576
Lander 1,214 70.83% 439 25.61% 35 2.04% 21 1.23% 5 0.29% 775 45.22% 1,714
Lincoln 1,035 66.18% 466 29.80% 45 2.88% 9 0.58% 9 0.58% 569 36.38% 1,564
Lyon 4,390 62.83% 2,301 32.93% 171 2.45% 103 1.47% 22 0.31% 2,089 29.90% 6,987
Mineral 1,480 56.88% 978 37.59% 101 3.88% 20 0.77% 23 0.88% 502 19.29% 2,602
Nye 3,619 64.59% 1,748 31.20% 143 2.55% 78 1.39% 15 0.27% 1,871 33.39% 5,603
Pershing 867 62.11% 458 32.81% 48 3.44% 17 1.22% 6 0.43% 409 29.30% 1,396
Storey 651 56.36% 432 37.40% 46 3.98% 22 1.90% 4 0.35% 219 18.96% 1,155
Washoe 52,654 59.34% 32,902 37.08% 1,803 2.03% 1,137 1.28% 232 0.26% 19,752 22.26% 88,728
White Pine 1,774 53.31% 1,351 40.59% 163 4.90% 20 0.60% 20 0.60% 423 12.71% 3,328
Carson City 9,701 63.44% 5,088 33.27% 276 1.80% 195 1.28% 31 0.20% 4,613 30.17% 15,291
Totals206,04058.86%132,73837.92%6,9341.98%3,5201.01%8350.24%73,30220.94%350,067

See also

References

  1. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  2. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  3. Paulson, Arthur C. (2000). Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-96865-6.
  4. Our Campaigns; NV US President 1988
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