1988 United States presidential election in Florida

The 1988 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 8, 1988. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Florida voters chose twenty-one electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

Florida was won by incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, running with U.S Senator Dan Quayle, against Governor Michael Dukakis, running with U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. This was Bush's fifth strongest state in the 1988 election after Utah, New Hampshire, Idaho and South Carolina.

Bush won every county in the state, with the exception for North Florida’s majority-black Gadsden County, which voted for Dukakis. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, Alachua County, and Leon County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.

Background

The Republican presidential nominee had won Florida in seven of the nine presidential elections since 1952. By the 1980s the Republicans had also won the governorship and enough seats in the state legislature to maintain a veto. From 1979 to 1986, the percentage of voters affiliated with the Democratic Party fell from 45% to 32% while the Republicans rose from 26% to 38%. Florida was one of the states that designated the second Tuesday of March as the date for their presidential primary as a part of Super Tuesday.

Primaries

Five of the seven Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida endorsed George H. W. Bush in 1987, and Governor Bob Martinez served as his national co-chair. Bush won all but three counties in the primary, with the remainder being won by Pat Robertson. 45% of white voters participated in the Republican primary.

Florida was one of the southern Super Tuesday states that Michael Dukakis focused on as he could receive the support of Hispanics and northerners. His campaign had twenty paid staffers in the state during the primary, but later reduced the number to ten during the general campaign and were transferred to Illinois. Dukakis won 53% of the white vote. The racial composition of the primary was 82% white, 18% black, and 1% Hispanic. 56% of the electorate were white people raised outside of the state, the highest in any southern state.

Campaign

Florida gave Bush his second highest-percentage amount of support in the south, only behind South Carolina, and the fifth-highest nationally. Exit polls conducted by NBC showed that Bush received 64% of the vote from Hispanics aged 18 to 34 and 55% from Hispanics over 65. 67% of white voters supported Bush while 33% supported Dukakis.

The Republicans won the concurrent U.S. Senate election and increased their share of the U.S. House delegate to nine Republicans against ten Democrats. Representative James W. Grant joined the Republicans in 1989, giving them a majority of the U.S. House delegation.

Results

Results by county

See also

• Presidency of George H. W. Bush

References

Works cited

• Black, Earl; Black, Merle (1992). The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674941306.
• Moreland, Laurence; Steed, Robert; Baker, Tod, eds. (1991). The 1988 Presidential Election in the South: Continuity Amidst Change in Southern Party Politics. Praeger Publishers. ISBN 0275931455.