1988 United States presidential election in Georgia

The 1988 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Georgia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. Georgia was won by incumbent 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.

Only two counties failed to give one of the major party nominees an outright majority: Clarke, which gave Dukakis a narrow plurality, and Bibb, which gave Bush a narrow plurality. Bush won four counties that had voted for Walter Mondale in 1984, out of only seven such counties nationwide. Georgia was one of only two states that Bush carried in 1988 which had voted for Jimmy Carter in 1980, the other being Maryland.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Terrell County, Jefferson County, Bibb County, Muscogee County, Liberty County, Richmond County, Dougherty County, and Clayton County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.

Background

Georgia was the only southern state between the 1980 and 1988 presidential elections to support the Democratic nominee. 37% of white voters identified as Democrats in 1986.

Mack Mattingly election to the U.S. Senate in 1980 made him the first Republican statewide official since Reconstruction, but he was defeated by Wyche Fowler in the 1986 election. The Republicans increased their seat total in the Georgia General Assembly from 28 seats to 48 seats between 1980 and 1989.

Primaries

Democratic primary

Al Gore won 53% of the white vote. The racial composition of the primary was 64% white and 36% black.

Republican primary

49% of white voters participated in the Republican primary.

George H. W. Bush won Georgia in the Republican primary, but supporters of Pat Robertson staged a walkout of the state's convention in protest of the delegate selection. Two competing delegate slates were sent to the Republican National Convention. The Georgian delegation was divided equally between the Bush and Robertson supporters to avoid controversy, but John Stuckey Jr., a Bush supporter and chair of the Georgia Republican Party, threatened to resign in protest of the deal. The Robertson delegates attempted to have Brant Frost IV, Robertson's campaign chair for Georgia, be selected as the chair of the Georgia delegation, but was rejected in favor of U.S. Representative Pat Swindall.

Georgia's national committeeman was sought by the Bush-backed Newt Gingrich, Robertson-backed incumbent Carl Gillis, and Joe Rogers. Gillis won the position. Bush's campaign formed a twenty-one-member steering committee for Georgia which only included two supporters of Robertson. Gillis operated a separate Bush campaign in southern Georgia.

Campaign

Speaker Tom Murphy initially supported Dukakis, but withdrew his support in October due to his stance on capital punishment and gun control. Lester Maddox, a former Democratic governor, criticized Dukakis as a "socialist and revolutionary leftist" and promised to conduct an anti-Dukakis campaign in six southern states. Dukakis planned on conducting a tour of the state in October, but it was canceled as scheduling conflicts prevented state Democratic leaders from joining him.

Bush won 134 counties and all of the metropolitan areas in the state. Dukakis won 25 counties, with 15 of the counties having a majority black population and 6 of the counties having a black population between 40%-50%. 72% of white voters supported Bush while 27% supported Dukakis. However, the Democrats retained control of the state legislature and nine of the state's ten seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Results

Results by county

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Clarke
• DeKalb
• Mitchell
• Pulaski
• Randolph

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Bibb
• Taylor
• Telfair
• Washington

See also

• Presidency of George H. W. Bush
• 1988 Democratic National Convention - held in Atlanta, GA

Notes

References

Works cited

• Black, Earl; Black, Merle (2002). The Rise of Southern Republicans. Harvard University Press. ISBN 067400728X.
• 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.