The 1988 United States presidential election in Alabama took place on November 8, 1988. All fifty states, and
the District of Columbia
)
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, were part of the
1988 presidential election. Alabama voters chose nine electors to the
Electoral College, which selected the
president and
vice president. Alabama was won by incumbent United States
Vice President George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...
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
The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent polit ...
Lloyd Bentsen
Lloyd Millard Bentsen Jr. (February 11, 1921 – May 23, 2006) was an American politician who was a four-term United States Senator (1971–1993) from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ti ...
.
Alabama weighed in for this election as 11% more
Republican than the national average. The presidential election of 1988 was a very
partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
election, with more than 99 percent of the electorate voting for either the
Democratic or
Republican parties. The vast majority of counties in Alabama voted for Bush, with the major exception being
the Black Belt, which with its predominantly African-American populace voted overwhelmingly Democratic.
Macon County had been the most Democratic in the nation in 1980 and 1984, and it was Dukakis’ sixth-best county in the nation with a margin of over four-to-one for the Massachusetts Governor.
As of the
2020 election
This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 January:
**Cro ...
, this is the last time any presidential candidate won every congressional district in Alabama. Bush also remains the last Republican candidate to win the heavily black
7th congressional district. Bush won the election in Alabama with a victorious 20-point landslide. Alabama remained, in this election, very much a part of the Republican stronghold of the
Deep South
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the war ...
. The election results in Alabama are reflective of a nationwide political re-consolidation of the base for the Republican Party, which took place throughout the 1980s. Through the passage of some very controversial economic programs, spearheaded by then President
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
(called, collectively, "
Reaganomics"), the mid-to-late 1980s saw a period of economic growth and stability. The hallmark of Reaganomics was, in part, the wide-scale deregulation of corporate interests, and tax cuts for the wealthy.
Dukakis ran on a
socially liberal platform, and advocated for higher economic regulation and environmental protection. Bush, alternatively, ran on a campaign of continuing the social and economic policies of former President Reagan – which gained him much support with
conservatives and people living in rural areas. Additionally, while the economic programs passed under Reagan, and furthered under
Bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
and
Bill Clinton, may have boosted the economy for a brief period, they are criticized by many analysts as "setting the stage" for economic troubles in the United States after 2007, such as the
Great Recession.
Results
Results by county
See also
*
Presidency of George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush's tenure as the 41st president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1989, and ended on January 20, 1993. Bush was a Republican from Texas and the incumbent vice president for two terms under pre ...
*
United States presidential elections in Alabama
Following is a table of United States presidential elections in Alabama, ordered by year. Since its admission to statehood in 1819, Alabama has participated in every U.S. presidential election except the election of 1864, during the American Civil ...
Notes
References
{{State results of the 1988 U.S. presidential election
Alabama
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
1988 Alabama elections