1988 United States presidential election in Colorado

1988 United States presidential election in Colorado
Bush 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%	Dukakis 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%
President before election; Ronald Reagan; Republican	Elected President ; George H. W. Bush; Republican

The 1988 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 8, 1988, as part of the 1988 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Colorado voted for the Republican nominee, Vice President George H. W. Bush, over the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, by a margin of 7.78%. Bush took 53.06% of the vote to Dukakis' 45.28%. This result made Colorado more Republican than the nation-at-large by a razor-thin margin of only 0.02%.

While the Republicans held onto Colorado's eight electoral votes, Bush's 53–45 win over Dukakis represented a vastly diminished margin compared to 1984, when Ronald Reagan had won the state in a 63–35 landslide over Walter Mondale. Unlike in the several preceding elections, Colorado voted roughly in line with the nation overall, which Bush won by 7.72%. Dukakis made substantial inroads by improving on Mondale's vote share in the city of Denver by over 10% (getting the highest vote share of any nominee in the city since Lyndon Johnson in 1964), becoming the first Democrat since 1964 (and only the second since 1936) to carry Boulder County, and comfortably reclaiming Pitkin County, which had supported McGovern in 1972 but had gone on to vote Republican in the next three elections.

These inroads lay the groundwork for Clinton's carrying Colorado for the Democrats for the first time since 1964 in 1992. In 1996, with the receding of the Perot vote,^[1] Colorado returned to being a relatively red state, narrowly supporting Bob Dole even as he lost badly nationally. Nevertheless, in contrast with 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1984, Colorado would never again, as of 2020, vote Republican in a presidential election by double digits. After 2004, as of 2020, it has not voted Republican at all.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Summit County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.^[2]

Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Boulder County since William Howard Taft in 1908.

Results[]

1988 United States presidential election in Colorado^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George H. W. Bush	728,177	53.06%	8
	Democratic	Michael Dukakis	621,453	45.28%	0
	CO Libertarian	Ron Paul	15,482	1.13%	0
	CO Prohibition	Earl Dodge	4,604	0.34%	0
	New Alliance	Lenora Fulani	2,539	0.19%	0
	No party	David Duke (Write-in)	139	0.01%	0
Totals			1,372,394	100.00%	8

Results by county[]

County	George Herbert Walker Bush^[4] Republican		Michael Stanley Dukakis^[4] Democratic		Ronald Ernest Paul^[4] Libertarian		Various candidates^[4] Other parties		Margin
County	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Hinsdale	72.48%	295	27.27%	111	0.25%	1	0.00%	0	45.21%	184
Douglas	70.09%	17,035	28.52%	6,931	1.39%	338	0.19%	46	41.57%	10,104
El Paso	70.22%	96,965	28.96%	39,995	0.81%	1,125	0.27%	373	41.26%	56,970
Custer	69.72%	753	28.70%	310	1.57%	17	0.37%	4	41.02%	443
Teller	68.61%	3,760	30.22%	1,656	1.17%	64	0.36%	20	38.39%	2,104
Rio Blanco	68.56%	1,821	30.23%	803	1.20%	32	0.23%	6	38.33%	1,018
Dolores	67.22%	488	31.68%	230	1.10%	8	0.83%	6	35.54%	258
Jackson	65.91%	584	33.18%	294	0.90%	8	0.56%	5	32.73%	290
Baca	65.59%	1,670	33.42%	851	0.98%	25	0.39%	10	32.17%	819
Cheyenne	64.74%	760	33.99%	399	1.28%	15	0.77%	9	30.75%	361
Kit Carson	64.81%	2,262	34.27%	1,196	0.92%	32	0.57%	20	30.54%	1,066
Montezuma	64.56%	4,208	34.26%	2,233	1.18%	77	0.43%	28	30.30%	1,975
Ouray	64.30%	814	34.68%	439	1.03%	13	0.24%	3	29.62%	375
Archuleta	63.89%	1,440	35.27%	795	0.84%	19	0.35%	8	28.62%	645
Elbert	63.30%	2,805	35.34%	1,566	1.35%	60	0.36%	16	27.96%	1,239
Washington	63.41%	1,707	35.59%	958	1.00%	27	0.59%	16	27.82%	749
Rio Grande	62.43%	2,626	36.73%	1,545	0.83%	35	0.52%	22	25.70%	1,081
Moffat	61.71%	2,757	36.57%	1,634	1.72%	77	1.14%	51	25.13%	1,123
Kiowa	61.55%	645	37.98%	398	0.48%	5	0.48%	5	23.57%	247
Montrose	60.84%	6,012	37.93%	3,748	1.22%	121	0.93%	92	22.91%	2,264
Grand	60.27%	2,306	37.92%	1,451	1.80%	69	0.31%	12	22.35%	855
Arapahoe	60.49%	95,926	38.53%	61,113	0.98%	1,553	0.41%	648	21.95%	34,813
Lincoln	60.45%	1,356	38.97%	874	0.58%	13	0.27%	6	21.49%	482
Delta	60.01%	5,449	38.78%	3,521	1.21%	110	0.61%	55	21.23%	1,928
Mesa	59.89%	22,150	38.86%	14,372	1.25%	462	0.46%	170	21.03%	7,778
Sedgwick	59.77%	921	39.65%	611	0.58%	9	0.26%	4	20.12%	310
Fremont	58.52%	7,623	40.52%	5,278	0.96%	125	0.46%	60	18.00%	2,345
Phillips	58.12%	1,317	40.73%	923	1.15%	26	0.53%	12	17.39%	394
La Plata	58.00%	7,714	40.93%	5,443	1.07%	142	0.47%	62	17.08%	2,271
Park	57.22%	1,909	40.26%	1,343	2.52%	84	0.63%	21	16.97%	566
Garfield	57.44%	6,358	41.74%	4,620	0.81%	90	0.38%	42	15.70%	1,738
Crowley	57.58%	862	42.08%	630	0.33%	5	0.20%	3	15.50%	232
Yuma	57.30%	2,513	41.84%	1,835	0.87%	38	0.50%	22	15.46%	678
Jefferson	56.72%	110,820	41.88%	81,824	1.40%	2,735	0.57%	1,120	14.84%	28,996
Prowers	57.08%	2,978	42.30%	2,207	0.61%	32	1.32%	69	14.78%	771
Logan	56.64%	4,485	42.71%	3,382	0.66%	52	0.71%	56	13.93%	1,103
Gunnison	56.12%	2,520	42.25%	1,897	1.63%	73	0.73%	33	13.88%	623
Eagle	56.09%	4,366	42.57%	3,314	1.34%	104	0.32%	25	13.51%	1,052
Weld	55.67%	26,497	43.17%	20,548	1.16%	553	0.41%	194	12.50%	5,949
Morgan	55.79%	4,795	43.37%	3,728	0.84%	72	0.99%	85	12.41%	1,067
Larimer	55.53%	45,967	43.13%	35,703	1.34%	1,106	0.35%	289	12.40%	10,264
Mineral	55.36%	217	44.39%	174	0.26%	1	0.51%	2	10.97%	43
Chaffee	54.20%	3,080	44.84%	2,548	0.97%	55	0.55%	31	9.36%	532
Alamosa	54.00%	2,567	45.14%	2,146	0.86%	41	0.50%	24	8.86%	421
Routt	51.89%	3,264	46.45%	2,922	1.65%	104	0.45%	28	5.44%	342
Summit	51.63%	2,893	46.31%	2,595	2.05%	115	0.37%	21	5.32%	298
San Juan	50.97%	210	46.60%	192	2.43%	10	0.49%	2	4.37%	18
Otero	51.97%	4,265	47.64%	3,910	0.39%	32	1.10%	90	4.33%	355
Clear Creek	50.35%	1,820	46.97%	1,698	2.68%	97	0.44%	16	3.37%	122
Bent	48.16%	1,032	50.77%	1,088	1.07%	23	1.12%	24	-2.61%	-56
Saguache	47.11%	945	51.50%	1,033	1.40%	28	0.35%	7	-4.39%	-88
Gilpin	46.11%	728	50.92%	804	2.98%	47	0.70%	11	-4.81%	-76
Adams	46.07%	43,163	52.80%	49,464	1.13%	1,059	0.44%	408	-6.73%	-6,301
Boulder	45.06%	48,174	53.57%	57,265	1.37%	1,463	0.30%	320	-8.50%	-9,091
San Miguel	43.61%	798	52.51%	961	3.88%	71	0.49%	9	-8.91%	-163
Pitkin	44.41%	2,801	54.23%	3,420	1.36%	86	0.30%	19	-9.81%	-619
Conejos	42.01%	1,445	57.44%	1,976	0.55%	19	0.20%	7	-15.44%	-531
Lake	38.41%	969	60.09%	1,516	1.51%	38	0.79%	20	-21.68%	-547
Pueblo	37.85%	20,119	61.68%	32,788	0.48%	253	0.29%	152	-23.83%	-12,669
Denver	37.51%	77,753	61.36%	127,173	1.13%	2,342	1.04%	2,155	-23.84%	-49,420
Huerfano	36.37%	1,079	63.23%	1,876	0.40%	12	0.10%	3	-26.86%	-797
Las Animas	34.49%	2,162	65.00%	4,075	0.51%	32	0.97%	61	-30.52%	-1,913
Costilla	28.81%	454	71.07%	1,120	0.13%	2	0.32%	5	-42.26%	-666

References[]

^ "CQ Almanac Online Edition". library.cqpress.com. Retrieved 2020-11-13.
^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
^ "1988 Presidential General Election Results - Colorado". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-01-29.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 08, 1988

[1] "CQ Almanac Online Edition". library.cqpress.com. Retrieved 2020-11-13.

[How-2] Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016

[3] "1988 Presidential General Election Results - Colorado". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-01-29.

[Our-4] Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 08, 1988

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