United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1988

United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1988

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 16 0 Popular vote 1,743,192 1,320,352 Percentage 56.24% 42.60%

County Results   Dukakis—50-60%   Bush—50-60%   Bush—60-70%   Bush—70-80%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President George H. W. Bush Republican

The 1988 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. New Jersey voters chose 16 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

New Jersey was won by incumbent Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush of Texas, who was running against Democratic Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. Bush ran with Indiana Senator Dan Quayle while Dukakis ran with Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen.

Bush carried New Jersey with 56.24 percent of the vote, while Dukakis received 42.60 percent, a 13.64 percent margin of victory.^[1]

New Jersey weighed in for this election as almost six percentage points more Republican than the national average.

Bush won eighteen of New Jersey's twenty-one counties, with Dukakis only winning the heavily Democratic counties of Mercer, Essex, and Hudson. This remains the last election in which a Republican presidential candidate has won the following counties: Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Middlesex, and Union.^[2] All of these counties would become reliably Democratic in every election that has followed as suburban voters shifted away from the GOP in the 1990s. Consequently, this would also be the last time that New Jersey as a whole would cast its electoral votes for a Republican presidential nominee, and New Jersey would subsequently become regarded as a solid blue state in modern elections.

Partisan background

International policy with the buckling Soviet Union was a critical component of the political landscape in the late 1980s. Vice President Bush can be seen here standing with then United States President Ronald Reagan and Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, on the New York waterfront, 1988.

The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for New Jersey, with more than 99 percent of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, though a total of eleven parties did appear on the ballot.^[3]

Republican victory

Bush won the election in New Jersey with a strong 13.6 point margin. This is the most recent presidential election where New Jersey sent Republican electors to the Electoral College.^[2] The election results in New Jersey are reflective of a nationwide political re-consolidation of base for the Republican Party, which took place in the through the 1980s. Through the passage of some very controversial economic programs, spearheaded by then President Ronald Reagan (called, collectively, "Reaganomics"), the mid-to-late 1980's arguably saw a period of economic growth and stability. The hallmark for Reaganomics was, in part, the wide-scale deregulation of corporate interests, and tax cuts for the wealthy.^[4]

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 social conservatives and people living in rural areas. Additionally, while the economic programs passed under Reagan, and furthered under Bush and 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 State after 2007, such as the Great Recession.^[5]

Elections in New Jersey
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Results

See also

• Gulf War
• Presidency of George H. W. Bush

References