1988
Michigan in 1988
The 1988 contest saw Michigan line up behind Bush, delivering 20 electoral votes to the Republican ticket. Michigan ended up on the winning side — George H. W. Bush captured the White House that year.
It marked the 5th consecutive election in which Michigan backed the Republican party, a streak reaching back to 1972. The region divided — Indiana and Ohio joined Michigan for the Republican ticket, while Wisconsin did not. Across the 51 presidential elections Michigan has taken part in, it has most often sided with the Republican party (28 times). The vote fell within the Cold War Realignment — Nixon, Reagan, and the Republican South.
In the national count, George H. W. Bush took 426 of the 538 electoral votes, against Michael Dukakis's 111. George H. W. Bush led the national popular vote with 53.37% of the ballots cast.
Michigan in nearby cycles
Embed
Drop this map on your site · coming soon
Free iframe with attribution. White-label option in the works.
Get notified →Classroom
All 300 packets, free
60 cycles · K-2 through AP · open download.
Browse packets →Poster
Wall-worthy print · coming soon
Every-election grid and single-state series in the works.
Get notified →Read further
Curated picksNixonland
Rick Perlstein
How politics polarized 1965–1972.
Buy on Amazon →Reagan
H. W. Brands
Single-volume Reagan biography.
Buy on Amazon →Recommendations are editorial.
Free, ad-light, no paywall
Built by one person. Tips fund the next 60 elections of editorial.