The 1988 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 8, 1988. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Florida voters chose twenty-one electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
Florida was won by incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, running with U.S Senator Dan Quayle, against Governor Michael Dukakis, running with U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen. This was Bush's fifth strongest state in the 1988 election after Utah, New Hampshire, Idaho and South Carolina.
Bush won every county in the state, with the exception of North Florida's majority-black Gadsden County, which voted for Dukakis. This was the last time until 2008 that Orange County voted for the national winner.
Until 2024, this was the last time Miami-Dade County (then known simply as Dade County) voted for a Republican candidate or any candidate won the state by double digits. As of 2024, this is also the last election in which Broward County, Palm Beach County, Alachua County, or Leon County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.
Background
The Republican presidential nominee had won Florida in seven of the nine presidential elections since 1952. By the 1980s the Republicans had also won the governorship and enough seats in the state legislature to maintain a veto. From 1979 to 1986, the percentage of voters affiliated with the Democratic Party fell from 45% to 32% while the Republicans rose from 26% to 38%. Florida was one of the states that designated the second Tuesday of March as the date for their presidential primary as a part of Super Tuesday.
Primaries
Five of the seven Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida endorsed George H. W. Bush in 1987, and Governor Bob Martinez served as his national co-chair. Bush won all but three counties in the primary, with the remainder being won by Pat Robertson; 45% of white voters participated in the Republican primary.
Florida was one of the southern Super Tuesday states that Michael Dukakis focused on as he could receive the support of Hispanics and northerners. His campaign had twenty paid staffers in the state during the primary, but later reduced the number to ten during the general campaign and were transferred to Illinois. Dukakis won 53% of the white vote. The racial composition of the primary was 82% white, 18% black, and 1% Hispanic. White people raised outside the state made up 56% of the electorate, the highest in any southern state.
Campaign
Florida gave Bush his second highest-percentage amount of support in the south, only behind South Carolina, and the fifth-highest nationally. Exit polls conducted by NBC showed that Bush received 64% of the vote from Hispanics aged 18 to 34 and 55% from Hispanics over 65. Among white voters, 67% supported Bush while 33% supported Dukakis.
The Republicans won the concurrent U.S. Senate election and increased their share of the U.S. House delegate to nine Republicans against ten Democrats. Representative Bill Grant joined the Republicans in 1989, giving them a majority of the U.S. House delegation.
Results
Results by congressional district
Bush carried 18 of the 19 congressional districts.