1988 United States presidential election in South Dakota

1988 United States presidential election in South Dakota
Bush 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%	Dukakis 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 80–90%
President before election; Ronald Reagan; Republican	Elected President ; George H. W. Bush; Republican

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

South Dakota was won by incumbent United States Vice President George H. W. Bush 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 Lloyd Bentsen.

South Dakota weighed in for this election as 1.5% more Democratic than the national average.^[1] This is the last of only four elections since statehood when South Dakota has voted more Democratic than the national average,^[a] an anomaly probably caused by the persistent crisis in the United States' farming sector during the decade.

Bush won the election in South Dakota with a 6-point margin.

The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for South Dakota, with more than 99 percent of the electorate voting for either the Republican or the Democratic parties, and only five candidates appearing on the ballot.^[2] While most counties turned out in this election for Bush, the highly populated centers of Brown County and Sioux Falls's Minnehaha County, voted in majority for Dukakis.

Results

1988 United States presidential election in South Dakota
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	George H. W. Bush	165,415	52.85%	3
	Democratic	Michael Dukakis	145,560	46.51%	0
	Independent	Ron Paul	1,060	0.34%	0
	Independent	Lenora Fulani	730	0.23%	0
	Independent	James Warren	226	0.07%	0
Totals			312,991	100.0%	3

Results by county

County^[3]	George H.W. Bush Republican		Michael Dukakis Democratic		Ron Paul Independent		Lenora Fulani Independent		James Warren Independent		Margin		Total votes cast
County^[3]	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Aurora	856	46.17%	987	53.24%	5	0.27%	5	0.27%	1	0.05%	-131	-7.07%	1,854
Beadle	4,611	50.23%	4,523	49.27%	29	0.32%	15	0.16%	2	0.02%	88	0.96%	9,180
Bennett	663	52.54%	579	45.88%	18	1.43%	1	0.08%	1	0.08%	84	6.66%	1,262
Bon Homme	1,826	53.44%	1,574	46.06%	6	0.18%	9	0.26%	2	0.06%	252	7.38%	3,417
Brookings	5,394	52.34%	4,860	47.16%	20	0.19%	29	0.28%	2	0.02%	534	5.18%	10,305
Brown	8,537	49.34%	8,673	50.13%	42	0.24%	39	0.23%	11	0.06%	-136	-0.79%	17,302
Brule	971	49.19%	991	50.20%	9	0.46%	2	0.10%	1	0.05%	-20	-1.01%	1,974
Buffalo	151	30.82%	334	68.16%	2	0.41%	1	0.20%	2	0.41%	-183	-37.34%	490
Butte	2,291	63.96%	1,256	35.06%	19	0.53%	15	0.42%	1	0.03%	1,035	28.90%	3,582
Campbell	909	72.60%	334	26.68%	8	0.64%	1	0.08%	0	0.00%	575	45.92%	1,252
Charles Mix	1,966	46.99%	2,205	52.70%	5	0.12%	4	0.10%	4	0.10%	-239	-5.71%	4,184
Clark	1,247	51.44%	1,164	48.02%	3	0.12%	9	0.37%	1	0.04%	83	3.42%	2,424
Clay	2,307	44.37%	2,859	54.98%	18	0.35%	7	0.13%	9	0.17%	-552	-10.61%	5,200
Codington	5,050	51.99%	4,570	47.05%	34	0.35%	46	0.47%	14	0.14%	480	4.94%	9,714
Corson	710	49.03%	722	49.86%	11	0.76%	4	0.28%	1	0.07%	-12	-0.83%	1,448
Custer	1,806	59.49%	1,180	38.87%	34	1.12%	9	0.30%	7	0.23%	626	20.62%	3,036
Davison	4,024	51.68%	3,705	47.59%	20	0.26%	30	0.39%	7	0.09%	319	4.09%	7,786
Day	1,616	42.82%	2,137	56.62%	19	0.50%	2	0.05%	0	0.00%	-521	-13.80%	3,774
Deuel	1,251	49.49%	1,246	49.29%	17	0.67%	12	0.47%	2	0.08%	5	0.20%	2,528
Dewey	765	42.76%	1,007	56.29%	14	0.78%	1	0.06%	2	0.11%	-242	-13.53%	1,789
Douglas	1,438	67.23%	695	32.49%	3	0.14%	3	0.14%	0	0.00%	743	34.74%	2,139
Edmunds	1,327	51.06%	1,259	48.44%	7	0.27%	4	0.15%	2	0.08%	68	2.62%	2,599
Fall River	2,002	58.59%	1,380	40.39%	25	0.73%	7	0.20%	3	0.09%	622	18.20%	3,417
Faulk	842	53.94%	714	45.74%	2	0.13%	3	0.19%	0	0.00%	128	8.20%	1,561
Grant	2,148	51.49%	1,988	47.65%	19	0.46%	15	0.36%	2	0.05%	160	3.84%	4,172
Gregory	1,566	57.53%	1,138	41.81%	7	0.26%	9	0.33%	2	0.07%	428	15.72%	2,722
Haakon	958	70.91%	379	28.05%	9	0.67%	5	0.37%	0	0.00%	579	42.86%	1,351
Hamlin	1,380	52.06%	1,258	47.45%	9	0.34%	4	0.15%	0	0.00%	122	4.61%	2,651
Hand	1,461	56.67%	1,101	42.71%	8	0.31%	8	0.31%	0	0.00%	360	13.96%	2,578
Hanson	786	50.00%	776	49.36%	8	0.51%	2	0.13%	0	0.00%	10	0.64%	1,572
Harding	633	70.33%	259	28.78%	5	0.56%	3	0.33%	0	0.00%	374	41.55%	900
Hughes	4,545	61.07%	2,853	38.34%	24	0.32%	15	0.20%	5	0.07%	1,692	22.73%	7,442
Hutchinson	2,700	62.56%	1,594	36.93%	9	0.21%	13	0.30%	0	0.00%	1,106	25.63%	4,316
Hyde	546	53.58%	436	42.79%	29	2.85%	5	0.49%	3	0.29%	110	10.79%	1,019
Jackson	671	58.81%	450	39.44%	14	1.23%	2	0.18%	4	0.35%	221	19.37%	1,141
Jerauld	777	50.65%	751	48.96%	2	0.13%	4	0.26%	0	0.00%	26	1.69%	1,534
Jones	521	66.28%	261	33.21%	3	0.38%	1	0.13%	0	0.00%	260	33.07%	786
Kingsbury	1,592	51.57%	1,472	47.68%	11	0.36%	7	0.23%	5	0.16%	120	3.89%	3,087
Lake	2,439	47.62%	2,663	51.99%	8	0.16%	9	0.18%	3	0.06%	-224	-4.37%	5,122
Lawrence	5,570	59.39%	3,705	39.50%	66	0.70%	32	0.34%	6	0.06%	1,865	19.89%	9,379
Lincoln	3,537	52.35%	3,190	47.21%	15	0.22%	9	0.13%	6	0.09%	347	5.14%	6,757
Lyman	843	56.96%	631	42.64%	3	0.20%	3	0.20%	0	0.00%	212	14.32%	1,480
Marshall	1,142	45.23%	1,372	54.34%	7	0.28%	4	0.16%	0	0.00%	-230	-9.11%	2,525
McCook	1,501	50.00%	1,492	49.70%	1	0.03%	6	0.20%	2	0.07%	9	0.30%	3,002
McPherson	1,358	70.14%	571	29.49%	4	0.21%	2	0.10%	1	0.05%	787	40.65%	1,936
Meade	5,189	61.24%	3,212	37.91%	43	0.51%	27	0.32%	2	0.02%	1,977	23.33%	8,473
Mellette	460	53.99%	385	45.19%	6	0.70%	1	0.12%	0	0.00%	75	8.80%	852
Miner	795	45.30%	955	54.42%	4	0.23%	1	0.06%	0	0.00%	-160	-9.12%	1,755
Minnehaha	26,765	47.71%	29,135	51.94%	82	0.15%	84	0.15%	29	0.05%	-2,370	-4.23%	56,095
Moody	1,161	40.19%	1,715	59.36%	4	0.14%	7	0.24%	2	0.07%	-554	-19.17%	2,889
Pennington	19,510	61.44%	12,068	38.00%	90	0.28%	71	0.22%	18	0.06%	7,442	23.44%	31,757
Perkins	1,326	60.36%	851	38.73%	17	0.77%	3	0.14%	0	0.00%	475	21.63%	2,197
Potter	1,175	62.07%	701	37.03%	10	0.53%	5	0.26%	2	0.11%	474	25.04%	1,893
Roberts	2,012	46.67%	2,267	52.59%	20	0.46%	6	0.14%	6	0.14%	-255	-5.92%	4,311
Sanborn	815	51.10%	770	48.28%	4	0.25%	6	0.38%	0	0.00%	45	2.82%	1,595
Shannon	256	17.31%	1,206	81.54%	7	0.47%	4	0.27%	6	0.41%	-950	-64.23%	1,479
Spink	1,969	48.47%	2,071	50.98%	9	0.22%	8	0.20%	5	0.12%	-102	-2.51%	4,062
Stanley	698	57.26%	511	41.92%	8	0.66%	2	0.16%	0	0.00%	187	15.34%	1,219
Sully	571	56.76%	393	39.07%	41	4.08%	1	0.10%	0	0.00%	178	17.69%	1,006
Todd	535	31.92%	1,117	66.65%	5	0.30%	9	0.54%	10	0.60%	-582	-34.73%	1,676
Tripp	2,113	62.96%	1,219	36.32%	13	0.39%	6	0.18%	5	0.15%	894	26.64%	3,356
Turner	2,436	57.47%	1,780	41.99%	11	0.26%	8	0.19%	4	0.09%	656	15.48%	4,239
Union	1,907	41.91%	2,612	57.41%	11	0.24%	14	0.31%	6	0.13%	-705	-15.50%	4,550
Walworth	1,940	63.40%	1,094	35.75%	15	0.49%	9	0.29%	2	0.07%	846	27.65%	3,060
Yankton	4,186	52.05%	3,777	46.96%	26	0.32%	41	0.51%	13	0.16%	409	5.09%	8,043
Ziebach	362	45.53%	427	53.71%	3	0.38%	2	0.25%	1	0.13%	-65	-8.18%	795
Totals	165,415	52.85%	145,560	46.51%	1,060	0.34%	730	0.23%	226	0.07%	19,855	6.34%	312,991

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Notes

^ The others are 1896 during Bryan's "Cross of Gold" campaign, 1932 during the Dust Bowl, and 1972 when favorite son George McGovern was the Democratic nominee.

References

^ Counting the Votes; South Dakota
^ "1988 Presidential General Election Results – South Dakota". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
^ Our Campaigns; SD US Presidential Election Race, November 08, 1988

[2] The others are 1896 during Bryan's "Cross of Gold" campaign, 1932 during the Dust Bowl, and 1972 when favorite son George McGovern was the Democratic nominee.

[1] Counting the Votes; South Dakota

[3] "1988 Presidential General Election Results – South Dakota". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 21, 2013.

[4] Our Campaigns; SD US Presidential Election Race, November 08, 1988

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