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United States · Election results history · 1988 president · California
Election 1988 Results

Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.

1988 presidential election in California

George H. W. Bush (Republican) beat Michael Dukakis (Democrat) in California in 1988, 51.1% to 47.6%, a margin of 3.6 points and 352,684 votes.

California voted 4.1 points more Democratic than the country as a whole, where the margin was R+7.7.

The Republican hold continued from 1984, when Ronald Reagan won.

Republicans led in 44 of the 58 counties as they stood then and Democrats in 14. The largest, Los Angeles, cast 2,644,671 votes and went to the Democrat by 5.0 points. The closest was Sierra, where 69 votes separated the two parties.

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Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.

Result

CandidatePartyVotesShare
George H. W. Bush won Republican 5,054,917 51.1%
Michael Dukakis Democratic 4,702,233 47.6%
All other candidates 129,914 1.3%
Total9,887,064

Every county

CountyDemocratRepublicanOthersTotalMargin
Los Angeles 1,372,352 51.9% 1,239,716 46.9% 32,603 2,644,671 D+5.0
San Diego 333,264 38.3% 523,143 60.2% 12,788 869,195 R+21.8
Orange 269,013 31.1% 586,230 67.7% 10,064 865,307 R+36.7
Santa Clara 277,810 51.3% 254,442 47.0% 9,276 541,528 D+4.3
Alameda 310,283 64.8% 162,815 34.0% 5,899 478,997 D+30.8
Sacramento 188,557 47.7% 201,832 51.0% 5,301 395,690 R+3.4
San Bernardino 151,118 38.5% 235,167 60.0% 5,723 392,008 R+21.4
Riverside 133,122 39.6% 199,979 59.5% 3,247 336,348 R+19.9
Contra Costa 169,411 51.1% 158,652 47.9% 3,448 331,511 D+3.2
San Francisco 201,887 72.8% 72,503 26.1% 3,004 277,394 D+46.6
San Mateo 141,859 55.7% 109,261 42.9% 3,360 254,480 D+12.8
Ventura 89,065 37.2% 147,604 61.6% 2,804 239,473 R+24.4
Fresno 92,635 48.8% 94,835 49.9% 2,400 189,870 R+1.2
Sonoma 91,262 56.5% 67,725 41.9% 2,596 161,583 D+14.6
Kern 55,083 37.4% 90,550 61.5% 1,660 147,293 R+24.1
Santa Barbara 63,586 44.5% 77,524 54.2% 1,830 142,940 R+9.8
San Joaquin 61,699 44.6% 75,309 54.4% 1,445 138,453 R+9.8
Marin 69,394 58.8% 46,855 39.7% 1,671 117,920 D+19.1
Solano 54,344 51.2% 50,314 47.4% 1,430 106,088 D+3.8
Santa Cruz 63,133 61.5% 37,728 36.8% 1,750 102,611 D+24.8
Monterey 48,998 48.8% 50,022 49.8% 1,361 100,381 R+1.0
Stanislaus 44,685 45.9% 51,648 53.1% 982 97,315 R+7.2
San Luis Obispo 35,667 42.7% 46,613 55.8% 1,187 83,467 R+13.1
Tulare 30,711 39.0% 46,891 59.6% 1,067 78,669 R+20.6
Butte 30,406 42.4% 40,143 56.0% 1,082 71,631 R+13.6
Placer 27,516 39.0% 42,096 59.6% 1,030 70,642 R+20.6
Shasta 21,171 38.8% 32,402 59.4% 1,012 54,585 R+20.6
Yolo 30,429 57.0% 22,358 41.9% 585 53,372 D+15.1
Humboldt 29,781 57.1% 21,460 41.2% 905 52,146 D+16.0
El Dorado 19,801 39.1% 30,021 59.3% 781 50,603 R+20.2
Napa 22,283 48.1% 23,235 50.2% 772 46,290 R+2.1
Merced 20,105 47.4% 21,717 51.2% 592 42,414 R+3.8
Nevada 14,980 40.5% 21,383 57.8% 660 37,023 R+17.3
Mendocino 17,152 55.4% 12,979 41.9% 816 30,947 D+13.5
Madera 10,642 43.8% 13,255 54.6% 384 24,281 R+10.8
Imperial 10,243 43.8% 12,889 55.2% 233 23,365 R+11.3
Kings 9,142 42.6% 12,118 56.4% 222 21,482 R+13.9
Sutter 6,557 31.4% 14,100 67.5% 241 20,898 R+36.1
Tuolumne 8,717 44.2% 10,646 54.0% 352 19,715 R+9.8
Lake 9,828 50.4% 9,366 48.0% 308 19,502 D+2.4
Siskiyou 8,365 47.0% 9,056 50.9% 376 17,797 R+3.9
Tehama 7,213 41.4% 9,854 56.5% 367 17,434 R+15.1
Yuba 5,444 37.4% 8,937 61.4% 182 14,563 R+24.0
Calaveras 5,674 41.8% 7,640 56.3% 260 13,574 R+14.5
Amador 5,197 42.1% 6,893 55.9% 248 12,338 R+13.7
San Benito 4,559 44.2% 5,578 54.1% 171 10,308 R+9.9
Plumas 4,251 47.2% 4,603 51.1% 161 9,015 R+3.9
Lassen 3,446 39.2% 5,157 58.6% 199 8,802 R+19.4
Glenn 2,894 36.3% 4,944 62.1% 128 7,966 R+25.7
Inyo 2,653 33.9% 5,042 64.3% 142 7,837 R+30.5
Del Norte 3,587 48.0% 3,714 49.7% 167 7,468 R+1.7
Mariposa 2,998 43.4% 3,768 54.5% 144 6,910 R+11.1
Trinity 2,518 42.1% 3,267 54.6% 195 5,980 R+12.5
Colusa 2,022 39.1% 3,077 59.5% 73 5,172 R+20.4
Modoc 1,416 35.3% 2,518 62.7% 83 4,017 R+27.4
Mono 1,284 36.2% 2,177 61.4% 86 3,547 R+25.2
Sierra 791 46.6% 860 50.7% 45 1,696 R+4.1
Alpine 230 41.7% 306 55.4% 16 552 R+13.8

Counties as they stood in 1988; some have since been split, merged or renamed. Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Sources and how the results were checked.

California in every presidential election we hold

YearWinnerMargin
2024 Kamala Harris (D) D+20.1
2020 Joe Biden (D) D+29.2
2016 Hillary Clinton (D) D+30.1
2012 Barack Obama (D) D+23.1
2008 Barack Obama (D) D+24.1
2004 John Kerry (D) D+9.9
2000 Al Gore (D) D+11.8
1996 Bill Clinton (D) D+12.9
1992 Bill Clinton (D) D+13.4
1988 George H. W. Bush (R) R+3.6
1984 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.2
1980 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.8
1976 Gerald Ford (R) R+1.8
1972 Richard Nixon (R) R+13.5
1968 Richard Nixon (R) R+3.1
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (D) D+18.3
1960 Richard Nixon (R) R+0.5
1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+11.1
1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+14.6
1948 Harry S. Truman (D) D+0.4
1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+13.5
1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+16.1
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+35.3
1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+21.0
1928 Herbert Hoover (R) R+30.5
1924 Calvin Coolidge (R) R+49.0
1920 Warren G. Harding (R) R+41.9
1916 Woodrow Wilson (D) D+0.4
1912 Theodore Roosevelt (other)
1908 William Howard Taft (R) R+22.5
1904 Theodore Roosevelt (R) R+34.9
1900 William McKinley (R) R+13.2
1896 William McKinley (R) R+0.6
1892 Grover Cleveland (D) D+0.1
1888 Benjamin Harrison (R) R+2.8
1884 James G. Blaine (R) R+6.6
1880 Winfield Scott Hancock (D) D+0.1
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R) R+1.8
1872 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+13.3
1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+0.5