The 1988 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 8, 1988. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1988 United States presidential election. State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. New Mexico 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.
Bush won the state with 51.86% of the vote to Dukakis's 46.90%, for a margin of 4.96%. New Mexico weighed in for this election as 4 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This was also the last election in which a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote in New Mexico, although his son George W. Bush would eke out an extremely narrow 49.84%-49.05% plurality over John Kerry in 2004.
The presidential election of 1988 was a very partisan election for New Mexico, with 98 percent of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties. As of the 2024, this is the last presidential election in New Mexico in which Bernalillo County and Doña Ana County voted for a Republican presidential candidate. The Democratic stronghold in the northern part of the state is evident during this election, and remains largely intact from this point onward to current political times.
