Bush Won 53.37% of the Vote Nationwide, Final Tally Shows

Republican George Bush defeated Democrat Michael S. Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election by just over 7 million of the more than 91.5 million votes cast on Nov. 8, final returns from the 50 states and the District of Columbia show.

Bush received 53.37% of the vote nationwide and Dukakis got 45.67%. Third-party candidates received less than 1% of the votes.

In all, 91,585,872 Americans cast votes for candidates named on the state ballots.

Bush won his biggest margin in Florida, where he defeated the Massachusetts governor by about 960,000 votes. The President-elect’s largest margin by percentage was in Utah, where he received 66.2% of the vote and Dukakis got 32.04%.

Dukakis won his biggest margin in New York, which he carried by 266,000 of more than 6.4 million votes cast. The District of Columbia gave Dukakis the most votes by percentage--83.31%--followed by Rhode Island, where he won 55.65% of the vote.

Libertarian Party nominee Ron Paul was third. He got in excess of 0.4% of the vote, more than the 0.25% that the Libertarian candidate in 1984, David Bergland, received.

New Alliance candidate Leonora Fulani won more than 0.2% of the vote.