1988 United States presidential election in Montana
The 1988 United States presidential election in Montana took place on November 8, 1988, and was part of the 1988 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. This was the last election when Montana had four electoral votes: the continuing depopulation of the Great Plains would cause the state to revert to an at-large congressional district for 1992. Montana will regain a second congressional district, and therefore a fourth electoral vote, in 2022. Montana voted for the Republican  nominee, Vice President George H. W. Bush, over the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. Bush won by a margin of 5.87%, much less than usual in this typically solid Republican state, largely due to the persistent drought and Farm crisis on the Great Plains, a result making Montana 1.93% more Democratic than the than the national average. Since 1916 this is the solitary election when Blaine County, one of the most consistent bellwether counties in the nation, has supported a losing presidential candidate. It is also the last time Montana has voted more Democratic than the nation at-large  and one of only three since 1952 (along with 1956 and 1972), and the last occasion northwestern Lincoln County has supported a Democratic Presidential nominee, although Bill Clinton would carry the state in 1992 (while also coming close to doing so again in 1996) and Barack Obama nearly did in 2008 as well. As of 2021, Lincoln County is one of only eight counties Dukakis won in 1988 -- the others are in Iowa, with four, and Texas, with three -- that have never backed a Democrat since. Bush became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Lewis and  Clark County since William Howard Taft in 1908, as well as the first to do so without carrying Missoula County since Calvin Coolidge in 1924.