Wisconsin was won by Massachusetts GovernorMichael Dukakis who was running against incumbent United States Vice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush of Texas. Dukakis ran with Texas SenatorLloyd Bentsen as Vice President, and Bush ran with Indiana SenatorDan Quayle. Dukakis won the election in Wisconsin with a four-point margin. The state has since consistently voted for the Democratic Party, until the victory of Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and 2024. This is also the last time Wisconsin would vote differently to fellow Rust Belt swing states Michigan and Pennsylvania, with all three states flipping simultaneously in 2016, 2020, and 2024 as well as the last time Wisconsin was the most Democratic leaning of the three Rust Belt swing states until 2024.
The election was very partisan, with over 99 percent of the electorate voting for either the Republican or Democratic parties, although five additional candidates were on the ballot.[1] Dukakis and Bush almost evenly split Wisconsin's seventy-two counties – Dukakis won 37 and Bush won 35. Dukakis won the large urban counties containing Madison (Dane County), Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha, alongside almost entirely Native AmericanMenominee County and the heavily unionized Scandinavian-American counties of the northwest. Bush won the suburban "WOW counties" and the more conservative, historically German Catholic, counties of the rural eastern half of the state.[2] Over the state as a whole, Dukakis did best, as usual, in Menominee County, and Bush did best in Ozaukee County.
