The 1988 United States presidential election was the 51st quadrennial presidential election on Tuesday, November 8, 1988. Incumbent presidentPaul Tsongas won re-election in an unprecedented landslide victory despite not being part of a coalition, compared to the one of James Forrestal in 1944.
Tsongas and Ogata faced little to no opposition during the primaries and were easily nominated once again for their popularity on the first 4 years of tenure. Former Republicanvice presidentMuriel Siebert declined to run and decided to wait until the next election, which she would end up losing. During his campaign, Tsongas gave strong opinions on matters that he had previously barely addressed, like climate change and the re-building of relations with Comancheria and Germany.
Wendell R. Anderson from Wisconsin became the Populist nominee, thanks to his popularity as Governor and then Member of the Assembly of the state. A single ticket that would have included both Anderson and former nominee Jesse Jackson was considered during the primaries, but was scrapped for personal differences between the two. According to polls, the ticket would have probably perfomed much better in some of the states that voted Jackson on the past election. The Kosuto Bloc did not field a unified ticket.
Former Governor of Kentucky Martha Layne Collins was chosen as the Democratic nominee. She was not the most popular candidate outside of her home state, with Les Aspin being considered by most as the more competent nominee. Despite this, Aspin was aware that he had small chances of winning against Tsongas, so he decided to turn down the possibility.
Tsongas effectively won a landslide re-election, carrying 33 states and more than 60% of the popular vote.
