King County, home to the city of
Seattle and its surrounding suburbs, was and is by far the most heavily populated county in the state, and a bellwether county for the state as a whole. In every presidential election since Washington achieved statehood, the candidate who won King County also won Washington state as a whole. While the city of Seattle had long leaned Democratic, the surrounding suburbs had long leaned Republican, making King County a swing county, and thus Washington state a swing state. In 1976, moderate Republican Gerald Ford had carried Washington state 50–46, while winning King County 51–45. In the
1984 Republican landslide,
Ronald Reagan won King County by a 52–47 margin. However, Michael Dukakis won King County by a 54–45 margin, a raw vote difference of 59,089 votes, providing more than the entire 29,681 raw vote difference by which he carried Washington state as a whole. The 1988 result started a yet-unbroken Democratic winning streak in King County, and would prove to be the start of a long-term dramatic shift toward the Democratic Party in the county and thus in the state as a whole. As the city of Seattle grew, and its suburbs continued abandoning the GOP and increasingly trended Democratic in the 1990s and 2000s, King County would be transformed from a swing county prior to 1988 into a Democratic stronghold; twenty years later, in
2008, Democrat
Barack Obama would receive over 70% of the vote in King County. The Democratic dominance in King County that began in 1988 would solidify Washington as a strong
blue state in the modern era. In the eight presidential elections since 1988, no Republican candidate has replicated the percentages of the vote received by George H.W. Bush in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Kitsap, Island, Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, or Thurston counties. this is the last election when
Kitsap County and
Snohomish County have supported the Republican presidential nominee. This also is the last election where the state of Washington was decided by a margin of five points or less. Dukakis and Bush tied in
Ferry County. This is the second time in a presidential election in Washington (after
1896) and the last time until
Bill Clinton won Georgia in 1992 that two candidates tied in a county. ==See also==