Why did HW Bush do better than Reagan in Washington DC

[Bootes Void]

HW Bush cut DC margin from 72pts in 1984 to 68pts in 1988 despite winning only by 8 pts compared to 18 pts of Reagan

[Alcibiades]

I’m not sure, but perhaps for the same reason he did very well in Maryland; HW did very well among wealthy white suburbanites/urban voters due to the whole Willie Horton affair. I wouldn’t be surprised if this message played well among a certain segment of DC whites. I am assuming that the GOP improvement in margin in DC came almost exclusively from whites, not blacks.

In addition, raw turnout decreased significantly between 1984 and 1988. Bush got 2,000 fewer votes than Reagan, but Dukakis got 20,000 fewer than Mondale. So maybe it was a case of DC’s unusually high number of partisan Democrats not being as motivated to vote against the comparatively uncontroversial Bush than Reagan, who in particular was more unpopular among black voters.