Bush did especially well with suburban voters that year.
Pretty much this. Bush really struck a chord with suburban voters terrified of finding a Willie Horton in their backyard, which is also why he was able to pull out a win in Maryland.
FF" suburbanites, while Coal Country stayed strong for the Democrats.
Urban crime (whether the actual occurrence of it or the mere perception of it) resulted in a tremendous amount of suburban white panic that played a significant role in presidential elections from 1968 to 1992.
Appalachia, being heavily rural and very racially homogenous, wasn't fertile ground for it.
New Jersey is a very suburban state and in 1988 was full of people who either left NYC during the nightmare dysfunction years of the '70s or were fearful of it for that reason. Similar story in Connecticut, which Bush also won.
Maryland is also a very suburban state abutting a heavily black Baltimore and DC - Bush was the last Republican to win that state.
1988 was basically an election where white suburbanites were convinced that crazed black men were going to break into their houses, steal their stuff and rape them or their wives/daughters, and Dukakis wasn't "tough on crime" enough to keep that from happening.
Given that crime was super high during the 70s and 80s, the fears were legitimate. Crime was a top 3 issue for voters, something that is unthinkable today. Bill Clinton deserves a lot of credit for helping to reduce crime and taking this issue away from the GOP, thus allowing the Democrats to win over states such as MD, NJ, CT, CA, IL, in presidential elections. 1992 was a re-alignment election.
