New Mexico was won by incumbent United States Vice President George H. W. Bush of Texas, who was running against Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

Bush won the state with 51.86% of the vote to Dukakis's 46.90%, for a margin of 4.96%.

New Mexico weighed in for this election as 4 percentage points more Democratic than the national average.

This was also the last election in which a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote in New Mexico, although his son George W. Bush would eke out an extremely narrow 49.84%-49.05% plurality over John Kerry in 2004.

[2] The Democratic stronghold in the northern part of the state is evident during this election, and remains largely intact from this point onward to current political times.