Colorado voted for the Republican nominee, Vice PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, over the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts GovernorMichael Dukakis, by a margin of 7.78%. Bush took 53.06% of the vote to Dukakis' 45.28%. While the Republicans held onto Colorado's eight electoral votes, Bush's 53–45 win over Dukakis represented a vastly diminished margin compared to 1984, when Ronald Reagan had won the state in a 63–35 landslide over Walter Mondale. Unlike in the several preceding elections, Colorado voted roughly in line with the nation overall, which Bush won by 7.72%. Dukakis made substantial inroads by improving on Mondale's vote share in the city of Denver by over 10% (getting the highest vote share of any nominee in the city since Lyndon Johnson in 1964), becoming the first Democrat since 1964 (and only the second since 1936) to carry Boulder County, and comfortably reclaiming Pitkin County, which had supported McGovern in 1972 but had gone on to vote Republican in the next three elections.