George H.W. Bush, who died Friday night at the age of 94, was the last Republican to win a presidential race by a landslide.

In 1988, then-Vice President Bush beat the governor of Massachusetts, Michael Dukakis, by winning 40 states (including California), claiming 426 electoral votes to Dukakis's 111.

Coming out of the Democratic convention that year, Dukakis catapulted to a 17-point lead, but Bush recovered with an aggressive campaign that promised to continue Ronald Reagan's successful economic policies, and portrayed Dukakis as a Massachusetts liberal who would raise taxes, be soft on crime, and weak on national defense.

The race was capped by moments including: the embarrassing photo op of Dukakis in a tank; Bush's ultimately infamous "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge; the controversial-but-effective Willie Horton ad; and the widely-criticized selection of Dan Quayle as Bush's running mate.

By the end of the campaign, the race wasn't even close. In addition to his electoral college rout, Bush won the popular vote by eight points.

Bush would go on to lose to Bill Clinton four years later during a mild recession, and California and other states drifted out of contention for Republicans, shifting the electoral college advantage to Democrats.

In the seven presidential elections after 1988, Republicans have won three times, and never secured more than 304 electoral votes (which President Trump did in 2016). Only in one presidential election since 1988 did Republicans win the popular vote and that would be in 2004, when Bush's son George W. Bush beat John Kerry by a popular vote margin of under three points, and secured just 286 electoral votes.

