1984 United States presidential election (ROWM)
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All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 53.5%  0.7 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Mondale/Bentsen, and red denotes those won by Reagan/Bush. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1984 United States presidential election was the 50th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1984. Incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan, in what was considered one of the most memorable election upsets in American history, was defeated by Democratic former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush faced only token opposition in their bid for re-nomination. Mondale faced a competitive field in his bid, defeating Colorado Senator Gary Hart, activist Jesse Jackson, and several other candidates in the 1984 Democratic primaries. He eventually chose Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as his running mate, making Bentsen the fourth vice-president to come from Texas after his own predecessor, George H. W. Bush.
Reagan touted a strong economic recovery from the 1970s stagflation and the 1981–1982 recession, as well as the widespread perception that his presidency had overseen a revival of national confidence and prestige. At 73, Reagan was, at the time, the oldest person ever to be nominated by a major party for president. The Reagan campaign produced mildly effective television advertising and was only partially able to neutralize concerns regarding Reagan's age. Mondale criticized Reagan's supply-side economic policies and budget deficits and he called for a nuclear freeze and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
After being initially favoured by many to win the election and presumably repeat his 1980 landslide victory over Jimmy Carter, Reagan's lead gradually shrunk in the days leading up to Election Day, thanks to effective Democratic campaigning and his poor performance in both presidential debates against Mondale.
On Election Day, despite only carrying 22 states along with D.C., compared to the other 28 states carried by Reagan, Mondale won the election with 313 electoral votes to Reagan's 225, effectively halving the latter's previous record of 489 electoral votes in 1980. With a 0.4% margin in popular votes, this was also one of the closest elections in history. Meanwhile, Mondale also became the fourth president in American history to win without carrying most of the states after Jimmy Carter.