U.S. presidential election, 1984

The U.S. presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan and the former Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan was very popular, as his first term had seen the start of a strong economic boom and a resurgence of American military strength. Mondale was unable to deflect these positives or Reagan's personal charisma, and lost in every state in the union except for his home state of Minnesota.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Ronald Reagan was unopposed as the nominee for the Republican Party.

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Democratic Party nomination

The field was crowded in the race for the Democratic nomination:

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• Reubin O'D. Askew, former governor of Florida
• Alan M. Cranston, U.S. senator from California
• John H. Glenn Jr., U.S. senator from Ohio
• Gary W. Hart, U.S. senator from Colorado
• Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings, U.S. senator from South Carolina
• The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson of Illinois
• George S. McGovern, former U.S. senator from South Dakota and Democratic presidential nominee in 1972
• Walter F. Mondale, former U.S. vice president and former U.S. senator from Minnesota

In the Iowa caucuses, the results were as follows: Mondale 45%, Hart 15%, McGovern 13%, Cranston 9%, Uncomitted 7%, Glenn 5%, Askew 3%, Jackson 3%, Hollings 0%.

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In the New Hampshire primary, the results were as follows: Hart 37.3%, Mondale 27.9%, Glenn 12.0%, Jackson 5.3%, McGovern 5.2%, Reagan 5.0% (write-in votes), Hollings 3.5%, Cranston 2.1%, Askew 1.0%.

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Jackson was the second African-American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for the President. He garnered 3.5 million votes during the primaries, third behind Hart and Mondale. Through the process, Jackson helped confirm the black electorate's importance to the Democratic Party. During the campaign, however, Jackson made an off-the-record reference to Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown", for which he later apologized.

Related Topics:
African-American - Shirley Chisholm - President - Democratic Party - Jew - New York City

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Gary Hart managed to mount a very successful campaign, winning the New Hampshire, Ohio, and California primaries as well as many others, especially in the west, but he couldn't overcome Mondale, who received the majority of the delegates. Mondale used the Wendy's slogan "Where's the beef?" to describe Hart's policies during the primaries.

Related Topics:
Gary Hart - Wendy's - Where's the beef?

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Mondale won the nomination, and chose U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York as his running mate, making her the first woman nominated for that position by a major party. Mondale ran a liberal campaign, supporting a nuclear freeze and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). He spoke against what he considered to be unfairness in Reagan's economic policies and the need to reduce federal budget deficits.

Related Topics:
U.S. Rep. - Geraldine A. Ferraro - New York - Liberal - Nuclear freeze - Equal Rights Amendment - Budget deficit

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When he made his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, Mondale said: "Let's tell the truth. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." Although Mondale intended this to demonstrate that he was honest while Reagan was hypocritical, it was widely remembered as simply a campaign pledge to raise taxes, and it likely damaged his electoral chances. (Two years later, Reagan did sign into law a bill that raised taxes for corporations, but at the same time cut taxes further for individual taxpayers.)

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