United States presidential election in Arizona, 1984

United States presidential election in Arizona, 1984

November 6, 1984

Nominee Ronald Reagan Walter Mondale Party Republican Democratic Home state California Minnesota Running mate George H.W. Bush Geraldine Ferraro Electoral vote 7 0 Popular vote 681,416 333,854 Percentage 66.4% 32.5%

County Results   Mondale—50-60%   Reagan—50-60%   Reagan—60-70%   Reagan—70-80%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

The 1984 United States presidential election in Arizona took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Arizona voters chose 7 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President of the United States.

Arizona was won by incumbent United States President Ronald Reagan of California, who was running against former Vice President Walter Mondale of Minnesota. Reagan ran for a second time with former C.I.A. Director George H. W. Bush of Texas, and Mondale ran with Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York, the first major female candidate for the Vice-Presidency.

Partisan background

The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for Arizona, with just under 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only four parties appearing on the ballot.^[1] Nearly every county in Arizona voted in majority for Reagan, a particularly strong turn out even in this typically conservative-leaning state. Reagan did the best in Phoenix's highly populated Maricopa County, and Mondale did the best in Apache County, typically a Democratic contributor to elections in Arizona.

Arizona weighed in for this election as 8% more Republican than the national average.

Republican victory

Reagan won the election in Arizona with a decisive 34 point sweep-out landslide. The wide margins found in Arizona, though generally conservative in its voting, are reflective of a nationwide reconsolidation of base for the Republican Party which took place through the 1980s; called by Reagan the "second American Revolution."^[2] This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. No Republican candidate has received as strong of support in the American West at large, as Reagan did.

It is speculated that Mondale lost support with voters nearly immediately during the campaign, namely during his acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. There he stated that he intended to increase taxes. To quote Mondale, "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."^[3] Despite this claimed attempt at establishing truthfulness with the electorate, this claim to raise taxes badly eroded his chances in what had already begun as an uphill battle against the charismatic Ronald Reagan.

Reagan also enjoyed high levels of bipartisan support during the 1984 presidential election, both in Arizona, and across the nation at large. Many registered Democrats who voted for Reagan (Reagan Democrats) stated that they had chosen to do so because they associated him with the economic recovery, because of his strong stance on national security issues with Russia, and because they considered the Democrats as "supporting American poor and minorities at the expense of the middle class."^[4] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan’s 1984 landslide victory, in Arizona and elsewhere.

Results

United States presidential election in Arizona, 1984
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	681,416	66.42%	7
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	333,854	32.54%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	10,585	1.03%	0
	Write-Ins		24	>0.01%	0
	Citizen's Party	Sonia Johnson	18	>0.01%	0
Totals			1,025,897	100.0%	7

See also

• Iran–Contra affair
• Nicaragua guerrilla war
• Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
2. Raines, Howell (November 7, 1984). "Reagan Wins By a Landslide, Sweeping at Least 48 States; G.O.P. Gains Strength in House". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
3. Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984, AllPolitics
4. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.