1984 United States presidential election in Connecticut

The 1984 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1984 United States presidential election in Connecticut

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 8 0 Popular vote 890,877 569,597 Percentage 60.73% 38.83%

County Results Reagan   50–60%   60–70%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

Connecticut 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 Connecticut, with over 99% of the electorate voting only either Democratic or Republican, and only 4 parties appearing on the ballot.[1] Every county in Connecticut voted in majority for the Republican candidate.

Connecticut weighed in for this election as 2% more Republican than the national average. As of the 2020 United States presidential election, this is the last election in which Hartford County voted for the Republican candidate. This is also the final time that a Republican presidential candidate was able to win every county in the state or win by a double digit margin.

Republican victory

Reagan won the election in Connecticut with a resounding 22 point sweep-out landslide. Typically a liberal-leaning state, the election results in Connecticut 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 Atlantic Northeast, 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 promise 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 Connecticut 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 Connecticut and elsewhere.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in Connecticut
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	890,877	60.77%	8
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	569,597	38.83%	0
	Communist Party	Gus Hall	4,826	0.33%	0
	New Alliance Party	Dennis Serrette	1,374	0.09%	0
	Write-Ins		226	0.02%	0
Totals			1,466,900	100.0%	3

By county

County	Reagan%	Reagan#	Mondale%	Mondale#	Others%	Others#
Fairfield	65.8%	257,319	33.8%	132,253	0.4%	1,607
Hartford	55.0%	208,210	44.6%	168,609	0.4%	1,586
Litchfield	66.2%	52,583	33.5%	26,564	0.3%	269
Middlesex	59.3%	39,580	40.3%	26,915	0.3%	227
New Haven	59.8%	212,166	39.7%	140,945	0.5%	1,601
New London	61.6%	63,121	37.9%	38,857	0.5%	509
Tolland	61.9%	32,981	37.7%	20,103	0.4%	214
Windham	61.6%	24,917	38.0%	15,351	0.5%	187

By congressional district

Reagan won all 6 congressional districts.

District	Reagan	Mondale	Representative
1st	53%	47%	Barbara B. Kennelly
2nd	61%	39%	Sam Gejdenson
3rd	59%	41%	Bruce Morrison
4th	63%	37%	Stewart McKinney
5th	67%	33%	William R. Ratchford
			John G. Rowland
6th	63%	37%	Nancy Johnson

See also

• United States presidential elections in Connecticut
• 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.