1984 United States presidential election in Iowa

The 1984 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1984 United States presidential election in Iowa

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 703,088 605,620 Percentage 53.27% 45.89%

County Results Reagan   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Mondale   50–60%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

Iowa 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 Iowa, with over 99 percent of the electorate voting only for either the Democratic or Republican parties, though several parties appeared on the ballot.[1] While the majority of counties turned out for Reagan, the politically volatile state of Iowa was a relatively narrow victory for him, thanks in part to the Midwest Farm Crisis of the early 1980s. The relatively weak Republican trend for this election is highlighted with the loss of Des Moines's highly populated Polk County to Mondale.

Iowa weighed in for this election as 11 points more Democratic than the national average. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Scott County, Black Hawk County, Linn County, and Story County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[2]

Democratic platform

Mondale speaks to press on the night of his narrow primary victory in the Iowa caucuses. Des Moines, Iowa, February 2, 1984.

Walter Mondale accepted the Democratic nomination for presidency after pulling narrowly ahead of Senator Gary Hart of Colorado and Rev. Jesse Jackson of Illinois - his main contenders during what would be a very contentious[3] Democratic primary. During the campaign, Mondale was vocal about reduction of government spending, and, in particular, was vocal against heightened military spending on the nuclear arms race against the Soviet Union,[4] which was reaching its peak on both sides in the early 1980s.

Taking a (what was becoming the traditional liberal) stance on the social issues of the day, Mondale advocated for gun control, the right to choose regarding abortion, and strongly opposed the repeal of laws regarding institutionalized prayer in public schools. He also criticized Reagan for his economic marginalization of the poor, stating that Reagan's reelection campaign was "a happy talk campaign," not focused on the real issues at hand.[5]

A very significant political move during this election: the Democratic Party nominated Representative Geraldine Ferraro to run with Mondale as Vice-President. Ferraro is the first female candidate to receive such a nomination in United States history. She said in an interview at the 1984 Democratic National Convention that this action "opened a door which will never be closed again,"[6] speaking to the role of women in politics.

Republican platform

By 1984, Reagan was very popular with voters across the nation as the President who saw them out of the economic stagflation of the early and middle 1970s, and into a period of (relative) economic stability.[7]

The economic success seen under Reagan was politically accomplished (principally) in two ways. The first was initiation of deep tax cuts for the wealthy,[8] and the second was a wide-spectrum of tax cuts for crude oil production and refinement, namely, with the 1980 Windfall profits tax cuts.[9] These policies were augmented with a call for heightened military spending,[10] the cutting of social welfare programs for the poor,[11] and the increasing of taxes on those making less than $50,000 per year.[8] Collectively called "Reaganomics", these economic policies were established through several pieces of legislation passed between 1980 and 1987.

These new tax policies also arguably curbed several existing tax loopholes, preferences, and exceptions, but Reaganomics is typically remembered for its trickle down effect of taxing poor Americans more than rich ones. Reaganomics has (along with legislation passed under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) been criticized by many analysts as "setting the stage" for economic troubles in the United States after 2007, such as the Great Recession.[12]

Virtually unopposed during the Republican primaries, Reagan ran on a campaign of furthering his economic policies. Reagan vowed to continue his "war on drugs," passing sweeping legislation after the 1984 election in support of mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession.[13] Furthermore, taking a (what was becoming the traditional conservative) stance on the social issues of the day, Reagan strongly opposed legislation regarding comprehension of gay marriage, abortion, and (to a lesser extent) environmentalism,[14] regarding the final as simply being bad for business.

Republican victory

Reagan won the election in Iowa by a 7.4% margin. While a sound victory, this made Iowa 10.8% more Democratic than the nation, a signal of Iowa's increasingly liberal bent over the second half of the Cold War period. Of the four Republican landslides during the Cold War (1952, 1956, 1972, and 1984), this one featured the weakest Republican win in Iowa. Iowa had been a double-digit win for Republicans in the nationally close elections of 1960 and 1968, but in 1976 had gone for Ford by just a little over 1%. In 1980, Reagan won Iowa by a somewhat larger margin than he won the nation by, but by margin, his support in Iowa receded in 1984, as the long-time bellwether county of Palo Alto, which had last voted for a loser in 1892, switched to Mondale. Four years later, Iowa would back Dukakis, making George H. W. Bush the first Republican to win the White House without carrying the Hawkeye State since the party's founding and representing the consolidation of a short-lived new Democratic base in the Upper Midwest.[15] By 2000, when Gore carried Iowa by less than 1%, cracks in this new base were already evident; Iowa would go on to vote narrowly for George W. Bush in 2004 and by decisive margins for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in Iowa
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	703,088	53.27%	8
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	605,620	45.89%	0
	“Nominated By Petition”	Lyndon LaRouche	6,248	0.47%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	1,844	0.14%	0
	Write-Ins		1,051	0.08%	0
	Independent	Gerald Baker	892	0.07%	0
	New Alliance Party	Dennis Serrette	463	0.04%	0
	Socialist Workers Party	Melvin Mason	313	0.02%	0
	Communist Party	Gus Hall	286	0.02%	0
Totals			1,319,805	100.0%	8

Results by county

County[16]	Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican		Walter Frederick Mondale Democratic		Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche Nominated By Petition		David Peter Bergland Libertarian		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adair	2,615	56.61%	1,979	42.84%	8	0.17%	6	0.13%	11	0.24%	636	13.77%	4,619
Adams	1,706	57.64%	1,221	41.25%	19	0.64%	10	0.34%	4	0.14%	485	16.39%	2,960
Allamakee	3,997	62.91%	2,282	35.91%	51	0.80%	3	0.05%	21	0.33%	1,715	26.99%	6,354
Appanoose	3,412	50.48%	3,289	48.66%	37	0.55%	6	0.09%	15	0.22%	123	1.82%	6,759
Audubon	2,306	54.97%	1,854	44.20%	26	0.62%	4	0.10%	5	0.12%	452	10.77%	4,195
Benton	5,566	52.13%	4,993	46.76%	82	0.77%	11	0.10%	26	0.24%	573	5.37%	10,678
Black Hawk	32,262	50.23%	31,467	48.99%	282	0.44%	74	0.12%	148	0.23%	795	1.24%	64,233
Boone	5,746	46.80%	6,485	52.82%	22	0.18%	4	0.03%	20	0.16%	-739	-6.02%	12,277
Bremer	6,895	62.37%	4,084	36.94%	44	0.40%	13	0.12%	19	0.17%	2,811	25.43%	11,055
Buchanan	4,965	54.25%	4,129	45.12%	25	0.27%	12	0.13%	21	0.23%	836	9.13%	9,152
Buena Vista	5,193	55.22%	4,109	43.69%	43	0.46%	33	0.35%	27	0.29%	1,084	11.53%	9,405
Butler	4,570	66.00%	2,323	33.55%	21	0.30%	3	0.04%	7	0.10%	2,247	32.45%	6,924
Calhoun	3,311	56.14%	2,541	43.08%	31	0.53%	9	0.15%	6	0.10%	770	13.06%	5,898
Carroll	5,021	49.83%	4,960	49.22%	65	0.65%	9	0.09%	22	0.22%	61	0.61%	10,077
Cass	5,053	67.10%	2,417	32.09%	35	0.46%	12	0.16%	14	0.19%	2,636	35.00%	7,531
Cedar	4,617	59.59%	3,086	39.83%	21	0.27%	16	0.21%	8	0.10%	1,531	19.76%	7,748
Cerro Gordo	11,214	48.86%	11,570	50.41%	118	0.51%	18	0.08%	30	0.13%	-356	-1.55%	22,950
Cherokee	4,046	54.16%	3,349	44.83%	46	0.62%	6	0.08%	23	0.31%	697	9.33%	7,470
Chickasaw	3,661	52.93%	3,186	46.06%	48	0.69%	6	0.09%	16	0.23%	475	6.87%	6,917
Clarke	2,262	52.35%	2,030	46.98%	12	0.28%	10	0.23%	7	0.16%	232	5.37%	4,321
Clay	4,450	53.51%	3,774	45.38%	57	0.69%	9	0.11%	26	0.31%	676	8.13%	8,316
Clayton	5,029	58.80%	3,446	40.29%	54	0.63%	8	0.09%	16	0.19%	1,583	18.51%	8,553
Clinton	13,914	54.77%	11,240	44.25%	150	0.59%	33	0.13%	67	0.26%	2,674	10.53%	25,404
Crawford	4,552	56.53%	3,396	42.17%	82	1.02%	9	0.11%	14	0.17%	1,156	14.35%	8,053
Dallas	6,080	47.85%	6,564	51.66%	17	0.13%	15	0.12%	31	0.24%	-484	-3.81%	12,707
Davis	1,956	46.77%	2,187	52.30%	19	0.45%	2	0.05%	18	0.43%	-231	-5.52%	4,182
Decatur	2,104	49.60%	2,098	49.46%	15	0.35%	4	0.09%	21	0.50%	6	0.14%	4,242
Delaware	4,769	59.61%	3,158	39.47%	45	0.56%	4	0.05%	25	0.31%	1,611	20.13%	8,001
Des Moines	9,559	45.85%	11,173	53.59%	53	0.25%	29	0.14%	36	0.17%	-1,614	-7.74%	20,850
Dickinson	4,064	56.68%	3,025	42.19%	58	0.81%	9	0.13%	14	0.20%	1,039	14.49%	7,170
Dubuque	19,239	46.37%	21,876	52.72%	234	0.56%	50	0.12%	92	0.22%	-2,637	-6.36%	41,491
Emmet	2,946	51.46%	2,746	47.97%	26	0.45%	4	0.07%	3	0.05%	200	3.49%	5,725
Fayette	6,505	57.56%	4,677	41.38%	69	0.61%	16	0.14%	35	0.31%	1,828	16.17%	11,302
Floyd	4,341	50.75%	4,154	48.57%	39	0.46%	7	0.08%	12	0.14%	187	2.19%	8,553
Franklin	3,129	56.43%	2,349	42.36%	48	0.87%	3	0.05%	16	0.29%	780	14.07%	5,545
Fremont	2,686	64.77%	1,426	34.39%	25	0.60%	3	0.07%	7	0.17%	1,260	30.38%	4,147
Greene	2,579	46.44%	2,831	50.97%	118	2.12%	13	0.23%	13	0.23%	-252	-4.54%	5,554
Grundy	4,527	69.45%	1,915	29.38%	55	0.84%	7	0.11%	14	0.21%	2,612	40.07%	6,518
Guthrie	2,783	51.89%	2,517	46.93%	44	0.82%	6	0.11%	13	0.24%	266	4.96%	5,363
Hamilton	4,279	55.61%	3,330	43.27%	42	0.55%	15	0.19%	29	0.38%	949	12.33%	7,695
Hancock	3,362	56.62%	2,539	42.76%	22	0.37%	5	0.08%	10	0.17%	823	13.86%	5,938
Hardin	5,195	53.38%	4,477	46.00%	29	0.30%	11	0.11%	20	0.21%	718	7.38%	9,732
Harrison	4,352	63.24%	2,495	36.25%	21	0.31%	2	0.03%	12	0.17%	1,857	26.98%	6,882
Henry	4,516	56.77%	3,377	42.45%	27	0.34%	15	0.19%	20	0.25%	1,139	14.32%	7,955
Howard	2,718	55.49%	2,135	43.59%	19	0.39%	6	0.12%	20	0.41%	583	11.90%	4,898
Humboldt	3,396	57.92%	2,406	41.04%	45	0.77%	6	0.10%	10	0.17%	990	16.89%	5,863
Ida	2,618	62.30%	1,559	37.10%	18	0.43%	2	0.05%	5	0.12%	1,059	25.20%	4,202
Iowa	4,352	60.02%	2,815	38.82%	63	0.87%	7	0.10%	14	0.19%	1,537	21.20%	7,251
Jackson	4,811	51.51%	4,400	47.11%	81	0.87%	19	0.20%	29	0.31%	411	4.40%	9,340
Jasper	8,576	51.36%	8,023	48.04%	50	0.30%	20	0.12%	30	0.18%	553	3.31%	16,699
Jefferson	4,727	61.19%	2,961	38.33%	9	0.12%	13	0.17%	15	0.19%	1,766	22.86%	7,725
Johnson	18,677	41.46%	26,000	57.72%	54	0.12%	127	0.28%	186	0.41%	-7,323	-16.26%	45,044
Jones	4,907	55.82%	3,825	43.51%	27	0.31%	12	0.14%	20	0.23%	1,082	12.31%	8,791
Keokuk	2,913	51.50%	2,649	46.84%	64	1.13%	2	0.04%	28	0.50%	264	4.67%	5,656
Kossuth	4,872	49.64%	4,838	49.30%	78	0.79%	10	0.10%	16	0.16%	34	0.35%	9,814
Lee	8,756	49.17%	8,912	50.04%	74	0.42%	29	0.16%	38	0.21%	-156	-0.88%	17,809
Linn	41,061	51.12%	38,528	47.97%	172	0.21%	173	0.22%	381	0.47%	2,533	3.15%	80,315
Louisa	2,623	57.36%	1,927	42.14%	10	0.22%	4	0.09%	9	0.20%	696	15.22%	4,573
Lucas	2,630	51.72%	2,422	47.63%	16	0.31%	5	0.10%	12	0.24%	208	4.09%	5,085
Lyon	4,178	74.05%	1,401	24.83%	49	0.87%	8	0.14%	6	0.11%	2,777	49.22%	5,642
Madison	3,168	50.60%	3,067	48.99%	9	0.14%	6	0.10%	11	0.18%	101	1.61%	6,261
Mahaska	6,086	59.13%	4,107	39.90%	65	0.63%	9	0.09%	26	0.25%	1,979	19.23%	10,293
Marion	7,259	53.24%	6,313	46.30%	40	0.29%	12	0.09%	10	0.07%	946	6.94%	13,634
Marshall	10,839	54.63%	8,809	44.40%	123	0.62%	26	0.13%	43	0.22%	2,030	10.23%	19,840
Mills	3,994	72.80%	1,434	26.14%	29	0.53%	11	0.20%	18	0.33%	2,560	46.66%	5,486
Mitchell	3,144	54.74%	2,531	44.07%	45	0.78%	9	0.16%	14	0.24%	613	10.67%	5,743
Monona	2,746	55.37%	2,159	43.54%	41	0.83%	4	0.08%	9	0.18%	587	11.84%	4,959
Monroe	1,927	44.91%	2,342	54.58%	7	0.16%	3	0.07%	12	0.28%	-415	-9.67%	4,291
Montgomery	4,224	71.23%	1,661	28.01%	27	0.46%	8	0.13%	10	0.17%	2,563	43.22%	5,930
Muscatine	9,069	59.79%	5,986	39.46%	75	0.49%	16	0.11%	22	0.15%	3,083	20.33%	15,168
O'Brien	5,008	66.16%	2,479	32.75%	59	0.78%	12	0.16%	11	0.15%	2,529	33.41%	7,569
Osceola	2,285	65.98%	1,146	33.09%	28	0.81%	1	0.03%	3	0.09%	1,139	32.89%	3,463
Page	5,876	75.06%	1,914	24.45%	24	0.31%	6	0.08%	8	0.10%	3,962	50.61%	7,828
Palo Alto	2,715	46.73%	3,018	51.94%	71	1.22%	1	0.02%	5	0.09%	-303	-5.22%	5,810
Plymouth	6,482	64.65%	3,464	34.55%	54	0.54%	13	0.13%	14	0.14%	3,018	30.10%	10,027
Pocahontas	2,627	50.64%	2,481	47.82%	24	0.46%	41	0.79%	15	0.29%	146	2.81%	5,188
Polk	71,413	48.30%	75,413	51.01%	540	0.37%	244	0.17%	238	0.16%	-4,000	-2.71%	147,848
Pottawattamie	21,527	63.11%	12,329	36.14%	179	0.52%	33	0.10%	44	0.13%	9,198	26.96%	34,112
Poweshiek	4,715	53.04%	4,103	46.16%	38	0.43%	7	0.08%	26	0.29%	612	6.88%	8,889
Ringgold	1,512	48.51%	1,593	51.11%	10	0.32%	2	0.06%	0	0.00%	-81	-2.60%	3,117
Sac	3,298	57.57%	2,363	41.25%	41	0.72%	9	0.16%	18	0.31%	935	16.32%	5,729
Scott	38,034	53.41%	32,550	45.71%	385	0.54%	122	0.17%	121	0.17%	5,484	7.70%	71,212
Shelby	4,200	64.25%	2,291	35.05%	31	0.47%	7	0.11%	8	0.12%	1,909	29.20%	6,537
Sioux	11,665	81.61%	2,585	18.09%	25	0.17%	5	0.03%	13	0.09%	9,080	63.53%	14,293
Story	19,804	51.56%	18,277	47.58%	107	0.28%	94	0.24%	128	0.33%	1,527	3.98%	38,410
Tama	4,882	54.30%	4,061	45.17%	25	0.28%	6	0.07%	16	0.18%	821	9.13%	8,990
Taylor	2,496	62.06%	1,499	37.27%	13	0.32%	3	0.07%	11	0.27%	997	24.79%	4,022
Union	3,583	54.49%	2,875	43.72%	34	0.52%	12	0.18%	72	1.09%	708	10.77%	6,576
Van Buren	2,138	56.73%	1,606	42.61%	19	0.50%	1	0.03%	5	0.13%	532	14.12%	3,769
Wapello	7,098	39.88%	10,545	59.24%	86	0.48%	31	0.17%	40	0.22%	-3,447	-19.37%	17,800
Warren	8,277	49.95%	8,171	49.31%	84	0.51%	13	0.08%	25	0.15%	106	0.64%	16,570
Washington	4,613	59.37%	3,079	39.63%	46	0.59%	14	0.18%	18	0.23%	1,534	19.74%	7,770
Wayne	2,061	51.26%	1,927	47.92%	14	0.35%	8	0.20%	11	0.27%	134	3.33%	4,021
Webster	9,619	48.58%	9,930	50.15%	206	1.04%	25	0.13%	22	0.11%	-311	-1.57%	19,802
Winnebago	3,616	57.27%	2,669	42.27%	16	0.25%	2	0.03%	11	0.17%	947	15.00%	6,314
Winneshiek	5,277	57.96%	3,724	40.90%	78	0.86%	7	0.08%	19	0.21%	1,553	17.06%	9,105
Woodbury	23,002	54.31%	18,951	44.75%	296	0.70%	42	0.10%	59	0.14%	4,051	9.57%	42,350
Worth	1,985	46.53%	2,263	53.05%	9	0.21%	5	0.12%	4	0.09%	-278	-6.52%	4,266
Wright	3,675	54.81%	2,980	44.44%	31	0.46%	9	0.13%	10	0.15%	695	10.37%	6,705
Totals	703,088	53.27%	605,620	45.89%	6,248	0.47%	1,844	0.14%	3,005	0.23%	97,468	7.39%	1,319,805

See also

• Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

1. "1984 Presidential General Election Results – Iowa". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
2. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
3. Kurt Andersen, "A Wild Ride to the End", Time, May 28, 1984
4. Trying to Win the Peace, by Even Thomas, Time, July 2, 1984
5. Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984, AllPolitics
6. Martin, Douglas (2011-03-27). "Geraldine A. Ferraro, First Woman on Major Party Ticket, Dies at 75". The New York Times. pp. A1. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
7. 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.
8. "U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913–2011 (Nominal and Inflation-Adjusted Brackets)". Tax Foundation. September 9, 2011. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
9. Joseph J. Thorndike (Nov 10, 2005). "Historical Perspective: The Windfall Profit Tax". Retrieved November 11, 2013.
10. Historical tables, Budget of the United States Government Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, 2013, table 6.1.
11. Niskanen, William A. (1992). "Reaganomics". In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (1st ed.). Library of Economics and Liberty. OCLC 317650570, 50016270, 163149563
12. Jerry Lanson (2008-11-06). "A historic victory. A changed nation. Now, can Obama deliver?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
13. Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow. New York: The New Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1595581037.
14. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.
15. "CQ Almanac Online Edition". library.cqpress.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
16. "IA US President Race, November 06, 1984". Our Campaigns.