1984 United States presidential election in Utah

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

1984 United States presidential election in Utah

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 5 0 Popular vote 469,105 155,369 Percentage 74.50% 24.68%

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

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

Utah 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 incumbent Vice President and 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 Utah, with just under 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties,[1] though several other parties appeared on the ballot. Reagan posted the highest vote share of any nominee in the state since William Jennings Bryan in 1896, and carried every county in the state. Reagan's best county was Box Elder County, although he broke 80% in 15 counties. Mondale's best county was Carbon County, the only one in which he managed to hold Reagan to a plurality, rather than a majority, win. Mondale did make gains vis-à-vis Jimmy Carter of over ten percent in eastern Daggett County and San Juan County, probably related to a general trend in this election of Native American voters towards Mondale.[2] The highly populated Salt Lake County contributed about half of the Democratic votes produced by Utah, but still was won decisively by Reagan by 40 points, in what was, overall, a very solid statewide victory.

Utah weighed in for this election as 16% more Republican than the national average, and with 74.5% of the popular vote made it Reagan's strongest state in the 1984 election.[3]

Democratic platform

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[4] Democratic primary. During the primary 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,[5] 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 what he charged was 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.[6]

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,"[7] speaking to the role of women in politics.

Republican platform

Reagan challenging Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!," from the Brandenburg Gate in June, 1987. Reagan's firm stance with the Soviet Union was an important contributor to his 1984 reelection.

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 1970's, and into a period of (relative) economic stability.[8]

The economic success seen under Reagan was politically accomplished (principally) in two ways. The first was initiation of deep tax cuts for the wealthy,[9] and the second was a wide-spectrum of tax cuts for crude oil production and refinement, namely, with the 1980 Windfall profits tax cuts.[10] These policies were augmented with a call for heightened military spending,[11] the cutting of social welfare programs for the poor,[12] and the increasing of taxes on those making less than $50,000 per year.[9] Collectively called "Reaganomics", these economic policies were established through several pieces of legislation passed between 1980 and 1987.

Some of these new policies also arguably curbed several existing tax loopholes, preferences, and exceptions. 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.[13]

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.[14] 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,[15] regarding the final as simply being bad for business.

Republican victory

Reagan won a resounding 50-point landslide victory in Utah, his strongest victory in the nation both by vote share and by margin. For the third election in a row, Utah gave the Republican nominee his highest vote share in the nation, a trend that began in 1976[16] and would continue unbroken through 1988, and intermittently through 2012. Reagan's strength in Utah was part of a broader phenomenon of the growing importance of the Mountain West as a Republican base; this region had been a swing region for the sixty years following James Weaver's Populist run in 1892, solidly backing William Jennings Bryan in his narrow 1896 defeat as well as Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman in their narrow 1916 and 1948 wins, respectively. The Mountain West began trending Republican in close elections in 1960, however, when Nixon carried all but two states in the region (New Mexico and Nevada). Jimmy Carter's presidency accelerated the trend, with his administration's policies on water and energy being widely perceived as a 'war on the West.'[17] In 1980, Carter underperformed even his low national percentage throughout the West.[18] Reagan's popularity in the West increased in 1984;[19] no Republican nominee has received such strong support in the Mountain West as Reagan did.

Reagan also enjoyed high levels of bipartisan support during the 1984 presidential election, both in Utah, 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."[15] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory, in Utah and elsewhere. No subsequent Republican nominee has matched Reagan's 74% win.

Results

At 74.50%, Reagan won Utah with the highest percentage of the vote in any state from the presidential elections of 1984–present, although fellow Republican Mitt Romney did come close to surpassing that margin when he won the state with 72.62% in 2012. Despite his high margin, at a victory margin of 49.82%, he won the state by a slightly reduced margin than in 1980, when he won Utah by 52.2%. Mondale improved on Jimmy Carter's 1980 margins by over 10% in Daggett County and San Juan County, as well as improving slightly in Morgan County. Reagan improved in Iron County, Garfield County, Piute County, Wayne County, Duchesne County, Weber County, and Summit County.

1984 United States presidential election in Utah
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	469,105	74.50%	5
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	155,369	24.68%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	2,447	0.39%	0
	American Party	Delmar Dennis	1,345	0.21%	0
	Citizen's Party	Sonia Johnson	844	0.13%	0
	New Alliance Party	Dennis Serrette	220	0.03%	0
	Communist Party	Gus Hall	184	0.03%	0
	Socialist Workers Party	Melvin Mason	142	0.02%	0
Totals			629,656	100.0%	5

Results by county

County	Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican		Walter Frederick Mondale Democratic		David Peter Bergland[20] Libertarian		Delmar Dennis[20] American		Various candidates[20] Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Beaver	1,516	67.95%	708	31.73%	2	0.09%	3	0.13%	2	0.09%	808	36.22%	2,231
Box Elder	13,243	86.65%	1,983	12.98%	24	0.16%	20	0.13%	13	0.09%	11,260	73.68%	15,283
Cache	22,127	83.68%	4,123	15.59%	83	0.31%	48	0.18%	61	0.23%	18,004	68.09%	26,442
Carbon	4,393	49.82%	4,357	49.41%	24	0.27%	22	0.25%	22	0.25%	36	0.41%	8,818
Daggett	296	56.38%	227	43.24%	1	0.19%	1	0.19%	0	0.00%	69	13.14%	525
Davis	49,863	80.29%	11,727	18.88%	223	0.36%	193	0.31%	96	0.15%	38,136	61.41%	62,102
Duchesne	4,437	85.16%	746	14.32%	9	0.17%	14	0.27%	4	0.08%	3,691	70.84%	5,210
Emery	3,081	69.41%	1,326	29.87%	6	0.14%	17	0.38%	9	0.20%	1,755	39.54%	4,439
Garfield	1,609	83.15%	315	16.28%	1	0.05%	1	0.05%	9	0.47%	1,294	66.87%	1,935
Grand	2,463	73.15%	876	26.02%	10	0.30%	8	0.24%	10	0.30%	1,587	47.13%	3367
Iron	6,856	83.09%	1,342	16.26%	16	0.19%	24	0.29%	13	0.16%	5,514	66.83%	8,251
Juab	1,902	67.23%	917	32.41%	2	0.07%	4	0.14%	4	0.14%	985	34.82%	2,829
Kane	1,710	85.12%	294	14.63%	2	0.10%	2	0.10%	1	0.05%	1,416	70.48%	2,009
Millard	4,345	78.11%	1,192	21.43%	13	0.23%	11	0.20%	2	0.04%	3,153	56.68%	5,563
Morgan	1,934	79.59%	481	19.79%	9	0.37%	3	0.12%	3	0.12%	1,453	59.79%	2,430
Piute	606	80.05%	151	19.95%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	455	60.11%	757
Rich	797	85.61%	131	14.07%	3	0.32%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	666	71.54%	931
Salt Lake	183,536	69.28%	78,488	29.63%	1,531	0.58%	495	0.19%	876	0.33%	105,048	39.65%	264,926
San Juan	2,598	69.13%	1,145	30.47%	8	0.21%	3	0.08%	4	0.11%	1,453	38.66%	3,758
Sanpete	5,507	81.26%	1,227	18.11%	15	0.22%	22	0.32%	6	0.09%	4,280	63.15%	6,777
Sevier	5,736	83.49%	1,072	15.60%	8	0.12%	49	0.71%	5	0.07%	4,664	67.89%	6,870
Summit	4,093	71.79%	1,539	27.00%	34	0.60%	16	0.28%	19	0.33%	2,554	44.80%	5,701
Tooele	6,478	63.95%	3,584	35.38%	21	0.21%	29	0.29%	18	0.18%	2,894	28.57%	10,130
Uintah	7,337	85.57%	1,186	13.83%	21	0.24%	19	0.22%	11	0.13%	6,151	71.74%	8,574
Utah	72,284	82.61%	14,801	16.91%	176	0.20%	163	0.19%	80	0.09%	57,483	65.69%	87,504
Wasatch	2,789	72.93%	1,015	26.54%	5	0.13%	12	0.31%	3	0.08%	1,774	46.39%	3,824
Washington	12,049	86.21%	1,846	13.21%	23	0.16%	46	0.33%	13	0.09%	10,203	73.00%	13,977
Wayne	930	80.24%	224	19.33%	1	0.09%	2	0.17%	2	0.17%	706	60.91%	1,159
Weber	44,590	70.40%	18,346	28.97%	176	0.28%	119	0.19%	103	0.16%	26,244	41.44%	63,334
Totals	469,105	74.50%	155,369	24.68%	2,447	0.39%	1,345	0.21%	1,390	0.22%	313,736	49.83%	629,656

See also

• Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
2. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 109 ISBN 0786422173
3. "1984 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
4. Kurt Andersen, "A Wild Ride to the End", Time, May 28, 1984
5. Trying to Win the Peace, by Even Thomas, Time, July 2, 1984
6. Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984, AllPolitics
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. "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.
10. Joseph J. Thorndike (Nov 10, 2005). "Historical Perspective: The Windfall Profit Tax". Retrieved November 11, 2013.
11. Historical tables, Budget of the United States Government Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, 2013, table 6.1.
12. 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
13. Jerry Lanson (2008-11-06). "A historic victory. A changed nation. Now, can Obama deliver?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
14. Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow. New York: The New Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1595581037.
15. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.
16. Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 104, 110, 112, 115, 119, 124, 130
17. Cannon, Lou (1978-01-09). "Vice President Embarks on Mission to Mend Western Fences". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
18. "CQ Almanac Online Edition". library.cqpress.com. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
19. Oct. 13, Ed Quillen Essay; Now, 1997 From the print edition Like Tweet Email Print Subscribe Donate (1997-10-13). "The Mountain West: A Republican Fabrication". www.hcn.org. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
20. UT US Presidential Election November 06, 1984