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538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 55.2%[1]  1.0 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Reagan/Bush and blue denotes those won by Mondale/Ferraro. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state and the District of Columbia. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1984 United States presidential election was the 50th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1984. Incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan and his running mate, incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, were reelected to a second term in a landslide. They defeated the Democratic ticket of former Vice President Walter Mondale and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
Reagan and Bush faced only token opposition in their bid for re-nomination. Mondale faced a competitive field in his bid, defeating Colorado Senator Gary Hart, activist Jesse Jackson, and several other candidates in the 1984 Democratic primaries. He eventually chose New York Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first woman to be on a major party's presidential ticket.
Reagan touted a strong economic recovery from the 1970s stagflation and the 1981–1982 recession, and the widespread perception that his presidency had overseen a revival of national confidence and prestige.[2] At 73, Reagan was the oldest person to be nominated by a major party for president, a record that stood until 2020. The Reagan campaign produced effective television advertising and deftly neutralized concerns regarding Reagan's age. Mondale criticized Reagan's supply-side economic policies and budget deficits. He also called for a nuclear freeze and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Reagan won re-election in a landslide victory, carrying 525 electoral votes, 49 states, and 58.8% of the popular vote. Mondale won 13 electoral votes: 10 from his home state of Minnesota, which he won by 3,761 votes, a narrow margin of 0.18%, and 3 from the District of Columbia, which has always voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidate.[3] Reagan won the second-largest share of the electoral college since 1820 (second only to Franklin Roosevelt in 1936 and the largest for a Republican), and the most raw electoral votes ever received by a candidate. This is the last time any candidate won the popular vote by double digits.[4] As of the 2024 United States presidential election, Regan is the last Republican to sweep all of New England.
- ^ "National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press. Archived from the original on July 25, 2014. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
- ^ 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. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
- ^ Lou Cannon (October 4, 2016). "Ronald Reagan: Campaigns and Elections". Miller Center of Public Affairs. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved September 5, 2020.
- ^ Murse, Tom (January 28, 2019). "The Most Lopsided Presidential Elections in U.S. History: How a Landslide is Measured". ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on October 15, 2018. Retrieved March 9, 2019.