1984 United States elections explained

Year:1984
Type:Presidential election year
Election Day:November 6
Incumbent President:Ronald Reagan (Republican)
Next Congress:99th
President Control:Republican hold
President Pv Margin:Republican +18.2%
President Candidate1:Ronald Reagan (R)
Electoral Vote1:525
President Candidate2:Walter Mondale (D)
Electoral Vote2:13
President Map Caption:1984 presidential election results. Red denotes states won by Reagan, blue denotes states won by Mondale. Numbers indicate the electoral votes won by each candidate.
Senate Seats Contested:33 of 100 seats
Senate Control:Republican hold
Senate Net Change:Democratic +2
Senate Map Caption:1984 Senate results
House Seats Contested:All 435 voting members
House Control:Democratic hold
House Pv Margin:Democratic +5.1%
House Net Change:Republican +16
House Map Caption:1984 House of Representatives results
Governor Seats Contested:15 (13 states, 2 territories)
Governor Net Change:Republican +1
Governor Map Caption:1984 gubernatorial election results
Territorial races not shown

The 1984 United States elections were held on November 6, and elected the members of the 99th United States Congress. Republicans won a landslide victory in the presidential election, picked up seats in the House of Representatives, and successfully defended their Senate majority.[1] [2]

Republican incumbent President Ronald Reagan won re-election, defeating Democratic former Vice President Walter Mondale.[3] Reagan carried every state except for Washington, D.C., and Mondale's home state of Minnesota; won 58.8 percent of the popular vote; and defeated Mondale by a popular vote margin of eighteen points. Reagan remains the only presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972 to win at least 55 percent of the popular vote and win by a margin greater than 10 points.

Mondale defeated Colorado Senator Gary Hart and Reverend Jesse Jackson of Illinois to take the Democratic nomination. Mondale selected New York Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, making Ferraro the first woman to appear on a major party presidential ticket.

Democrats picked up two Senate seats, bringing their total to 47 out of 100 seats. Democrats won the nationwide popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 5.1 percentage points and retained their majority, though Republicans picked up a total of sixteen seats.[1] The party makeup of both chambers of Congress following this election cycle, in which the Democrats had control of the House and the Republicans had control of the Senate, would not be emulated until 2018. In the gubernatorial elections, the Republicans won a net of one seat.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1984. 1984. U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk. 10 April 2017.
  2. Web site: Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1984 (Revision). U.S. House of Reps, Office of the Clerk. 1 March 2021.
  3. Web site: 1984 Presidential Election. The American Presidency Project. 13 August 2011.