foreign and domestic policies, traveling across the
United States and the globe in this role. Carter and
Mondale won the 1980 Democratic presidential and
vice presidential nomination, albeit with more diffi-
culty than was usual for incumbents. They were de-
feated by Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush
in a three-way race, in which independent presiden-
tial candidate and former Republican congressman
John Anderson may have siphoned off enough votes
from the Carter-Mondale ticket to give the election
to the Republicans.
Presidential Nominee Mondale practiced law for
the next few years and positioned himself for a presi-
dential run in 1984. The early front-runner for the
Democratic nomination, he gained a majority of the
delegates before the Democratic National Conven-
tion, defeating both the Reverend Jesse Jackson and
Senator Gary Hart of Colorado convincingly after a
spirited campaign. The highlight of the convention
was Mondale’s selection of a New York congress-
woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate.
Mondale seemed determined to set a precedent
with his choice, and he succeeded, since Ferraro was
the first woman to receive a major party vice presi-
dential nomination. Presumably, this decision should
have increased the percentage of women who voted
for the ticket. Unfortunately, Ferraro’s liabilities out-
weighed the benefits. Although the ticket gained the
support of many women, it did not receive a majority
of the 1984 women’s vote. As a Roman Catholic,
Ferraro was attacked by the Church for her pro-
choice stance. She also damaged her credibility when
she waffled on a promise to release her husband’s
tax returns.
Mondale took liberal positions in the campaign,
endorsing a nuclear weapons freeze and passage of
the Equal Rights Amendment. Attempting to gain
strength from candor, Mondale said he would raise
taxes and asserted that incumbent President Ronald
Reagan would be forced to do likewise. Such a lib-
eral stance provided no way to divert strength from a
popular incumbent who appeared strong on na-
tional defense and responsible for economic pros-
perity. Mondale was a skilled debater and managed
to do very well in the first debate, planting doubts
about Reagan’s ability to govern, since Reagan was
the oldest person ever to serve as president. Reagan
regained momentum in the following debate with
his memorable line, “I will not make age an issue of
this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political
purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”
In the election, Mondale was defeated in a land-
slide, winning less than of 41 percent of the popular
vote and carrying only the District of Columbia
(which has always voted Democratic) and his home
state of Minnesota (by a few thousand votes), there-
by garnering only 13 electoral votes to Reagan’s 525.
The Democrats sustained the worst electoral result
in their history. No other major-party candidate had
done worse since Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt
defeated Alf Landon in 1936.
Impact Mondale’s lasting legacy was the result of
his choosing a female running mate. Subsequently,
there was an upsurge in women candidates and
elected officials in the United States and a generalThe Eighties in America Mondale, Walter 663
Presidential candidate Walter Mondale, left, and running mate
Geraldine Ferraro wave to their welcoming party as they arrive in
South Lake Tahoe, California, in mid-July, 1984.(AP/Wide
World Photos)