Elections in the United States,
1984
The Event American politicians run for office
Date November 6, 1984
Buoyed by a well-liked and superlatively charismatic in-
cumbent president and by a generally upbeat economic cli-
mate in the nation, the Republican Party won its most one-
sided presidential election victor y of the twentieth centur y,
easily reelecting Ronald Reagan over former vice president
Walter Mondale. President Reagan’s coattails, however,
did not invariably extend to GOP congressional candi-
dates: The margin of the Republicans’ Senate majority was
reduced by two, and the Democrats retained their dominant
position in the House of Representatives, although their
majority was reduced by sixteen.
Walter Mondale had received his political “baptism
of fire” in 1948, as a twenty-year-old operative for
Minnesotan Hubert Humphrey’s successful senato-
rial campaign. He then went on to become a protégé
of Humphrey, and both men embraced the liberal
ideology of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which
was particularly popular in traditional Minnesota
politics. By 1984, Mondale saw himself as the inheri-
tor of Humphrey’s political mantle, and he had an
impressive resume to back up that claim: He had
served as Minnesota’s attorney general from 1960 to
1964 and in the U.S. Senate—taking Humphrey’s
old seat—from 1964 to 1976. As vice president in the
Jimmy Carter administration from 1977 to 1981, he
had seen his party go down in flames during the
1980 election to the Republican ticket of Ronald
Reagan and George H. W. Bush. This emphatic elec-
tion rebuke and the success of the early Reagan years
made Mondale all the more bent on securing the
vindication of his political principles by avenging
the Democratic Party’s 1980 debacle.
A Republican “Coronation” There seemed very lit-
tle doubt that, as a supremely popular incumbent,
President Reagan could have his party’s nomination
for the asking. In 1983, however, it was not clear that
he would choose to do so. Already the oldest serving
president at age seventy-three and having barely sur-
vived John Hinckley’s 1981 assassination attempt,
Reagan was under pressure from some family mem-
bers to step down while he could still do so with dig-
nity. His age was a potential campaign issue as well.
Reagan believed, however, that the Reagan Revolu-
tion was not yet complete, and he had lingering res-
ervations about Vice President Bush, who had been
his rival for the 1980 Republican nomination and
who was significantly more moderate than was Rea-
gan. As a result, the president decided to seek a sec-
ond term. There was no serious challenge to his de-
cision at the 1984 Republican National Convention
in Dallas, Texas, on August 20-23, which more closely
resembled a pageant than a convention. Reagan
was unanimously renominated, and, although some
slight amount of opposition was expressed to Bush,
the vice president was renominated as well, with sup-
port from all but four of the delegates.Mondale’s Challenge Without an incumbent to
seek their nomination, the selection process for the
Democrats was much more complicated. Although
Mondale was considered the front-runner, he had to
compete with several other candidates for the nomi-
nation, including John Glenn, the former astronaut
and senator from Ohio; former South Dakota sena-
tor and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate
George McGovern; civil rights leader Jesse Jackson;
Senator Gary Hart of Colorado; Senator Fritz Hol-
lings of South Carolina; Senator Alan Cranston of
California; and former Florida governor Rueben As-
kew. None except Jackson or perhaps Glenn seemed
likely to enter the race already commanding a sub-
stantial base of voters.
In the Iowa caucuses, all went predictably: Mon-
dale garnered 45 percent of the vote and emerged
the clear winner. In the New Hampshire primary,
however, Mondale was stunned by Gary Hart, who
came out of nowhere to defeat him by 10 percentage
points. Glenn trailed at a distant third, and Jackson
was a more distant fourth. The rest of the field
achieved negligible results and was soon out of the
picture. Glenn, who had been tabbed by some poll-
sters as Mondale’s strongest rival, faltered and effec-
tively withdrew after “Super Tuesday,” a day when
several important primary elections were held si-
multaneously. A rather subdued speaker, Glenn ex-
perienced persistent difficulties in communicating
his message to the voters and was thus unable to mo-
tivate a substantial swing in his favor.
Jackson waged a hard-hitting campaign; his reviv-
alist style secured 485 delegates from the South.
However, his surge was hampered when anti-Semitic
remarks he had made in private were reported in
the press. Jackson referred to Jews as “Hymies” and326 Elections in the United States, 1984 The Eighties in America