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.
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, though several other parties appeared on the ballot. Every county in Utah voted in majority for the Republican candidate, a particularly strong turn out even in this typically conservative leaning state. Reagan did the best in Box Elder County, and Mondale did the best in Carbon County, but still failed to gain majority there. 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. 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.
Democratic platform
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 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, which was reaching its peak on both sides in the early 1980s.Taking a 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.
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," speaking to the role of women in politics.
Republican platform
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 economic stability.The economic success seen under Reagan was politically accomplished in two ways. The first was initiation of deep tax cuts for the wealthy, and the second was a wide-spectrum of tax cuts for crude oil production and refinement, namely, with the 1980 Windfall profits tax cuts. These policies were augmented with a call for heightened military spending, the cutting of social welfare programs for the poor, and the increasing of taxes on those making less than $50,000 per year. 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 been criticized by many analysts as "setting the stage" for economic troubles in the United State after 2007, such as the Great Recession.
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. Furthermore, taking a stance on the social issues of the day, Reagan strongly opposed legislation regarding comprehension of gay marriage, abortion, and environmentalism, regarding the final as simply being bad for business.
Republican victory
Reagan won the election in Utah with a resounding 50 point sweep-out landslide, his strongest victory in the nation. Utah continued its typical trend during this election cycle of having the largest percentage voting Republican in the nation, a trend that started in 1976 and continued continuously until 2004. While Utah typically votes conservative, the very decisive election results in Utah are also reflective of a nationwide reconsolidation of base for the Republican Party which took place through the 1980s; called by Reagan the "second American Revolution." This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. No Republican candidate has received as strong of support in the American West at large, as Reagan did.It is speculated that Mondale lost support with voters nearly immediately during the campaign, namely during his acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. There he stated that he intended to increase taxes. To quote Mondale, "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did." Despite this claimed attempt at establishing truthfulness with the electorate, this claim to raise taxes badly eroded his chances in what had already begun as an uphill battle against the charismatic Ronald Reagan.
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 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." 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.