1984 United States presidential election in Arizona

Main article: 1984 United States presidential election

1984 United States presidential election in Arizona

←  1980 November 6, 1984 1988  →

Nominee Ronald Reagan Walter Mondale Party Republican Democratic Home state California Minnesota Running mate George H. W. Bush Geraldine Ferraro Electoral vote 7 0 Popular vote 681,416 333,854 Percentage 66.42% 32.54%

County Results Congressional District Results Reagan   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Mondale   50–60%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

The 1984 United States presidential election in Arizona took place on November 6, 1984. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. State voters chose seven electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President of the United States. Arizona 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.

The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for Arizona, with just under 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only four parties appearing on the ballot. ^[1] Nearly every county in Arizona voted with majorities for Reagan, a particularly strong turnout even in this typically conservative-leaning state. Reagan's win in the Grand Canyon state was largely the result of a lopsided 45% victory margin in Maricopa County, the state's most populated county and home to Phoenix. Mondale did best in predominantly Native American Apache County, which was typical of his gains vis-à-vis Jimmy Carter in Native American counties throughout the nation; Reagan thus became the first-ever Republican to win the White House without carrying this county. ^[2] Mondale also won heavily unionized copper-mining Greenlee County; albeit his performance there was the worst by a Democrat since statehood.

Arizona weighed in for this election as sixteen points more Republican than the national average. Reagan won the election in Arizona with a decisive 34-point landslide. The wide margins found in Arizona, though generally conservative in its voting, are reflective of a nationwide reconsolidation of base for the Republican Party which took place through the 1980s; called by Reagan the "second American Revolution". ^[3] 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." ^[4] 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 Arizona, and across the nation at large. Many registered Democrats who voted for Reagan (Reagan Democrats) 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." ^[5] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory, in Arizona and elsewhere.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in Arizona
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan (incumbent)	681,416	66.42%	7
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	333,854	32.54%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	10,585	1.03%	0
	Write-Ins		24	>0.01%	0
	Citizen's Party	Sonia Johnson	18	>0.01%	0
Totals			1,025,897	100.0%	7

County flips from 1980:

Democratic   Hold   Gain from Republican

Republican   Hold

Results by county

County	Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican		Walter Frederick Mondale Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Apache	5,638	43.26%	7,277	55.84%	117	0.90%	-1,639	-12.58%	13,032
Cochise	16,405	62.25%	9,671	36.70%	279	1.06%	6,734	25.55%	26,355
Coconino	17,581	59.13%	11,528	38.77%	626	2.11%	6,053	20.36%	29,735
Gila	8,543	56.02%	6,509	42.68%	197	1.29%	2,034	13.34%	15,249
Graham	5,247	62.35%	3,080	36.60%	89	1.06%	2,167	25.75%	8,416
Greenlee	1,801	47.58%	1,963	51.86%	21	0.55%	-162	-4.28%	3,785
La Paz	2,757	63.92%	1,502	34.82%	54	1.25%	1,255	29.10%	4,313
Maricopa	411,902	71.98%	154,833	27.06%	5,538	0.97%	257,069	44.92%	572,273
Mohave	17,364	69.26%	7,436	29.66%	272	1.08%	9,928	39.60%	25,072
Navajo	11,379	58.12%	8,017	40.95%	182	0.93%	3,362	17.17%	19,578
Pima	123,830	56.90%	91,585	42.09%	2,197	1.01%	32,245	14.82%	217,612
Pinal	16,464	57.53%	11,923	41.66%	232	0.81%	4,541	15.87%	28,619
Santa Cruz	3,855	60.34%	2,463	38.55%	71	1.11%	1,392	21.79%	6,389
Yavapai	24,802	70.89%	9,609	27.46%	577	1.65%	15,193	43.42%	34,988
Yuma	13,848	67.61%	6,458	31.53%	175	0.85%	7,390	36.08%	20,481
Totals	681,416	66.42%	333,854	32.54%	10,627	1.04%	347,562	33.88%	1,025,897

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Apache

See also

• Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

1. "1984 Presidential General Election Results – Arizona". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
2. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
3. 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 . Retrieved November 11, 2013.
4. Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984, AllPolitics
5. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN   0-87840-724-3.