1984 United States presidential election in Maine
The 1984 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 6, 1984. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.
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County Results
Reagan 50–60%
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Elections in Maine | ||||||
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Maine 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 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, very partisan election for Maine, with just under 100% of the electorate voting only either Democratic or Republican, and only four parties appearing on the ballot.[1] Every county in Maine voted in majority for Reagan, a particularly strong turn out in what had been a Republican-leaning state ever since that party formed apart from the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson and the Humphrey/Muskie ticket carried the state. Reagan became the first Republican to win industrialized, Catholic French-Canadian Androscoggin County since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.[2]
Maine weighed in for this election as 2% more Republican than the national average.
Republican victory
Reagan won the election in Maine by 22%. While Maine typically voted more conservative, at the time, than its New England neighbors, the election results in Maine 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."[3] This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. No Republican candidate has since received as strong of support in the Atlantic Northeast, at large, as Reagan did.
Reagan also enjoyed high levels of bipartisan support during the 1984 presidential election in Maine. 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 the Soviet Union, and because they considered the Democrats as "supporting American poor and minorities at the expense of the middle class."[4] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory in Maine.
Results
1984 United States presidential election in Maine | |||||
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Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
Republican | Ronald Reagan | 336,500 | 60.83% | 4 | |
Democratic | Walter Mondale | 214,515 | 38.78% | 0 | |
Communist Party | Gus Hall | 1,292 | 0.23% | 0 | |
New Alliance Party | Dennis Serrette | 755 | 0.14% | 0 | |
Write-Ins | 82 | 0.01% | 0 | ||
Totals | 553,144 | 100.0% | 4 |
Results by county
Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican |
Walter Fritz Mondale Democratic |
Various candidates Other parties |
Margin | Total votes cast | |||||
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County | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # |
Androscoggin | 26,904 | 57.24% | 19,885 | 42.31% | 211 | 0.45% | 7,019 | 14.93% | 47,000 |
Aroostook | 21,837 | 63.59% | 12,348 | 35.96% | 153 | 0.45% | 9,489 | 27.63% | 34,338 |
Cumberland | 65,842 | 56.75% | 49,894 | 43.00% | 290 | 0.25% | 15,948 | 13.75% | 116,026 |
Franklin | 8,330 | 62.40% | 4,954 | 37.11% | 65 | 0.49% | 3,376 | 25.29% | 13,349 |
Hancock | 14,660 | 65.12% | 7,764 | 34.49% | 87 | 0.39% | 6,896 | 30.63% | 22,511 |
Kennebec | 31,753 | 59.70% | 21,183 | 39.82% | 255 | 0.48% | 10,570 | 19.87% | 53,191 |
Knox | 11,311 | 65.00% | 6,024 | 34.62% | 66 | 0.38% | 5,287 | 30.38% | 17,401 |
Lincoln | 10,312 | 67.68% | 4,869 | 31.96% | 55 | 0.36% | 5,443 | 35.72% | 15,236 |
Oxford | 15,408 | 64.34% | 8,430 | 35.20% | 110 | 0.46% | 6,978 | 29.14% | 23,948 |
Penobscot | 40,403 | 62.11% | 24,445 | 37.58% | 206 | 0.32% | 15,958 | 24.53% | 65,054 |
Piscataquis | 5,427 | 63.98% | 3,016 | 35.56% | 39 | 0.46% | 2,411 | 28.42% | 8,482 |
Sagadahoc | 9,222 | 63.51% | 5,208 | 35.87% | 90 | 0.62% | 4,014 | 27.64% | 14,520 |
Somerset | 13,010 | 62.64% | 7,657 | 36.86% | 104 | 0.50% | 5,353 | 25.77% | 20,771 |
Waldo | 8,814 | 62.22% | 5,289 | 37.34% | 63 | 0.44% | 3,525 | 24.88% | 14,166 |
Washington | 9,713 | 64.41% | 5,308 | 35.20% | 60 | 0.40% | 4,405 | 29.21% | 15,081 |
York | 43,554 | 60.43% | 28,241 | 39.19% | 275 | 0.38% | 15,313 | 21.25% | 72,070 |
Totals | 336,500 | 60.83% | 214,515 | 38.78% | 2,129 | 0.38% | 121,985 | 22.05% | 553,144 |
See also
References
- "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
- Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 218-219 ISBN 0786422173
- 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.
- Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.