1984 United States presidential election in Ohio

The 1984 United States presidential election in Ohio 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 23 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

Main article: 1984 United States presidential election

1984 United States presidential election in Ohio

November 6, 1984

Nominee Ronald Reagan Walter Mondale Party Republican Democratic Home state California Minnesota Running mate George H.W. Bush Geraldine Ferraro Electoral vote 23 0 Popular vote 2,678,560 1,825,440 Percentage 58.90% 40.14%

County Results Reagan   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Mondale   50-60%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

Ohio 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 Ohio, with over 99% of the electorate voting only either Democratic or Republican, though several more parties did appear on the ballot.[1] Most counties in Ohio voted in majority for Reagan, a particularly strong turn out even in a state with a strong streak of Appalachian social conservatism. As was typical for the time, two exceptions to this trend were Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, and residents of several counties on the Eastern border with Pennsylvania, who voted largely for Mondale.

Ohio weighed in for this election as 0.12% more Republican than the national average. As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last election in which Lorain County, Lucas County, Athens County, and Summit County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[2] and the last until 2016 that Ashtabula County voted for a Republican candidate.

Democratic platform

Walter Mondale 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[3] Democratic primary. During the 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,[4] which was reaching its peak on both sides in the early 1980s.

Taking a (what was becoming the traditional liberal) 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 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.[5]

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,"[6] speaking to the role of women in politics.

Republican platform

On the campaign trail, Reagan waves to supports during his whistle-stop tour of Ohio. October, 1984.

President Ronald Reagan shaking hands with unidentified members of the crowd while at Bowling Green University in Ohio on September 26, 1984.

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 1970s, and into a period of (relative) economic stability.[7]

The economic success seen under Reagan was politically accomplished (principally) in two ways. The first was initiation of deep tax cuts for the wealthy,[8] and the second was a wide-spectrum of tax cuts for crude oil production and refinement, namely, with the 1980 Windfall profits tax cuts.[9] These policies were augmented with a call for heightened military spending,[10] the cutting of social welfare programs for the poor,[11] and the increasing of taxes on those making less than per year.[8] Collectively called "Reaganomics", these economic policies were established through several pieces of legislation passed between 1980 and 1987.

Reaganomics has (along with legislation passed under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) been criticized by many analysts as "setting the stage" for economic troubles in the United State after 2007, such as the Great Recession.[12]

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.[13] Furthermore, taking a (what was becoming the traditional conservative) stance on the social issues of the day, Reagan strongly opposed legislation regarding comprehension of abortion, and (to a lesser extent) environmentalism,[14] regarding the latter as simply being bad for business.

Republican victory

Reagan won the election in Ohio with a decisive 18 point landslide. While Ohio typically leaned conservative at the time, the election results in Ohio 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."[7] This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. The election of 1984 is also one of the final elections where Ohio has reliably turned out for the Republican presidential candidate, and marks the end of a political era for the State, which has since transformed more into the swing state that we know it as today. No Republican candidate has received as strong of support in the American Great Lakes States, at large, since Reagan.

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."[5] Despite this claimed attempt at establishing truthfulness with the electorate, this promise 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 Ohio, 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."[14] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory, in Ohio and elsewhere.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in Ohio
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	2,678,560	58.90%	23
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	1,825,440	40.14%	0
	Not Designated	Dennis Serrette	12,090	0.27%	0
	Not Designated	Lyndon LaRouche	10,693	0.24%	0
	Not Designated	David Bergland	5,886	0.13%	0
	Not Designated	Gus Hall	4,438	0.10%	0
	Not Designated	Melvin Mason	4,344	0.10%	0
	Not Designated	Edward Winn	3,565	0.08%	0
	Not Designated	Larry Holmes	2,565	0.06%	0
	Other write-ins		34	>0.01%	0
	Prohibition	Earl Dodge(write-in)	4	>0.01%	0
Totals			4,547,619	100.0%	23

Results by county

County	Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican		Walter Frederick Mondale Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	6,113	62.83%	3,534	36.32%	82	0.84%	2,579	26.51%	9,729
Allen	33,506	72.98%	12,176	26.52%	229	0.50%	21,330	46.46%	45,911
Ashland	14,339	74.40%	4,786	24.83%	147	0.76%	9,553	49.57%	19,272
Ashtabula	21,669	52.34%	19,344	46.73%	384	0.93%	2,325	5.62%	41,397
Athens	11,548	52.59%	10,201	46.46%	209	0.95%	1,347	6.13%	21,958
Auglaize	14,766	77.72%	4,102	21.59%	132	0.69%	10,664	56.13%	19,000
Belmont	15,170	43.52%	19,458	55.82%	228	0.65%	-4,288	-12.30%	34,856
Brown	8,221	66.28%	4,067	32.79%	116	0.94%	4,154	33.49%	12,404
Butler	76,216	72.92%	27,700	26.50%	598	0.57%	48,516	46.42%	104,514
Carroll	6,703	63.33%	3,771	35.63%	110	1.04%	2,932	27.70%	10,584
Champaign	9,935	73.05%	3,544	26.06%	121	0.89%	6,391	46.99%	13,600
Clark	35,831	62.05%	21,154	36.63%	759	1.31%	14,677	25.42%	57,744
Clermont	35,316	74.63%	11,713	24.75%	290	0.61%	23,603	49.88%	47,319
Clinton	9,603	73.77%	3,332	25.60%	83	0.64%	6,271	48.17%	13,018
Columbiana	24,552	54.43%	20,155	44.68%	403	0.89%	4,397	9.75%	45,110
Coshocton	9,842	68.71%	4,392	30.66%	89	0.62%	5,450	38.05%	14,323
Crawford	14,682	74.08%	4,932	24.88%	206	1.04%	9,750	49.19%	19,820
Cuyahoga	284,094	43.60%	362,626	55.65%	4,913	0.75%	-78,532	-12.05%	651,633
Darke	16,379	72.81%	5,904	26.25%	211	0.94%	10,475	46.57%	22,494
Defiance	10,951	67.89%	5,004	31.02%	175	1.08%	5,947	36.87%	16,130
Delaware	19,050	76.23%	5,773	23.10%	166	0.66%	13,277	53.13%	24,989
Erie	19,174	57.83%	13,508	40.74%	472	1.42%	5,666	17.09%	33,154
Fairfield	30,843	75.17%	9,817	23.92%	373	0.91%	21,026	51.24%	41,033
Fayette	6,838	75.80%	2,126	23.57%	57	0.63%	4,712	52.23%	9,021
Franklin	250,360	64.12%	131,530	33.68%	8,584	2.20%	118,830	30.43%	390,474
Fulton	11,412	72.55%	4,217	26.81%	101	0.64%	7,195	45.74%	15,730
Gallia	8,194	65.27%	4,251	33.86%	109	0.87%	3,943	31.41%	12,554
Geauga	22,369	68.29%	9,954	30.39%	431	1.32%	12,415	37.90%	32,754
Greene	34,267	66.27%	17,129	33.12%	316	0.61%	17,138	33.14%	51,712
Guernsey	10,252	66.81%	4,967	32.37%	125	0.81%	5,285	34.44%	15,344
Hamilton	246,288	63.34%	140,350	36.10%	2,177	0.56%	105,938	27.25%	388,815
Hancock	22,169	78.34%	5,758	20.35%	370	1.31%	16,411	58.00%	28,297
Hardin	8,722	69.11%	3,813	30.21%	85	0.67%	4,909	38.90%	12,620
Harrison	4,276	55.45%	3,370	43.70%	66	0.86%	906	11.75%	7,712
Henry	9,317	76.54%	2,779	22.83%	77	0.63%	6,538	53.71%	12,173
Highland	9,000	69.90%	3,784	29.39%	91	0.71%	5,216	40.51%	12,875
Hocking	6,071	64.16%	3,280	34.66%	112	1.18%	2,791	29.49%	9,463
Holmes	5,146	74.11%	1,737	25.01%	61	0.88%	3,409	49.09%	6,944
Huron	14,388	67.96%	6,609	31.22%	174	0.82%	7,779	36.74%	21,171
Jackson	7,411	62.24%	4,369	36.69%	128	1.07%	3,042	25.55%	11,908
Jefferson	17,105	42.47%	22,832	56.69%	340	0.84%	-5,727	-14.22%	40,277
Knox	14,062	70.66%	5,730	28.79%	109	0.55%	8,332	41.87%	19,901
Lake	54,587	59.12%	36,711	39.76%	1,027	1.11%	17,876	19.36%	92,325
Lawrence	14,793	55.96%	11,431	43.24%	213	0.81%	3,362	12.72%	26,437
Licking	37,560	72.26%	13,995	26.93%	421	0.81%	23,565	45.34%	51,976
Logan	12,230	76.54%	3,645	22.81%	104	0.65%	8,585	53.73%	15,979
Lorain	57,379	50.77%	52,970	46.87%	2,672	2.36%	4,409	3.90%	113,021
Lucas	100,285	50.25%	97,293	48.76%	1,976	0.99%	2,992	1.50%	199,554
Madison	8,979	74.91%	2,928	24.43%	80	0.67%	6,051	50.48%	11,987
Mahoning	53,424	40.65%	76,514	58.21%	1,500	1.14%	-23,090	-17.57%	131,438
Marion	17,392	65.77%	8,827	33.38%	224	0.85%	8,565	32.39%	26,443
Medina	30,690	65.38%	15,897	33.86%	357	0.76%	14,793	31.51%	46,944
Meigs	6,307	63.52%	3,549	35.74%	73	0.74%	2,758	27.78%	9,929
Mercer	11,542	71.49%	4,422	27.39%	180	1.11%	7,120	44.10%	16,144
Miami	26,300	72.42%	9,695	26.70%	320	0.88%	16,605	45.72%	36,315
Monroe	3,302	47.32%	3,611	51.75%	65	0.93%	-309	-4.43%	6,978
Montgomery	137,053	58.97%	94,016	40.45%	1,333	0.57%	43,037	18.52%	232,402
Morgan	3,994	67.66%	1,868	31.64%	41	0.69%	2,126	36.02%	5,903
Morrow	8,116	73.50%	2,839	25.71%	87	0.79%	5,277	47.79%	11,042
Muskingum	21,821	67.98%	10,037	31.27%	243	0.76%	11,784	36.71%	32,101
Noble	3,853	67.70%	1,777	31.22%	61	1.07%	2,076	36.48%	5,691
Ottawa	10,920	60.41%	7,053	39.02%	102	0.56%	3,867	21.39%	18,075
Paulding	5,545	65.71%	2,811	33.31%	83	0.98%	2,734	32.40%	8,439
Perry	7,548	65.09%	3,961	34.16%	88	0.76%	3,587	30.93%	11,597
Pickaway	11,942	73.90%	4,110	25.43%	108	0.67%	7,832	48.47%	16,160
Pike	6,318	55.90%	4,895	43.31%	89	0.79%	1,423	12.59%	11,302
Portage	29,536	57.14%	21,719	42.02%	432	0.84%	7,817	15.12%	51,687
Preble	11,065	71.84%	4,198	27.25%	140	0.91%	6,867	44.58%	15,403
Putnam	11,936	78.26%	3,194	20.94%	121	0.79%	8,742	57.32%	15,251
Richland	35,299	68.10%	16,141	31.14%	396	0.76%	19,158	36.96%	51,836
Ross	17,015	66.60%	8,020	31.39%	513	2.01%	8,995	35.21%	25,548
Sandusky	17,214	66.16%	8,564	32.91%	242	0.93%	8,650	33.24%	26,020
Scioto	18,818	56.65%	14,120	42.51%	281	0.85%	4,698	14.14%	33,219
Seneca	16,520	67.04%	7,905	32.08%	217	0.88%	8,615	34.96%	24,642
Shelby	13,509	75.12%	4,315	23.99%	159	0.88%	9,194	51.13%	17,983
Stark	98,434	59.69%	65,157	39.51%	1,325	0.80%	33,277	20.18%	164,916
Summit	115,637	50.99%	109,569	48.32%	1,574	0.69%	6,068	2.68%	226,780
Trumbull	45,623	44.18%	56,902	55.11%	734	0.71%	-11,279	-10.92%	103,259
Tuscarawas	19,366	59.13%	13,149	40.14%	239	0.73%	6,217	18.98%	32,754
Union	9,336	77.79%	2,579	21.49%	86	0.72%	6,757	56.30%	12,001
Van Wert	9,570	73.68%	3,338	25.70%	80	0.62%	6,232	47.98%	12,988
Vinton	3,041	59.80%	1,990	39.13%	54	1.06%	1,051	20.67%	5,085
Warren	29,848	76.40%	9,031	23.11%	191	0.49%	20,817	53.28%	39,070
Washington	16,529	66.13%	7,920	31.69%	544	2.18%	8,609	34.45%	24,993
Wayne	24,475	67.79%	11,323	31.36%	305	0.84%	13,152	36.43%	36,103
Williams	10,804	74.11%	3,624	24.86%	150	1.03%	7,180	49.25%	14,578
Wood	29,750	64.74%	15,907	34.62%	297	0.65%	13,843	30.12%	45,954
Wyandot	7,204	74.81%	2,342	24.32%	84	0.87%	4,862	50.49%	9,630
Totals	2,678,559	58.90%	1,825,440	40.14%	43,620	0.96%	853,119	18.76%	4,547,619

See also

• Iran–Contra affair
• Nicaragua guerrilla war
• Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

1. "1984 Presidential General Election Results – Ohio". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
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. Kurt Andersen, "A Wild Ride to the End", Time, May 28, 1984
4. Trying to Win the Peace, by Even Thomas, Time, July 2, 1984
5. Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984, AllPolitics
6. Martin, Douglas (2011-03-27). "Geraldine A. Ferraro, First Woman on Major Party Ticket, Dies at 75". The New York Times. pp. A1. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
7. 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.
8. "U.S. Federal Individual Income Tax Rates History, 1913–2011 (Nominal and Inflation-Adjusted Brackets)". Tax Foundation. September 9, 2011. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2013.
9. Joseph J. Thorndike (Nov 10, 2005). "Historical Perspective: The Windfall Profit Tax". Retrieved November 11, 2013.
10. Historical tables, Budget of the United States Government Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, 2013, table 6.1.
11. Niskanen, William A. (1992). "Reaganomics". In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (1st ed.). Library of Economics and Liberty. OCLC 317650570, 50016270, 163149563
12. Jerry Lanson (2008-11-06). "A historic victory. A changed nation. Now, can Obama deliver?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2013-11-02.
13. Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow. New York: The New Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1595581037.
14. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.