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1984 United States presidential election in Utah

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1984 United States presidential election in Utah

← 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 5 0
Popular vote 469,105 155,369
Percentage 74.50% 24.68%

County Results
Reagan
  40–50%
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%
  80–90%


President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

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.

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,[1] though several other parties appeared on the ballot. Reagan posted the highest vote share of any nominee in the state since William Jennings Bryan in 1896, and carried every county in the state. Reagan's best county was Box Elder County, although he broke 80% in 15 counties. Mondale's best county was Carbon County, the only one in which he managed to hold Reagan to a plurality, rather than a majority, win. 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.[2] 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.

Reagan won a resounding 50-point landslide victory in Utah, his strongest victory in the nation both by vote share and by margin. For the third election in a row, Utah gave the Republican nominee his highest vote share in the nation, a trend that began in 1976[3] and would continue unbroken through 1988, and intermittently through 2012. Reagan's strength in Utah was part of a broader phenomenon of the growing importance of the Mountain West as a Republican base; this region had been a swing region for the sixty years following James Weaver's Populist run in 1892, solidly backing William Jennings Bryan in his narrow 1896 defeat as well as Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman in their narrow 1916 and 1948 wins, respectively. The Mountain West began trending Republican in close elections in 1960, however, when Nixon carried all but two states in the region (New Mexico and Nevada). Jimmy Carter's presidency accelerated the trend, with his administration's policies on water and energy being widely perceived as a 'war on the West.'[4] In 1980, Carter underperformed even his low national percentage throughout the West.[5] Reagan's popularity in the West increased in 1984;[6] no Republican nominee has received such strong support in the Mountain West as Reagan did.

Enid Greene Mickelsen and Jon Huntsman Jr. were co-directors of Reagan's campaign in the state.[7]

David D. Flowers, at age 18, was the youngest presidential elector in history according to the Congressional Research Service. Fowers threatened to vote for Lyndon LaRouche as a faithless elector to protest the electoral college, but chose not to. The other electors were Charles W. Akerlow, Douglas Bischoff, Cathy Arentz, and William A. Stevenson.[8][9]

Results

[edit]
1984 United States presidential election in Utah
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan (incumbent) 469,105 74.50% 5
Democratic Walter Mondale 155,369 24.68% 0
Libertarian David Bergland 2,447 0.39% 0
American Party Delmar Dennis 1,345 0.21% 0
Citizen's Party Sonia Johnson 844 0.13% 0
New Alliance Party Dennis Serrette 220 0.03% 0
Communist Party Gus Hall 184 0.03% 0
Socialist Workers Party Melvin Mason 142 0.02% 0
Totals 629,656 100.0% 5

Results by county

[edit]
County Ronald Reagan
Republican
Walter Mondale
Democratic
David Bergland[10]
Libertarian
Delmar Dennis[10]
American
Various candidates[10]
Other parties
Margin Total
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Beaver 1,516 67.95% 708 31.73% 2 0.09% 3 0.13% 2 0.09% 808 36.22% 2,231
Box Elder 13,243 86.65% 1,983 12.98% 24 0.16% 20 0.13% 13 0.09% 11,260 73.67% 15,283
Cache 22,127 83.68% 4,123 15.59% 83 0.31% 48 0.18% 61 0.23% 18,004 68.09% 26,442
Carbon 4,393 49.82% 4,357 49.41% 24 0.27% 22 0.25% 22 0.25% 36 0.41% 8,818
Daggett 296 56.38% 227 43.24% 1 0.19% 1 0.19% 0 0.00% 69 13.14% 525
Davis 49,863 80.29% 11,727 18.88% 223 0.36% 193 0.31% 96 0.15% 38,136 61.41% 62,102
Duchesne 4,437 85.16% 746 14.32% 9 0.17% 14 0.27% 4 0.08% 3,691 70.84% 5,210
Emery 3,081 69.41% 1,326 29.87% 6 0.14% 17 0.38% 9 0.20% 1,755 39.54% 4,439
Garfield 1,609 83.15% 315 16.28% 1 0.05% 1 0.05% 9 0.47% 1,294 66.87% 1,935
Grand 2,463 73.15% 876 26.02% 10 0.30% 8 0.24% 10 0.30% 1,587 47.13% 3367
Iron 6,856 83.09% 1,342 16.26% 16 0.19% 24 0.29% 13 0.16% 5,514 66.83% 8,251
Juab 1,902 67.23% 917 32.41% 2 0.07% 4 0.14% 4 0.14% 985 34.82% 2,829
Kane 1,710 85.12% 294 14.63% 2 0.10% 2 0.10% 1 0.05% 1,416 70.49% 2,009
Millard 4,345 78.11% 1,192 21.43% 13 0.23% 11 0.20% 2 0.04% 3,153 56.68% 5,563
Morgan 1,934 79.59% 481 19.79% 9 0.37% 3 0.12% 3 0.12% 1,453 59.80% 2,430
Piute 606 80.05% 151 19.95% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 455 60.10% 757
Rich 797 85.61% 131 14.07% 3 0.32% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 666 71.54% 931
Salt Lake 183,536 69.28% 78,488 29.63% 1,531 0.58% 495 0.19% 876 0.33% 105,048 39.65% 264,926
San Juan 2,598 69.13% 1,145 30.47% 8 0.21% 3 0.08% 4 0.11% 1,453 38.66% 3,758
Sanpete 5,507 81.26% 1,227 18.11% 15 0.22% 22 0.32% 6 0.09% 4,280 63.15% 6,777
Sevier 5,736 83.49% 1,072 15.60% 8 0.12% 49 0.71% 5 0.07% 4,664 67.89% 6,870
Summit 4,093 71.79% 1,539 27.00% 34 0.60% 16 0.28% 19 0.33% 2,554 44.79% 5,701
Tooele 6,478 63.95% 3,584 35.38% 21 0.21% 29 0.29% 18 0.18% 2,894 28.57% 10,130
Uintah 7,337 85.57% 1,186 13.83% 21 0.24% 19 0.22% 11 0.13% 6,151 71.74% 8,574
Utah 72,284 82.61% 14,801 16.91% 176 0.20% 163 0.19% 80 0.09% 57,483 65.70% 87,504
Wasatch 2,789 72.93% 1,015 26.54% 5 0.13% 12 0.31% 3 0.08% 1,774 46.39% 3,824
Washington 12,049 86.21% 1,846 13.21% 23 0.16% 46 0.33% 13 0.09% 10,203 73.00% 13,977
Wayne 930 80.24% 224 19.33% 1 0.09% 2 0.17% 2 0.17% 706 60.91% 1,159
Weber 44,590 70.40% 18,346 28.97% 176 0.28% 119 0.19% 103 0.16% 26,244 41.43% 63,334
Totals 469,105 74.50% 155,369 24.68% 2,447 0.39% 1,345 0.21% 1,390 0.22% 313,736 49.82% 629,656

Analysis

[edit]

At 74.50%, Reagan won Utah with the highest percentage of the vote in any state from the presidential elections since 1984, although fellow Republican Mitt Romney did come close to surpassing that margin when he won this state with 72.62% in 2012. Despite his high margin, at a victory margin of 49.82%, he won the state by a slightly reduced margin than in 1980, when he won Utah by 52.2%. Mondale improved on Jimmy Carter's 1980 margins by over 10% in Daggett County and San Juan County, as well as improving slightly in Morgan County. Reagan improved in Iron County, Garfield County, Piute County, Wayne County, Duchesne County, Weber County, and Summit County.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  2. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 109 ISBN 0786422173
  3. ^ Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 104, 110, 112, 115, 119, 124, 130
  4. ^ Cannon, Lou (January 9, 1978). "Vice President Embarks on Mission to Mend Western Fences". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  5. ^ "CQ Almanac Online Edition". library.cqpress.com. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  6. ^ Ed Quillen (October 13, 1997). "The Mountain West: A Republican Fabrication". www.hcn.org. Retrieved December 31, 2020.
  7. ^ "Students work in trenches of Utah's political arena". The Daily Utah Chronicle. January 27, 1984. p. 1. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Utah Elector Ends Protest Of System". The Herald-Sun. December 16, 1984. p. 6B. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Utah's electors make it official". The Spectrum. December 18, 1984. p. 4. Archived from the original on June 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ a b c UT US Presidential Election November 06, 1984