1984 United States presidential election in Colorado

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

1984 United States presidential election in Colorado

← 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 8 0
Popular vote 821,818 454,974
Percentage 63.44% 35.12%

County Results

President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for Colorado, with over 98% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, though several parties appeared on the ballot.[1] All but two counties gave either Reagan or Mondale an outright majority, the two exceptions being Huerfano (which gave Mondale a plurality) and Lake (which gave Reagan a plurality).

Reagan did best in Rio Blanco County, and Mondale did the best in Costilla County, along the Southern Rockies. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Adams County, Boulder County, Gilpin County, Lake County, Pitkin County, Saguache County, and San Miguel County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[2] This was the last election until 2020, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in which Colorado was decided by double digits. This election remains the last time Colorado voted to the right of Texas.

Reagan won Colorado by a landslide margin of 28.3%, a little more than 10% in excess of his national 18.2% margin. His 63.4% vote share made the Columbine State Reagan's 15th-best in the nation. This was typical for Colorado at the time, as the Mountain West in general had trended toward being a Republican bastion since 1952.[3] Gerald Ford had carried Colorado by a double-digit margin amid his narrow national defeat in 1976. Reagan performed strongly throughout rural Colorado outside the Southern Rockies, along the border with northern New Mexico; not only did he carry a vast majority of Colorado's counties, but he exceeded 60% in a majority of them. However, particularly important for the strength of his win was his strong showing in the state's second and third-largest counties, the Denver-area suburban counties of Jefferson and Arapahoe, in both of which he exceeded two-thirds of the vote.

There were few signs of any shakiness of the Republican strength in Colorado; Reagan even carried Pitkin County, the one county in the state that had switched from Nixon in 1968 to McGovern in 1972. Like several Mountain West states, Colorado was weaker than usual for the Republican Party in 1988, but would rebound to being sufficiently red to vote for Dole in 1996. The beginnings of Colorado's slide toward swing-state status, which would materialize in 2008, could, however, be seen in the ongoing weakening of Republican strength in Boulder County, one of the state's larger counties and at the time a traditionally Republican county. Reagan carried the county with 55.1%, substantially less than his national vote share; in 1976, Ford had carried it with 52.7%, 4.7% in excess of his national vote share. In 1968, Nixon received 57.7% of the county's vote; and in 1960, 61.5%.

Another sign was the city-county of Denver switching from Reagan in 1980 to Mondale in 1984, despite Reagan running considerably stronger nationally in 1984 than in 1980. Denver was not strongly Democratic at the time; it voted for Kennedy and Carter only very narrowly in the nationally close elections of 1960 and 1976, respectively. In 1980, it had given Reagan a 42.2%-41.0% plurality (with John Anderson scoring a strong 13.7%). Republican fortunes in Denver and Boulder County steadily continued to sink after 1984, which was, as of 2020, the last election in which the Republican would stay above 40% in the former or carry the latter.

Results edit

 
On the campaign trail, President Reagan is welcomed at the graduation commencement for the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. May, 1984.
1984 United States presidential election in Colorado
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan (incumbent) 821,818 63.44% 8
Democratic Walter Mondale 454,974 35.12% 0
Libertarian David Bergland 11,257 0.87% 0
Independent Lyndon LaRouche 4,662 0.36% 0
New Alliance Party Dennis Serrette 978 0.08% 0
Prohibition Earl Dodge 859 0.07% 0
Socialist Workers Party Melvin Mason 810 0.06% 0
Write-Ins 23 >0.01% 0
Totals 1,295,381 100.0% 8

Results by county edit

County Ronald Wilson Reagan[4]
Republican
Walter Frederick Mondale[4]
Democratic
David Peter Bergland[4]
Libertarian
Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.[4]
Independent
Various candidates[4]
Other parties
Margin
% # % # % # % # % # % #
Rio Blanco 80.81% 2,131 18.35% 484 0.49% 13 0.23% 6 0.11% 3 62.46% 1,647
Douglas 79.33% 12,249 19.50% 3,011 0.80% 124 0.25% 39 0.12% 18 59.83% 9,238
Dolores 78.47% 667 20.35% 173 0.24% 2 0.59% 5 0.35% 3 58.12% 494
Jackson 78.22% 722 20.69% 191 0.11% 1 0.54% 5 0.43% 4 57.53% 531
Washington 77.47% 2,080 21.15% 568 0.37% 10 0.86% 23 0.15% 4 56.31% 1,512
Kit Carson 77.06% 2,762 21.71% 778 0.33% 12 0.61% 22 0.28% 10 55.36% 1,984
Custer 76.12% 832 22.05% 241 0.82% 9 0.91% 10 0.09% 1 54.07% 591
Teller 75.84% 3,460 22.86% 1,043 0.88% 40 0.35% 16 0.07% 3 52.98% 2,417
Baca 75.85% 1,903 23.12% 580 0.28% 7 0.64% 16 0.12% 3 52.73% 1,323
Elbert 75.27% 2,605 23.17% 802 0.95% 33 0.52% 18 0.09% 3 52.09% 1,803
Kiowa 75.22% 850 23.45% 265 0.27% 3 0.80% 9 0.27% 3 51.77% 585
Hinsdale 74.88% 310 23.67% 98 0.97% 4 0.24% 1 0.24% 1 51.21% 212
El Paso 75.04% 88,377 23.93% 28,185 0.59% 694 0.31% 360 0.13% 157 51.11% 60,192
Yuma 74.32% 3,394 24.55% 1,121 0.33% 15 0.59% 27 0.22% 10 49.77% 2,273
Moffat 72.88% 3,630 24.65% 1,228 1.67% 83 0.56% 28 0.24% 12 48.22% 2,402
Cheyenne 73.23% 892 25.21% 307 0.16% 2 0.90% 11 0.49% 6 48.03% 585
Montezuma 73.06% 4,753 25.59% 1,665 0.46% 30 0.69% 45 0.20% 13 47.46% 3,088
Rio Grande 73.25% 3,122 25.90% 1,104 0.40% 17 0.31% 13 0.14% 6 47.35% 2,018
Lincoln 72.91% 1,661 25.77% 587 0.44% 10 0.70% 16 0.18% 4 47.15% 1,074
Mineral 72.55% 333 25.49% 117 1.09% 5 0.65% 3 0.22% 1 47.06% 216
Grand 72.72% 2,865 25.81% 1,017 0.81% 32 0.66% 26 0.00% 0 46.90% 1,848
Logan 72.33% 5,883 26.50% 2,155 0.23% 19 0.69% 56 0.25% 20 45.84% 3,728
Sedgwick 72.39% 1,146 27.10% 429 0.13% 2 0.19% 3 0.19% 3 45.29% 717
Arapahoe 71.92% 107,556 26.67% 39,891 1.05% 1,566 0.20% 303 0.16% 239 45.24% 67,665
Archuleta 71.98% 1,557 27.00% 584 0.46% 10 0.37% 8 0.18% 4 44.98% 973
Morgan 71.26% 6,097 27.24% 2,331 0.94% 80 0.30% 26 0.26% 22 44.02% 3,766
Phillips 71.36% 1,689 27.50% 651 0.51% 12 0.59% 14 0.04% 1 43.85% 1,038
Park 70.33% 2,041 26.95% 782 1.79% 52 0.62% 18 0.31% 9 43.38% 1,259
Ouray 70.85% 914 28.37% 366 0.08% 1 0.54% 7 0.16% 2 42.48% 548
Montrose 70.40% 7,162 28.15% 2,864 0.40% 41 0.78% 79 0.27% 27 42.25% 4,298
Mesa 69.66% 23,736 29.17% 9,938 0.50% 171 0.50% 170 0.17% 59 40.49% 13,798
Prowers 68.71% 3,501 28.79% 1,467 1.47% 75 0.53% 27 0.49% 25 39.92% 2,034
Delta 69.28% 6,678 29.41% 2,835 0.39% 38 0.60% 58 0.31% 30 39.87% 3,843
Garfield 69.14% 7,111 29.91% 3,076 0.56% 58 0.28% 29 0.11% 11 39.23% 4,035
Jefferson 68.92% 124,495 29.73% 53,700 0.78% 1,401 0.40% 727 0.17% 304 39.19% 70,795
Weld 68.51% 31,293 30.35% 13,863 0.54% 248 0.41% 188 0.19% 87 38.16% 17,430
Eagle 67.84% 4,500 30.63% 2,032 0.87% 58 0.39% 26 0.26% 17 37.21% 2,468
Gunnison 67.30% 3,100 30.92% 1,424 1.24% 57 0.20% 9 0.35% 16 36.39% 1,676
La Plata 67.49% 8,719 31.27% 4,040 0.53% 68 0.44% 57 0.26% 34 36.22% 4,679
Fremont 67.31% 8,250 31.78% 3,895 0.46% 56 0.31% 38 0.14% 17 35.53% 4,355
Larimer 66.64% 49,883 31.93% 23,896 0.81% 610 0.40% 300 0.21% 160 34.72% 25,987
Chaffee 66.31% 3,680 32.05% 1,779 1.01% 56 0.45% 25 0.18% 10 34.25% 1,901
Routt 66.15% 4,239 32.01% 2,051 1.26% 81 0.45% 29 0.12% 8 34.14% 2,188
Summit 66.14% 3,253 32.29% 1,588 1.04% 51 0.39% 19 0.14% 7 33.86% 1,665
Clear Creek 65.34% 2,151 33.08% 1,089 0.91% 30 0.55% 18 0.12% 4 32.26% 1,062
Crowley 65.03% 993 33.86% 517 0.33% 5 0.46% 7 0.33% 5 31.17% 476
Otero 62.37% 5,373 34.88% 3,005 1.87% 161 0.35% 30 0.53% 46 27.49% 2,368
San Juan 61.66% 320 35.26% 183 1.93% 10 0.39% 2 0.77% 4 26.40% 137
Alamosa 62.68% 2,953 36.51% 1,720 0.30% 14 0.30% 14 0.21% 10 26.17% 1,233
Adams 60.20% 55,092 38.56% 35,285 0.56% 513 0.49% 450 0.19% 171 21.64% 19,807
Bent 59.75% 1,314 39.06% 859 0.55% 12 0.59% 13 0.05% 1 20.69% 455
Gilpin 57.03% 896 40.36% 634 2.23% 35 0.19% 3 0.19% 3 16.68% 262
Saguache 57.63% 1,201 41.60% 867 0.29% 6 0.38% 8 0.10% 2 16.03% 334
Pitkin 56.39% 3,117 41.48% 2,293 1.48% 82 0.47% 26 0.18% 10 14.91% 824
San Miguel 54.77% 833 43.00% 654 1.38% 21 0.39% 6 0.46% 7 11.77% 179
Boulder 55.06% 53,535 43.39% 42,195 0.99% 960 0.34% 326 0.23% 222 11.66% 11,340
Conejos 51.40% 1,669 47.83% 1,553 0.18% 6 0.43% 14 0.15% 5 3.57% 116
Lake 49.65% 1,364 48.20% 1,324 1.42% 39 0.40% 11 0.33% 9 1.46% 40
Huerfano 49.04% 1,581 49.69% 1,602 0.53% 17 0.59% 19 0.16% 5 -0.65% -21
Denver 47.83% 105,096 50.15% 110,200 1.45% 3,190 0.27% 586 0.30% 669 -2.32% -5,104
Pueblo 47.19% 24,634 51.97% 27,126 0.32% 168 0.35% 184 0.17% 88 -4.77% -2,492
Las Animas 44.38% 2,992 54.43% 3,670 0.36% 24 0.39% 26 0.44% 30 -10.06% -678
Costilla 38.07% 621 61.13% 997 0.43% 7 0.25% 4 0.12% 2 -23.05% -376

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "1984 Presidential General Election Results – Colorado". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
  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. ^ Paulson, Arthur C. (2000). Realignment and Party Revival: Understanding American Electoral Politics at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-96865-6.
  4. ^ a b c d e Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 06, 1984