United States presidential election in Utah, 1984

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, 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.Menendez, Albert J.; ''The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004'', p. 109 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 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.' In 1980, Carter underperformed even his low national percentage throughout the West. Reagan's popularity in the West increased in 1984; no Republican nominee has received such strong support in the Mountain West as Reagan did.

Results

Results by county

Analysis

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

* United States presidential elections in Utah
* Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

{{1984 United States elections

Utah
1984
1984 Utah elections