1984 United States presidential election in Kansas

The 1984 United States presidential election in Kansas took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Voters chose 7 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1984 United States presidential election in Kansas

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 7 0
Popular vote 677,296 333,149
Percentage 66.27% 32.60%

County Results

President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Kansas 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 Kansas, with just under 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, though several parties appeared on the ballot.[1] In typical form for the time, nearly every county in Kansas voted in majority for the Republican candidate, a particularly strong turn out even in this typically conservative leaning state. The only exception to this trend was Kansas City's Wyandotte County, which voted primarily Democratic.

In this election, Kansas voted about 7% more Republican than the national average.

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[2] Democratic primary. During the primary 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,[3] 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.[4]

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

Republican platform

Reagan challenging Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!," from the Brandenburg Gate in June, 1987. Reagan's firm stance with the Soviet Union was an important contributor to his 1984 reelection.

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 1970's, and into a period of (relative) economic stability.[6]

The economic success seen under Reagan was politically accomplished (principally) in two ways. The first was initiation of deep tax cuts for the wealthy,[7] and the second was a wide-spectrum of tax cuts for crude oil production and refinement, namely, with the 1980 Windfall profits tax cuts.[8] These policies were augmented with a call for heightened military spending,[9] the cutting of social welfare programs for the poor,[10] and the increasing of taxes on those making less than $50,000 per year.[7] Collectively called "Reaganomics", these economic policies were established through several pieces of legislation passed between 1980 and 1987.

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.[11] Furthermore, taking a (what was becoming the traditional conservative) stance on the social issues of the day, Reagan strongly opposed legislation regarding comprehension of gay marriage, abortion, and (to a lesser extent) environmentalism,[12] regarding the final as simply being bad for business.

Republican victory

Reagan won the election in Kansas with a highly decisive 32 point sweep-out landslide. While Kansas typically votes conservative in the modern era, the election results in Kansas 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."[6] This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. Kansas also continued its age-old trend of voting in par with its sister Great Plains States (North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska), a trend that has not been broken in any presidential election since 1920.

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."[4] Despite this claimed attempt at establishing truthfulness with the electorate, this claim 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 Kansas, 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."[12] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory, in Kansas and elsewhere.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in Kansas
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan 677,296 66.27% 7
Democratic Walter Mondale 333,149 32.60% 0
America First Bob Richards 3,564 0.35% 0
Libertarian David Bergland 3,329 0.33% 0
New Alliance Party Dennis Serrette 2,544 0.25% 0
Prohibition Earl Dodge 2,109 0.21% 0
Totals 1,021,991 100.0% 7

Results by county

County Ronald Wilson Reagan
Republican
Walter Fritz Mondale
Democratic
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Allen 4,267 69.76% 1,778 29.07% 72 1.18% 2,489 40.69% 6,117
Anderson 2,462 67.14% 1,155 31.50% 50 1.36% 1,307 35.64% 3,667
Atchison 4,537 62.54% 2,641 36.40% 77 1.06% 1,896 26.13% 7,255
Barber 2,112 71.84% 806 27.41% 22 0.75% 1,306 44.42% 2,940
Barton 10,232 75.58% 3,111 22.98% 195 1.44% 7,121 52.60% 13,538
Bourbon 4,858 68.40% 2,175 30.63% 69 0.97% 2,683 37.78% 7,102
Brown 3,894 73.97% 1,303 24.75% 67 1.27% 2,591 49.22% 5,264
Butler 12,976 66.33% 6,371 32.56% 217 1.11% 6,605 33.76% 19,564
Chase 1,162 74.01% 393 25.03% 15 0.96% 769 48.98% 1,570
Chautauqua 1,688 76.55% 497 22.54% 20 0.91% 1,191 54.01% 2,205
Cherokee 5,801 60.72% 3,663 38.34% 89 0.93% 2,138 22.38% 9,553
Cheyenne 1,442 79.06% 356 19.52% 26 1.43% 1,086 59.54% 1,824
Clark 1,075 75.39% 324 22.72% 27 1.89% 751 52.66% 1,426
Clay 3,559 78.76% 919 20.34% 41 0.91% 2,640 58.42% 4,519
Cloud 3,860 66.43% 1,880 32.35% 71 1.22% 1,980 34.07% 5,811
Coffey 3,063 74.00% 1,037 25.05% 39 0.94% 2,026 48.95% 4,139
Comanche 993 76.80% 285 22.04% 15 1.16% 708 54.76% 1,293
Cowley 10,008 64.99% 5,193 33.72% 198 1.29% 4,815 31.27% 15,399
Crawford 9,518 58.10% 6,722 41.04% 141 0.86% 2,796 17.07% 16,381
Decatur 1,770 78.15% 467 20.62% 28 1.24% 1,303 57.53% 2,265
Dickinson 6,487 73.96% 2,168 24.72% 116 1.32% 4,319 49.24% 8,771
Doniphan 2,818 73.77% 962 25.18% 40 1.05% 1,856 48.59% 3,820
Douglas 18,975 58.87% 12,880 39.96% 378 1.17% 6,095 18.91% 32,233
Edwards 1,352 67.53% 606 30.27% 44 2.20% 746 37.26% 2,002
Elk 1,301 72.89% 452 25.32% 32 1.79% 849 47.56% 1,785
Ellis 7,509 67.65% 3,457 31.15% 133 1.20% 4,052 36.51% 11,099
Ellsworth 2,353 71.35% 905 27.44% 40 1.21% 1,448 43.91% 3,298
Finney 6,938 73.08% 2,458 25.89% 98 1.03% 4,480 47.19% 9,494
Ford 6,935 69.72% 2,914 29.30% 98 0.99% 4,021 40.42% 9,947
Franklin 6,284 70.61% 2,523 28.35% 92 1.03% 3,761 42.26% 8,899
Geary 4,464 65.44% 2,296 33.66% 61 0.89% 2,168 31.78% 6,821
Gove 1,310 73.43% 426 23.88% 48 2.69% 884 49.55% 1,784
Graham 1,423 74.00% 480 24.96% 20 1.04% 943 49.04% 1,923
Grant 2,043 76.26% 615 22.96% 21 0.78% 1,428 53.30% 2,679
Gray 1,580 74.32% 514 24.18% 32 1.51% 1,066 50.14% 2,126
Greeley 699 73.27% 227 23.79% 28 2.94% 472 49.48% 954
Greenwood 2,901 70.45% 1,173 28.48% 44 1.07% 1,728 41.96% 4,118
Hamilton 1,037 70.64% 408 27.79% 23 1.57% 629 42.85% 1,468
Harper 2,521 73.09% 893 25.89% 35 1.01% 1,628 47.20% 3,449
Harvey 8,507 64.06% 4,599 34.63% 174 1.31% 3,908 29.43% 13,280
Haskell 1,152 79.34% 283 19.49% 17 1.17% 869 59.85% 1,452
Hodgeman 939 74.17% 306 24.17% 21 1.66% 633 50.00% 1,266
Jackson 3,466 66.92% 1,667 32.19% 46 0.89% 1,799 34.74% 5,179
Jefferson 4,524 68.93% 1,990 30.32% 49 0.75% 2,534 38.61% 6,563
Jewell 1,992 76.50% 583 22.39% 29 1.11% 1,409 54.11% 2,604
Johnson 101,987 72.39% 38,019 26.99% 876 0.62% 63,968 45.41% 140,882
Kearny 1,214 78.42% 321 20.74% 13 0.84% 893 57.69% 1,548
Kingman 2,826 72.04% 1,047 26.69% 50 1.27% 1,779 45.35% 3,923
Kiowa 1,537 79.51% 361 18.68% 35 1.81% 1,176 60.84% 1,933
Labette 6,542 63.76% 3,631 35.39% 87 0.85% 2,911 28.37% 10,260
Lane 1,008 77.18% 282 21.59% 16 1.23% 726 55.59% 1,306
Leavenworth 11,194 62.29% 6,604 36.75% 172 0.96% 4,590 25.54% 17,970
Lincoln 1,723 75.14% 551 24.03% 19 0.83% 1,172 51.11% 2,293
Linn 2,795 70.33% 1,152 28.99% 27 0.68% 1,643 41.34% 3,974
Logan 1,235 77.04% 331 20.65% 37 2.31% 904 56.39% 1,603
Lyon 9,796 69.37% 4,188 29.66% 137 0.97% 5,608 39.71% 14,121
McPherson 8,630 71.89% 3,185 26.53% 189 1.57% 5,445 45.36% 12,004
Marion 4,407 72.06% 1,632 26.68% 77 1.26% 2,775 45.37% 6,116
Marshall 4,098 68.49% 1,813 30.30% 72 1.20% 2,285 38.19% 5,983
Meade 1,804 77.16% 491 21.00% 43 1.84% 1,313 56.16% 2,338
Miami 5,877 65.04% 3,076 34.04% 83 0.92% 2,801 31.00% 9,036
Mitchell 3,036 75.98% 919 23.00% 41 1.03% 2,117 52.98% 3,996
Montgomery 12,023 70.20% 4,933 28.80% 171 1.00% 7,090 41.40% 17,127
Morris 2,240 72.19% 820 26.43% 43 1.39% 1,420 45.76% 3,103
Morton 1,533 81.80% 322 17.18% 19 1.01% 1,211 64.62% 1,874
Nemaha 3,653 66.60% 1,761 32.11% 71 1.29% 1,892 34.49% 5,485
Neosho 4,968 64.11% 2,679 34.57% 102 1.32% 2,289 29.54% 7,749
Ness 1,779 75.32% 540 22.86% 43 1.82% 1,239 52.46% 2,362
Norton 2,515 79.19% 611 19.24% 50 1.57% 1,904 59.95% 3,176
Osage 4,288 66.55% 2,072 32.16% 83 1.29% 2,216 34.39% 6,443
Osborne 2,171 74.63% 686 23.58% 52 1.79% 1,485 51.05% 2,909
Ottawa 2,345 75.74% 699 22.58% 52 1.68% 1,646 53.17% 3,096
Pawnee 2,570 68.90% 1,092 29.28% 68 1.82% 1,478 39.62% 3,730
Phillips 2,813 80.90% 626 18.00% 38 1.09% 2,187 62.90% 3,477
Pottawatomie 4,598 71.09% 1,798 27.80% 72 1.11% 2,800 43.29% 6,468
Pratt 3,244 71.31% 1,255 27.59% 50 1.10% 1,989 43.72% 4,549
Rawlins 1,625 78.05% 412 19.79% 45 2.16% 1,213 58.26% 2,082
Reno 16,568 63.34% 9,229 35.28% 362 1.38% 7,339 28.06% 26,159
Republic 3,009 76.49% 887 22.55% 38 0.97% 2,122 53.94% 3,934
Rice 3,598 68.68% 1,559 29.76% 82 1.57% 2,039 38.92% 5,239
Riley 11,308 64.77% 5,975 34.22% 175 1.00% 5,333 30.55% 17,458
Rooks 2,604 77.75% 699 20.87% 46 1.37% 1,905 56.88% 3,349
Rush 1,758 69.49% 718 28.38% 54 2.13% 1,040 41.11% 2,530
Russell 3,673 76.99% 1,055 22.11% 43 0.90% 2,618 54.87% 4,771
Saline 15,244 69.41% 6,526 29.72% 191 0.87% 8,718 39.70% 21,961
Scott 2,017 81.13% 427 17.18% 42 1.69% 1,590 63.96% 2,486
Sedgwick 95,874 62.53% 55,263 36.05% 2,178 1.42% 40,611 26.49% 153,315
Seward 5,222 80.54% 1,198 18.48% 64 0.99% 4,024 62.06% 6,484
Shawnee 43,465 61.57% 26,338 37.31% 786 1.11% 17,127 24.26% 70,589
Sheridan 1,274 73.86% 419 24.29% 32 1.86% 855 49.57% 1,725
Sherman 2,702 78.02% 714 20.62% 47 1.36% 1,988 57.41% 3,463
Smith 2,332 75.74% 684 22.22% 63 2.05% 1,648 53.52% 3,079
Stafford 2,062 69.71% 844 28.53% 52 1.76% 1,218 41.18% 2,958
Stanton 783 76.61% 205 20.06% 34 3.33% 578 56.56% 1,022
Stevens 1,863 82.03% 386 17.00% 22 0.97% 1,477 65.04% 2,271
Sumner 6,942 64.32% 3,708 34.36% 143 1.32% 3,234 29.96% 10,793
Thomas 3,107 76.70% 887 21.90% 57 1.41% 2,220 54.80% 4,051
Trego 1,491 70.40% 598 28.23% 29 1.37% 893 42.16% 2,118
Wabaunsee 2,276 72.72% 805 25.72% 49 1.57% 1,471 47.00% 3,130
Wallace 838 82.97% 152 15.05% 20 1.98% 686 67.92% 1,010
Washington 2,979 75.69% 889 22.59% 68 1.73% 2,090 53.10% 3,936
Wichita 916 78.90% 232 19.98% 13 1.12% 684 58.91% 1,161
Wilson 3,663 72.23% 1,344 26.50% 64 1.26% 2,319 45.73% 5,071
Woodson 1,408 69.36% 596 29.36% 26 1.28% 812 40.00% 2,030
Wyandotte 27,459 42.81% 36,042 56.20% 635 0.99% -8,583 -13.38% 64,136
Totals677,29666.27%333,14932.60%11,5461.13%344,14733.67%1,021,991

See also

References

  1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  2. Kurt Andersen, "A Wild Ride to the End", Time, May 28, 1984
  3. Trying to Win the Peace, by Even Thomas, Time, July 2, 1984
  4. Mondale's Acceptance Speech, 1984, AllPolitics
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. "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.
  8. Joseph J. Thorndike (Nov 10, 2005). "Historical Perspective: The Windfall Profit Tax". Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  9. Historical tables, Budget of the United States Government Archived 2012-04-17 at the Wayback Machine, 2013, table 6.1.
  10. 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
  11. Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow. New York: The New Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-1595581037.
  12. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.
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