1984 United States presidential election in California

1984 United States presidential election in California
Turnout	74.93% (of registered voters) 2.31 pp ; 59.08% (of eligible voters) 2.04 pp
Reagan 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%	Mondale 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%
President before election; Ronald Reagan; Republican	Elected President ; Ronald Reagan; Republican

The 1984 United States presidential election in California took place on November 6, 1984, as part of the 1984 United States presidential election. State voters chose 47 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. California voted for the Republican incumbent and former California Governor, Ronald Reagan, in a landslide over the Democratic challenger, former Minnesota Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan easily won his home state with a comfortable 16.24% margin and carried all but five counties. Despite this, California's margin was 1.97% more Democratic than the nation as a whole.

Reagan holding a campaign rally at Los Angeles Pierce College on the eve of the election

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time for a Republican to carry the following California counties in a presidential election: Contra Costa, Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Mendocino, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma.^[2] Reagan is also the last candidate from either party to carry every county they won in the state with a majority. This is also the most recent occasion where a Republican won more than thirty percent of the vote in San Francisco, won the state by double digits (George H. W. Bush would win the state by a 3-point margin in 1988), and won every county of Greater Southern California.

Reagan became the first Republican ever to win the White House without Marin or Santa Cruz Counties. These were among a handful of counties nationwide that flipped against him.^[a] As a result of this election, San Francisco and Alameda were the only two counties in California to have never been carried by Reagan in either of his campaigns for president or for Governor of California (Reagan also did not carry Yolo County in any of his presidential campaigns; however, he carried the county in his 1966 gubernatorial campaign).

Democratic primary

Jesse Jackson's voters were 50% black, 38% white, 7% Hispanic, and 5% were members of other groups. Massachusetts was the only state where black voters composed a smaller percentage of his supporters.^[3]

Results

1984 United States presidential election in California^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Wilson Reagan (Incumbent)	5,467,009	57.51%	47
	Democratic	Walter Frederick Mondale	3,922,519	41.27%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	115,513	1.22%	0
	American Independent	Bob Richards	39,265	0.41%	0
	Peace and Freedom	Sonia Johnson	26,297	0.28%	0
	No party	Write-in	366	0.00%	0
	No party	Dennis L. Serrette (write-in)	16	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			9,505,423	100.00%	47
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Ronald Reagan Republican		Walter Mondale Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Alameda	192,408	40.01%	282,041	58.65%	6,425	1.34%	-89,633	-18.64%	480,874
Alpine	264	56.65%	194	41.63%	8	1.72%	70	15.02%	466
Amador	6,986	61.48%	4,188	36.86%	189	1.66%	2,798	24.62%	11,363
Butte	45,381	63.06%	25,421	35.32%	1,162	1.62%	19,960	27.74%	71,964
Calaveras	7,632	64.26%	4,081	34.36%	164	1.38%	3,551	29.90%	11,877
Colusa	3,388	65.30%	1,725	33.25%	75	1.45%	1,663	32.05%	5,188
Contra Costa	172,331	54.48%	140,994	44.57%	2,993	0.95%	31,337	9.91%	316,318
Del Norte	3,996	58.41%	2,696	39.41%	149	2.18%	1,300	19.00%	6,841
El Dorado	27,583	64.93%	14,312	33.69%	583	1.38%	13,271	31.24%	42,478
Fresno	104,757	54.30%	86,315	44.74%	1,864	0.96%	18,442	9.56%	192,936
Glenn	6,020	69.74%	2,488	28.82%	124	1.44%	3,532	40.92%	8,632
Humboldt	27,832	51.64%	25,217	46.79%	842	1.57%	2,615	4.85%	53,891
Imperial	13,829	62.01%	8,237	36.94%	235	1.05%	5,592	25.07%	22,301
Inyo	5,863	70.32%	2,360	28.30%	115	1.38%	3,503	42.02%	8,338
Kern	94,776	65.03%	49,567	34.01%	1,401	0.96%	45,209	31.02%	145,744
Kings	13,364	64.10%	7,324	35.13%	160	0.77%	6,040	28.97%	20,848
Lake	10,874	54.83%	8,648	43.61%	309	1.56%	2,226	11.22%	19,831
Lassen	5,352	61.09%	3,254	37.14%	155	1.77%	2,098	23.95%	8,761
Los Angeles	1,424,113	54.50%	1,158,912	44.35%	29,889	1.15%	265,201	10.15%	2,612,914
Madera	13,954	60.04%	8,994	38.70%	293	1.26%	4,960	21.34%	23,241
Marin	56,887	49.02%	57,533	49.58%	1,630	1.40%	-646	-0.56%	116,050
Mariposa	3,989	61.20%	2,399	36.81%	130	1.99%	1,590	24.39%	6,518
Mendocino	16,369	52.09%	14,407	45.85%	646	2.06%	1,962	6.24%	31,422
Merced	24,997	58.85%	17,012	40.05%	468	1.10%	7,985	18.80%	42,477
Modoc	2,995	69.49%	1,219	28.28%	96	2.23%	1,776	41.21%	4,310
Mono	2,659	72.31%	962	26.16%	56	1.53%	1,697	46.15%	3,677
Monterey	55,710	57.16%	40,733	41.79%	1,027	1.05%	14,977	15.37%	97,470
Napa	26,322	57.77%	18,599	40.82%	640	1.41%	7,723	16.95%	45,561
Nevada	19,809	62.36%	11,198	35.25%	761	2.39%	8,611	27.11%	31,768
Orange	635,013	74.70%	206,272	24.27%	8,792	1.03%	428,741	50.43%	850,077
Placer	38,035	62.94%	21,294	35.24%	1,098	1.82%	16,741	27.70%	60,427
Plumas	5,224	56.61%	3,837	41.58%	167	1.81%	1,387	15.03%	9,228
Riverside	182,324	63.48%	102,043	35.53%	2,835	0.99%	80,281	27.95%	287,202
Sacramento	204,922	55.56%	159,128	43.14%	4,791	1.30%	45,794	12.42%	368,841
San Benito	5,695	60.71%	3,554	37.89%	131	1.40%	2,141	22.82%	9,380
San Bernardino	222,071	64.80%	116,454	33.98%	4,180	1.22%	105,617	30.82%	342,705
San Diego	502,344	65.30%	257,029	33.41%	9,894	1.29%	245,315	31.89%	769,267
San Francisco	90,219	31.44%	193,278	67.35%	3,475	1.21%	-103,059	-35.91%	286,972
San Joaquin	81,795	59.61%	53,846	39.24%	1,572	1.15%	27,949	20.37%	137,213
San Luis Obispo	49,035	63.72%	26,946	35.02%	969	1.26%	22,089	28.70%	76,950
San Mateo	135,185	51.87%	122,268	46.91%	3,178	1.22%	12,917	4.96%	260,631
Santa Barbara	89,314	62.76%	51,243	36.01%	1,763	1.23%	38,071	26.75%	142,320
Santa Clara	288,638	54.81%	229,865	43.65%	8,136	1.54%	58,773	11.16%	596,639
Santa Cruz	41,652	45.20%	49,091	53.27%	1,404	1.53%	-7,439	-8.07%	92,147
Shasta	33,041	62.19%	19,298	36.32%	788	1.49%	13,743	25.87%	53,127
Sierra	1,078	56.86%	781	41.19%	37	1.95%	297	15.67%	1,896
Siskiyou	10,544	58.25%	7,130	39.39%	427	2.36%	3,414	18.86%	18,101
Solano	51,678	54.51%	41,982	44.29%	1,138	1.20%	9,696	10.22%	94,798
Sonoma	76,447	51.08%	71,295	47.64%	1,915	1.28%	5,152	3.44%	149,657
Stanislaus	55,665	59.23%	37,459	39.86%	861	0.91%	18,206	19.37%	93,985
Sutter	14,477	71.23%	5,535	27.24%	311	1.53%	8,942	43.99%	20,323
Tehama	11,586	62.78%	6,527	35.37%	342	1.85%	5,059	27.41%	18,455
Trinity	3,544	59.71%	2,218	37.37%	173	2.92%	1,326	22.34%	5,935
Tulare	51,066	63.88%	28,065	35.11%	812	1.01%	23,001	28.77%	79,943
Tuolumne	10,485	58.09%	7,283	40.35%	283	1.56%	3,202	17.74%	18,051
Ventura	151,383	68.67%	66,550	30.19%	2,529	1.14%	84,833	38.48%	220,462
Yolo	24,329	47.84%	25,879	50.89%	645	1.27%	-1,550	-3.05%	50,853
Yuba	9,780	63.52%	5,339	34.68%	278	1.80%	4,441	28.84%	15,397
Total	5,467,009	57.51%	3,922,519	41.27%	115,895	1.22%	1,544,490	16.24%	9,505,423

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

References

^ "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
^ Ranney 1985, p. 54.
^ "1984 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved August 25, 2008.

Notes

^ Along with Keweenaw County, Michigan, Marin County, California, Santa Cruz County, California, Tompkins County, New York, Arlington County, Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia, and Lane County, Oregon.

Works cited

Ranney, Austin, ed. (1985). The American Elections of 1984. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822302306.

[1] "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

[how-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

[FOOTNOTERanney198554-4] Ranney 1985, p. 54.

[5] "1984 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved August 25, 2008.

[3] Along with Keweenaw County, Michigan, Marin County, California, Santa Cruz County, California, Tompkins County, New York, Arlington County, Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia, and Lane County, Oregon.

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