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

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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

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County[4] Ronald Reagan
Republican
Walter Mondale
Democratic
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Adams 55,092 60.20% 35,285 38.56% 1,134 1.24% 19,807 21.64% 91,511
Alamosa 2,953 62.68% 1,720 36.51% 38 0.81% 1,233 26.17% 4,711
Arapahoe 107,556 71.92% 39,891 26.67% 2,107 1.41% 67,665 45.25% 149,554
Archuleta 1,557 71.98% 584 27.00% 22 1.02% 973 44.98% 2,163
Baca 1,903 75.85% 580 23.12% 26 1.03% 1,323 52.73% 2,509
Bent 1,314 59.75% 859 39.06% 26 1.19% 455 20.69% 2,199
Boulder 53,535 55.06% 42,195 43.40% 1,493 1.54% 11,340 11.66% 97,223
Chaffee 3,680 66.31% 1,779 32.05% 91 1.64% 1,901 34.26% 5,550
Cheyenne 892 73.23% 307 25.21% 19 1.56% 585 48.02% 1,218
Clear Creek 2,151 65.34% 1,089 33.08% 52 1.58% 1,062 32.26% 3,292
Conejos 1,669 51.40% 1,553 47.83% 25 0.77% 116 3.57% 3,247
Costilla 621 38.07% 997 61.13% 13 0.80% -376 -23.06% 1,631
Crowley 993 65.03% 517 33.86% 17 1.11% 476 31.17% 1,527
Custer 832 76.12% 241 22.05% 20 1.83% 591 54.07% 1,093
Delta 6,678 69.28% 2,835 29.41% 126 1.31% 3,843 39.87% 9,639
Denver 105,096 47.83% 110,200 50.15% 4,442 2.02% -5,104 -2.32% 219,738
Dolores 667 78.47% 173 20.35% 10 1.18% 494 58.12% 850
Douglas 12,249 79.33% 3,011 19.50% 181 1.17% 9,238 59.83% 15,441
Eagle 4,500 67.84% 2,032 30.63% 101 1.53% 2,468 37.21% 6,633
El Paso 88,377 75.04% 28,185 23.93% 1,210 1.03% 60,192 51.11% 117,772
Elbert 2,605 75.27% 802 23.17% 54 1.56% 1,803 52.10% 3,461
Fremont 8,250 67.31% 3,895 31.78% 111 0.91% 4,355 35.53% 12,256
Garfield 7,111 69.14% 3,076 29.91% 98 0.95% 4,035 39.23% 10,285
Gilpin 896 57.03% 634 40.36% 41 2.61% 262 16.67% 1,571
Grand 2,865 72.72% 1,017 25.81% 58 1.47% 1,848 46.91% 3,940
Gunnison 3,100 67.32% 1,424 30.92% 81 1.76% 1,676 36.40% 4,605
Hinsdale 310 74.88% 98 23.67% 6 1.45% 212 51.21% 414
Huerfano 1,581 49.04% 1,602 49.69% 41 1.27% -21 -0.65% 3,224
Jackson 722 78.22% 191 20.69% 10 1.09% 531 57.53% 923
Jefferson 124,496 68.92% 53,700 29.73% 2,432 1.35% 70,796 39.19% 180,628
Kiowa 850 75.22% 265 23.45% 15 1.33% 585 51.77% 1,130
Kit Carson 2,762 77.06% 778 21.71% 44 1.23% 1,984 55.35% 3,584
La Plata 8,719 67.49% 4,040 31.27% 159 1.24% 4,679 36.22% 12,918
Lake 1,364 49.65% 1,324 48.20% 59 2.15% 40 1.45% 2,747
Larimer 49,883 66.65% 23,896 31.93% 1,069 1.42% 25,987 34.72% 74,848
Las Animas 2,992 44.38% 3,670 54.43% 80 1.19% -678 -10.05% 6,742
Lincoln 1,661 72.91% 587 25.77% 30 1.32% 1,074 47.14% 2,278
Logan 5,883 72.33% 2,155 26.50% 95 1.17% 3,728 45.83% 8,133
Mesa 23,736 69.66% 9,938 29.17% 400 1.17% 13,798 40.49% 34,074
Mineral 333 72.55% 117 25.49% 9 1.96% 216 47.06% 459
Moffat 3,630 72.88% 1,228 24.65% 123 2.47% 2,402 48.23% 4,981
Montezuma 4,753 73.06% 1,665 25.59% 88 1.35% 3,088 47.47% 6,506
Montrose 7,162 70.40% 2,864 28.15% 147 1.45% 4,298 42.25% 10,173
Morgan 6,097 71.26% 2,331 27.24% 128 1.50% 3,766 44.02% 8,556
Otero 5,373 62.37% 3,005 34.88% 237 2.75% 2,368 27.49% 8,615
Ouray 914 70.85% 366 28.37% 10 0.78% 548 42.48% 1,290
Park 2,041 70.33% 782 26.95% 79 2.72% 1,259 43.38% 2,902
Phillips 1,689 71.36% 651 27.50% 27 1.14% 1,038 43.86% 2,367
Pitkin 3,117 56.39% 2,293 41.48% 118 2.13% 824 14.91% 5,528
Prowers 3,501 68.71% 1,467 28.79% 127 2.50% 2,034 39.92% 5,095
Pueblo 24,634 47.19% 27,126 51.97% 440 0.84% -2,492 -4.76% 52,200
Rio Blanco 2,131 80.81% 484 18.35% 22 0.84% 1,647 62.46% 2,637
Rio Grande 3,122 73.25% 1,104 25.90% 36 0.85% 2,018 47.35% 4,262
Routt 4,239 66.15% 2,051 32.01% 118 1.84% 2,188 34.14% 6,408
Saguache 1,201 57.63% 867 41.60% 16 0.77% 334 16.03% 2,084
San Juan 320 61.66% 183 35.26% 16 3.08% 137 26.40% 519
San Miguel 833 54.77% 654 43.00% 34 2.23% 179 11.77% 1,521
Sedgwick 1,146 72.39% 429 27.10% 8 0.51% 717 45.29% 1,583
Summit 3,253 66.14% 1,588 32.29% 77 1.57% 1,665 33.85% 4,918
Teller 3,460 75.84% 1,043 22.86% 59 1.30% 2,417 52.98% 4,562
Washington 2,080 77.50% 568 21.16% 36 1.34% 1,512 56.34% 2,684
Weld 31,293 68.51% 13,863 30.35% 523 1.14% 17,430 38.16% 45,679
Yuma 3,394 74.32% 1,121 24.55% 52 1.13% 2,273 49.77% 4,567
Total 821,818 63.44% 454,974 35.12% 18,589 1.44% 366,844 28.32% 1,295,381

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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See also

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References

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  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. ^ Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 06, 1984