1984 жылғы АҚШ президент сайлауы

50th quadrennial U. S. presidential election

The 1984 United States presidential election was the 50th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1984. Incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan and his running mate, incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush, were re elected to a second term in a landslide. They defeated the Democratic ticket of former Vice President Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. Reagan and Bush faced only token opposition in their bid for re nomination. Mondale faced a competitive field in his bid, defeating Colorado Senator Gary Hart, activist Jesse Jackson, and several other candidates in the 1984 Democratic primaries. He eventually chose New York Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, the first woman to be on a major party's presidential ticket. Reagan touted a strong economic recovery from the 1970s stagflation and the 1981–1982 recession, and the widespread perception that his presidency had overseen a revival of national confidence and prestige. At 73, Reagan was the oldest person to be nominated by a major party for president, a record that stood until 2020. The Reagan campaign produced effective television advertising and deftly neutralized concerns regarding Reagan's age. Mondale criticized Reagan's supply side economic policies and budget deficits. He also called for a nuclear freeze and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Reagan won re election in a landslide victory, carrying 525 electoral votes, 49 states, and 58.8% of the popular vote. Mondale won 13 electoral votes from the District of Columbia, which has always voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic candidate, and his home state of Minnesota by a 0.18% margin. This was the second largest share of the electoral college since 1820 (and the largest for a Republican), and the most raw electoral votes received by a candidate. This is the last time any candidate won the popular vote by double digits. Since Mondale's death in April 2021, this is the latest election where all of the major party nominees for president or vice president are deceased. As of 2020, this marked the last time the Republican nominee carried the states of Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington. Meanwhile, West Virginia would not vote Republican again until 2000, Iowa would not vote Republican again until 2004, and Wisconsin has only voted Republican once since, in 2016. As of 2020, this is the only time an incumbent president defeated a former vice president and it is also the only time a major party presidential candidate defeated both the incumbent president and the latter's former vice president in consecutive presidential elections. As of 2024, this is the most recent election in which the Republican nominee won the popular vote for the second time in succession.

Ronald Reagan entered the presidency with an unemployment rate of 7.3% and it peaked at 10.6% in December 1982. The United States had a negative gross domestic product growth in 1982. The Republicans performed poorly in the 1982 elections. Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter lost an average of 12 seats in the United States House of Representatives in their first midterm. The Republicans lost 26 seats in the U. S. House elections. The Republicans lost seven governorships as well. Reagan's approval rating fell to 35% by January 1983. Polling showed him losing to Democratic candidates, including Walter Mondale and John Glenn. However, unemployment fell to 7.7% by March 1984, and Reagan's approval rating was at 54% in January 1984. His approval rating was aided by the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings and the invasion of Grenada. Polling by CBS News and The New York Times in January 1984 showed him leading Mondale by 16%.

Only three Democratic candidates won any state primaries: Mondale, Hart, and Jackson. Initially, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, after a failed bid to win the 1980 Democratic nomination for president, was considered the de facto front runner of the 1984 primary. However, Kennedy announced in December 1982 that he did not intend to run. Former Vice President Mondale was then viewed as the favorite to win the Democratic nomination. Mondale had the largest number of party leaders supporting him, and he had raised more money than any other candidate. However, both Jackson and Hart emerged as surprising, and troublesome, opponents. South Carolina Senator Ernest Hollings's wit and experience, as well as his call for a budget freeze, won him some positive attention, but his relatively conservative record alienated liberal Democrats, and he was never really noticed in a field dominated by Mondale, John Glenn, and Gary Hart. Hollings dropped out two days after losing badly in New Hampshire and endorsed Hart a week later. His disdain for his competitors was at times showcased in his comments. He notably referred to Mondale as a "lapdog", and to former astronaut Glenn as "Sky King" who was "confused in his capsule." California Senator Alan Cranston hoped to galvanize supporters of the nuclear freeze movement that had called on the United States to halt the deployment of existing nuclear weapons and the development of new ones. Glenn and Askew hoped to capture the support of moderate and conservative Democrats. None of them possessed the fundraising ability of Mondale nor the grassroots support of Hart and Jackson, and none won any contests. Jackson was the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for the presidency, and he was the first African American candidate to be a serious contender. He got 3.5 million votes during the primaries, third behind Hart and Mondale. He won the primaries in Virginia, South Carolina, and Louisiana, and split Mississippi, where there were two separate contests for Democratic delegates. Through the primaries, Jackson helped confirm the black electorate's importance to the Democratic Party in the South at the time. During the campaign, however, Jackson made an off the cuff reference to Jews as "Hymies" and New York City as "Hymietown", for which he later apologized. Nonetheless, the remark was widely publicized, and derailed his campaign for the nomination. Jackson ended up winning 21% of the national primary vote but received only 8% of the delegates to the national convention, and he initially charged that his campaign was hurt by the same party rules that allowed Mondale to win. He also poured scorn on Mondale, saying that Hubert Humphrey was the "last significant politician out of the St. Paul Minneapolis" area. Hart, from Colorado, was a more serious threat to Mondale, and after winning several early primaries it looked as if he might take the nomination away from Mondale. Hart finished a surprising second in the Iowa caucuses, with 16.5% of the vote. This established him as the main rival to Mondale, effectively eliminating John Glenn, Ernest Hollings and Alan Cranston as alternatives. Hart criticized Mondale as an "old fashioned" Great Society Democrat who symbolized "failed policies" of the past. Hart positioned himself (just as Bill Clinton would eight years later) as a younger, fresher, and more moderate Democrat who could appeal to younger voters. He emerged as a formidable candidate, winning the key New Hampshire, Ohio, and California primaries as well as several others, especially in the West. However, Hart could not overcome Mondale's financial and organizational advantages, especially among labor union leaders in the Midwest and industrial Northeast. Hart was also badly hurt in a televised debate with Mondale during the primaries, when the former vice president used a popular television commercial slogan to ridicule Hart's vague "New Ideas" platform. Turning to Hart on camera, Mondale told Hart that whenever he heard Hart talk about his "New Ideas", he was reminded of the Wendy's fast food slogan "Where's the beef?" The remark drew loud laughter and applause from the viewing audience and caught Hart off guard. Hart never fully recovered from Mondale's charge that his "New Ideas" were shallow and lacking in specifics. At a roundtable debate between the three remaining Democratic candidates moderated by Phil Donahue, Mondale and Hart got into such a heated argument over the issue of U. S. policy in Central America that Jackson had to tap his water glass on the table to help get them to stop. Mondale gradually pulled away from Hart in the delegate count, but, as Time reported in late May, "Mondale has a wide lead in total delegates (1,564 to 941) because of his victories in the big industrial states, his support from the Democratic Establishment and the arcane provisions of delegate selection rules that his vanguard helped draft two years ago." After the final primary in California, on June 5, which Hart won, Mondale was about 40 delegates short of the total he needed for the nomination. However, at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco on July 16, Mondale received the overwhelming support of the unelected superdelegates from the party establishment to win the nomination. Mondale's nomination marked the second time since the nomination of former governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter in 1976 and the fourth time since the nomination of former Representative John W. Davis in 1924 that the Democratic Party nominated a private citizen for president (not serving in an official government role at the time of the nomination and election). Mondale was the last private citizen to be nominated for president by the Democratic Party until former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. He was also the last former vice president to be nominated for president until Joe Biden in 2020. This race for the Democratic Party presidential nomination was the closest in two generations, and, as of 2020, it was the last occasion that a major party's race for the presidential nomination went all the way to its convention.

Mondale wanted to establish a highly visible precedent with his vice presidential candidate. Mondale chose U. S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro from New York as his running mate, making her the first woman and the first Catholic nominated for that position by a major party. Another reason for the nominee to "go for broke" instead of balancing the ticket was Reagan's lead in the polls. Mondale hoped to appeal to women, and by 1980, they were the majority of voters. In a "much criticized parade of possible Veep candidates" to his home in Minnesota, Mondale considered San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein and Kentucky Governor Martha Layne Collins, also female; Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, an African American; and San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, a Hispanic, as other finalists for the nomination. In addition to her sex, Mondale chose Ferraro because he hoped she would attract ethnic voters with her personal background. Unsuccessful nomination candidate Jesse Jackson derided Mondale's vice presidential screening process as a "P. R. parade of personalities", but praised Mondale for his choice, having himself pledged to name a woman to the ticket in the event he was nominated. Mondale had wanted to choose New York Governor Mario Cuomo as his running mate, but Cuomo declined and recommended Ferraro, his protégée. Mondale might have named Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis as his running mate had he wanted to make a "safe" choice", while others preferred Senator Lloyd Bentsen because he would appeal to more conservative Southern voters. Nomination rival Gary Hart stated before Ferraro's selection that he would accept an invitation to run with Mondale; Hart's supporters claimed he would do better than Mondale against President Reagan, an argument undercut by a June 1984 Gallup poll that showed both men nine points behind the president.

Sonia Johnson ran in the 1984 presidential election, as the presidential candidate of the Citizens Party, Pennsylvania's Consumer Party and California's Peace and Freedom Party. Johnson received 72,161 votes (0.1%) finishing fifth. Her running mate for the Citizens Party was Richard Walton and for the Peace and Freedom Party Emma Wong Mar. One of her campaign managers, Mark Dunlea, later wrote a novel about a first female president, Madame President.

The Communist Party USA ran Gus Hall for president and Angela Davis for vice president.

Mondale unsuccessfully tried to replace Charles Manatt with Bert Lance as chair of the DNC. Mondale made Lance the chair of his presidential campaign. However, Lance had to be removed due to controversy over his tenure as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Reagan's lead in polling declined after the Republican convention due to its strong right wing stances. Reagan was also criticized for a joke about bombing the Soviet Union. However, polls showed that voters believed Mondale was "too cautious and vague" and was trying to appeal to too many special interest groups. Roger Stone and other strategists working for Reagan viewed Ohio, where unemployment was 10%, as his most vulnerable state. Reagan made appeals to Evangelical voters during the campaign. He declared January 22, 1984, to be National Sanctity of Human Life Day. The American Coalition for Traditional Values (ACTV), under the leadership of Tim LaHaye, was tasked with maintaining Evangelical support. The ACTV planned on registering 2.5 million voters. Laxalt sent a letter to 45,000 ministers in sixteen states, under the title of the Christian Voter Program, asking for them to support Reagan's campaign and register voters. Mondale ran a liberal campaign, supporting a nuclear freeze and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). He spoke against what he considered to be unfairness in Reagan's economic policies and the need to reduce federal budget deficits. While Ferraro's choice was popular among Democratic activists, polls immediately after the announcement showed that only 22% of women were pleased about her selection, versus 18% who agreed that it was a bad idea. 60% of all voters thought that pressure from women's groups had led to Mondale's decision, versus 22% who believed that he had chosen the best available candidate. Some members of the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church criticized the Catholic Ferraro for being pro choice on abortion. Already fighting an uphill battle with voters, Ferraro also faced a slew of allegations, mid campaign, directed toward her husband, John Zaccaro. These allegations included Zaccaro's possible past involvement in organized crime, pornography distribution, and campaign contribution violations. Ferraro responded to these allegations against her husband by releasing her family tax returns to the media on August 21, 1984. However, the damage to the campaign was already done. At a campaign stop in Hammonton, New Jersey, Reagan said, "America's future rests in a thousand dreams inside your hearts. It rests in the message of hope in songs of a man so many young Americans admire, New Jersey's Bruce Springsteen." The Reagan campaign briefly used "Born in the U. S. A. ", a song criticizing the treatment of Vietnam War veterans (which they mistakenly thought was devoid of anti war content and a very jingoistic patriotic rock song), as a campaign song, without permission, until Springsteen, a lifelong Democrat, insisted that they stop. Two of the more memorable Reagan campaign ads were commonly known as "Morning in America" and, after the difficult first debate for the president, "Bear in the woods". Reagan was the oldest president to have served to that time (at 73) and there were questions about his capacity to endure the grueling demands of the presidency, particularly after Reagan had a poor showing in the first 1984 United States presidential debates with Mondale on October 7. He referred to having started going to church "here in Washington", although the debate was in Louisville, Kentucky, referred to military uniforms as "wardrobe", and admitted to being "confused", among other mistakes. In the next debate on October 21, however, in response to a question from journalist Henry Trewhitt and later admitted that Reagan had effectively neutralized the age issue:

If TV can tell the truth, as you say it can, you'll see that I was smiling. But I think if you come in close, you'll see some tears coming down because I knew he had gotten me there. That was really the end of my campaign that night, I think. [I told my wife] the campaign was over, and it was.

Where's the beef? : A slogan used by Wendy's to suggest that their competitors have smaller portions of meat in their sandwiches, but used in the Democratic primaries by Mondale to criticize Gary Hart's positions as lacking substance. Morning in America: Slogan used by the Reagan campaign.