1984 United States presidential election in California

Main article: 1984 United States presidential election

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.

1984 United States presidential election in California

← 1980 November 6, 1984 1988 →
Turnout	74.93% (of registered voters) 2.31 pp 59.08% (of eligible voters) 2.04 pp^[1]
Nominee Ronald Reagan Walter Mondale Party Republican Democratic Home state California Minnesota Running mate George H. W. Bush Geraldine Ferraro Electoral vote 47 0 Popular vote 5,467,009 3,922,519 Percentage 57.51% 41.27%
County Results Reagan   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Mondale   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%
President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

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

Reagan and his wife Nancy celebrate at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles after the announcement of his 1984 electoral victory

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 is the last 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] No Republican since Reagan has come close to matching his performance in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he is also the last candidate from either party to carry every county they won in the state by a majority of the vote in those counties (more than 50%). 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.

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).

Reagan became the first Republican ever to win the White House without Marin or Santa Cruz Counties.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in California^[3]
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 F. Mondale Democratic		David P. Bergland^[4] Libertarian		Robert E. Richards^[4] American Independent		Sonia Johnson^[4] Peace and Freedom		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Orange	74.70%	635,013	24.27%	206,272	1.03%	8,792	0.31%	2,619	0.17%	1,412	50.43%	428,741
Mono	72.31%	2,659	26.16%	962	1.51%	56	0.73%	27	0.40%	15	46.15%	1,697
Sutter	71.23%	14,477	27.24%	5,535	1.52%	311	0.55%	112	0.45%	92	43.99%	8,942
Inyo	70.32%	5,863	28.30%	2,360	1.37%	115	0.58%	49	0.24%	20	42.02%	3,503
Modoc	69.49%	2,995	28.28%	1,219	2.19%	96	1.46%	64	0.23%	10	41.21%	1,776
Glenn	69.74%	6,020	28.82%	2,488	1.42%	124	0.87%	76	0.19%	17	40.92%	3,532
Ventura	68.67%	151,383	30.19%	66,550	1.14%	2,529	0.39%	862	0.22%	493	38.48%	84,833
Colusa	65.30%	3,388	33.25%	1,725	1.43%	75	0.69%	36	0.31%	16	32.05%	1,663
San Diego	65.30%	502,344	33.41%	257,029	1.28%	9,894	0.45%	3,523	0.25%	1,966	31.89%	245,315
El Dorado	64.93%	27,583	33.69%	14,312	1.36%	583	0.57%	245	0.26%	111	31.24%	13,271
Kern	65.03%	94,776	34.01%	49,567	0.96%	1,401	0.40%	585	0.17%	248	31.02%	45,209
San Bernardino	64.80%	222,071	33.98%	116,454	1.21%	4,180	0.60%	2,063	0.21%	736	30.82%	105,617
Calaveras	64.26%	7,632	34.36%	4,081	1.37%	164	0.59%	71	0.25%	30	29.90%	3,551
Kings	64.10%	13,364	35.13%	7,324	0.76%	160	0.31%	64	0.16%	34	28.97%	6,040
Yuba	63.52%	9,780	34.68%	5,339	1.78%	278	1.01%	157	0.27%	42	28.84%	4,441
Tulare	63.88%	51,066	35.11%	28,065	1.01%	812	0.43%	343	0.25%	200	28.77%	23,001
San Luis Obispo	63.72%	49,035	35.02%	26,946	1.25%	969	0.45%	350	0.22%	174	28.70%	22,089
Riverside	63.48%	182,324	35.53%	102,043	0.98%	2,835	0.44%	1,276	0.18%	532	27.95%	80,281
Butte	63.06%	45,381	35.32%	25,421	1.60%	1,162	0.71%	519	0.27%	193	27.74%	19,960
Placer	62.94%	38,035	35.24%	21,294	1.80%	1,098	0.51%	311	0.27%	163	27.70%	16,741
Tehama	62.78%	11,586	35.37%	6,527	1.83%	342	1.18%	221	0.21%	39	27.41%	5,059
Nevada	62.36%	19,809	35.25%	11,198	2.37%	761	0.97%	313	0.25%	81	27.11%	8,611
Santa Barbara	62.76%	89,314	36.01%	51,243	1.23%	1,763	0.31%	442	0.24%	350	26.75%	38,071
Shasta	62.19%	33,041	36.32%	19,298	1.47%	788	0.81%	434	0.23%	124	25.87%	13,743
Imperial	62.01%	13,829	36.94%	8,237	1.05%	235	0.43%	97	0.27%	60	25.07%	5,592
Amador	61.48%	6,986	36.86%	4,188	1.64%	189	0.87%	100	0.33%	38	24.62%	2,798
Mariposa	61.20%	3,989	36.81%	2,399	1.97%	130	1.21%	80	0.24%	16	24.39%	1,590
Lassen	61.09%	5,352	37.14%	3,254	1.74%	155	1.13%	100	0.27%	24	23.95%	2,098
San Benito	60.71%	5,695	37.89%	3,554	1.39%	131	0.44%	42	0.33%	31	22.82%	2,141
Trinity	59.71%	3,544	37.37%	2,218	2.85%	173	1.48%	90	0.63%	38	22.34%	1,326
Madera	60.04%	13,954	38.70%	8,994	1.25%	293	0.61%	142	0.23%	54	21.34%	4,960
San Joaquin	59.61%	81,795	39.24%	53,846	1.14%	1,572	0.53%	729	0.29%	399	20.37%	27,949
Stanislaus	59.23%	55,655	39.86%	37,459	0.91%	861	0.39%	369	0.21%	196	19.37%	18,196
Del Norte	58.41%	3,996	39.41%	2,696	2.14%	149	1.48%	103	0.19%	13	19.00%	1,300
Siskiyou	58.25%	10,544	39.39%	7,130	2.32%	427	1.19%	219	0.33%	61	18.86%	3,414
Merced	58.85%	24,997	40.05%	17,012	1.09%	468	0.34%	147	0.39%	168	18.80%	7,985
Tuolumne	58.09%	10,485	40.35%	7,283	1.55%	283	0.84%	154	0.31%	56	17.74%	3,202
Napa	57.77%	26,322	40.82%	18,599	1.39%	640	0.52%	240	0.29%	131	16.95%	7,723
Sierra	56.86%	1,078	41.19%	781	1.93%	37	0.99%	19	0.26%	5	15.67%	297
Monterey	57.16%	55,710	41.79%	40,733	1.05%	1,027	0.38%	371	0.24%	235	15.37%	14,977
Plumas	56.61%	5,224	41.58%	3,837	1.79%	167	0.68%	63	0.40%	37	15.03%	1,387
Alpine	56.65%	264	41.63%	194	1.69%	8	1.06%	5	0.21%	1	15.02%	70
Sacramento	55.56%	204,922	43.14%	159,128	1.29%	4,791	0.53%	1,959	0.31%	1,136	12.42%	45,794
Lake	54.83%	10,874	43.61%	8,648	1.55%	309	0.45%	89	0.23%	45	11.22%	2,226
Santa Clara	54.81%	288,638	43.65%	229,865	1.53%	8,136	0.45%	2,413	0.35%	1,858	11.16%	58,773
Solano	54.51%	51,678	44.29%	41,892	1.19%	1,138	0.45%	426	0.24%	228	10.22%	9,786
Los Angeles	54.50%	1,424,113	44.35%	1,158,912	1.14%	29,889	0.36%	9,368	0.30%	7,808	10.15%	265,201
Contra Costa	54.48%	172,331	44.57%	140,994	0.94%	2,993	0.31%	999	0.18%	561	9.91%	31,337
Fresno	54.30%	104,757	44.74%	86,315	0.96%	1,864	0.44%	860	0.21%	400	9.56%	18,442
Mendocino	52.09%	16,369	45.85%	14,407	2.03%	646	0.67%	213	0.59%	188	6.24%	1,962
San Mateo	51.87%	135,185	46.91%	122,268	1.21%	3,178	0.35%	924	0.22%	565	4.96%	12,917
Humboldt	51.64%	27,832	46.79%	25,217	1.55%	842	0.56%	305	0.49%	269	4.85%	2,615
Sonoma	51.08%	76,447	47.64%	71,295	1.27%	1,915	0.37%	563	0.32%	489	3.44%	5,152
Marin	49.02%	56,887	49.58%	57,533	1.40%	1,630	0.30%	348	0.27%	320	-0.56%	-646
Yolo	47.84%	24,329	50.89%	25,879	1.26%	645	0.37%	188	0.35%	178	-3.05%	-1,550
Santa Cruz	45.20%	41,652	53.27%	49,041	1.51%	1,404	0.30%	277	0.43%	395	-8.07%	-7,389
Alameda	40.01%	192,408	58.65%	282,041	1.33%	6,425	0.34%	1,645	0.46%	2,223	-18.64%	-89,633
San Francisco	31.44%	90,219	67.35%	193,278	1.20%	3,475	0.30%	856	0.34%	973	-35.91%	-103,059

References

1. "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
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. "1984 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
4. Our Campaigns; CA US Presidential Election November 06, 1984