1984 United States presidential election in Nevada

The 1984 United States presidential election in Nevada 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 four electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1984 United States presidential election in Nevada

← 1980 November 6, 1984 1988 →
Turnout82.61% (of registered voters) Decrease
47.81% (of eligible voters) Decrease
 
Nominee Ronald Reagan Walter Mondale
Party Republican Democratic
Home state California Minnesota
Running mate George H. W. Bush Geraldine Ferraro
Electoral vote 4 0
Popular vote 188,770 91,655
Percentage 65.85% 31.97%

County Results
Reagan
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%


President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Nevada 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.

The presidential election of 1984 was a rather partisan election for Nevada, with about 2% of the state voting for third parties, or for Nevada's "None of These Candidates" option.[1] Every county gave Reagan a comfortable majority.

Nevada weighed in for this election as 16% more Republican than the national average. Reagan won Nevada by a resounding landslide margin of 34%. His vote share of 65.9% made it his tenth-best state nationally, and was the highest vote share any nominee of either party had won in Nevada since 1936. The Mountain West as a whole had begun trending Republican in 1952,[2] but Nevada remained more competitive than other states in the region through the 1960s and 1970s, being one of two states in the region (along with New Mexico) to vote for Kennedy in 1960, giving Nixon a plurality in 1968, and voting for Ford by just 4.4% in 1976.

A dramatic shift came with Reagan's candidacy, however, as, in 1980, Nevada gave Reagan nearly as high a vote share as it had given Nixon in his 1972 landslide. Reagan improved his vote share still further in 1984. He carried every county in the state, including the largest county, Clark County (home to Las Vegas), which had typically voted Democratic from its founding in 1909 through 1976. Not only did he carry Clark, but he got a higher vote share in it than he did nationally, becoming the first nominee of either party to crack 60% in the county since 1964. He also won over two-thirds of the vote in the state's second population center, more typically Republican Washoe County (Reno). Only in rural and sparsely-settled White Pine County did Reagan fall below 60%, and even here he won by double digits. In eleven counties (including the state's third-largest county equivalent, Carson City), Reagan broke 70%.

Nevada would remain strongly Republican in 1988, but thereafter, it would return to being a more competitive state, as Clark County returned to the Democratic fold in 1992 (and has, as of 2024, never voted Republican again). Bill Clinton won it twice, but by narrow margins; but George W. Bush also won it only by narrow margins in his two elections. No nominee of either party has received as high a vote share in the state as Reagan, as of 2024. This was the only time that a Republican presidential candidate won two terms by carrying all counties in Nevada in both instances.

Results

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1984 United States Presidential Election in Nevada[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Ronald Reagan (inc.) 188,770 65.85%
Democratic Walter Mondale 91,655 31.97%
None of These Candidates 3,950 1.38%
Libertarian David Bergland 2,292 0.80%
Total votes 286,667 100%

Results by county

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County Ronald Reagan
Republican
Walter Mondale
Democratic
None of These Candidates
David Bergland
Libertarian
Margin Total votes cast[3]
# % # % # % # % # %
Carson City 9,477 70.01% 3,790 28.00% 165 1.22% 104 0.77% 5,687 42.01% 13,536
Churchill 4,479 75.53% 1,304 21.99% 103 1.74% 44 0.74% 3,175 53.54% 5,930
Clark 94,133 62.60% 53,386 35.50% 1,866 1.24% 978 0.65% 40,747 27.10% 150,363
Douglas 6,385 75.57% 1,877 22.22% 106 1.25% 81 0.96% 4,508 53.35% 8,449
Elko 5,110 74.48% 1,566 22.82% 105 1.53% 80 1.17% 3,544 51.66% 6,861
Esmeralda 453 70.02% 158 24.42% 19 2.94% 17 2.63% 295 45.60% 647
Eureka 439 75.95% 124 21.45% 9 1.56% 6 1.04% 315 54.50% 578
Humboldt 2,498 72.41% 862 24.99% 52 1.51% 38 1.10% 1,636 47.42% 3,450
Lander 1,222 78.28% 301 19.28% 27 1.73% 11 0.70% 921 59.00% 1,561
Lincoln 1,175 72.71% 397 24.57% 30 1.86% 14 0.87% 778 48.14% 1,616
Lyon 4,320 69.94% 1,673 27.08% 94 1.52% 90 1.46% 2,647 42.86% 6,177
Mineral 1,645 65.69% 766 30.59% 57 2.28% 36 1.44% 879 35.10% 2,504
Nye 3,573 71.62% 1,269 25.44% 84 1.68% 63 1.26% 2,304 46.18% 4,989
Pershing 956 71.88% 333 25.04% 24 1.80% 17 1.28% 623 46.84% 1,330
Storey 570 66.74% 252 29.51% 17 1.99% 15 1.76% 318 37.23% 854
Washoe 50,418 67.67% 22,321 29.96% 1,114 1.50% 658 0.88% 28,097 37.71% 74,511
White Pine 1,917 57.90% 1,276 38.54% 78 2.36% 40 1.21% 641 19.36% 3,311
Totals 188,770 65.85% 91,655 31.97% 3,950 1.38% 2,292 0.80% 97,115 33.88% 286,667

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ a b "1984 Primary and General Election Results". Nevada Secretary of State. Retrieved July 9, 2024.