1984 United States presidential election in Maine

The 1984 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 6, 1984. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. Maine voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

Main article: 1984 United States presidential election
1984 United States presidential election in Maine
November 6, 1984
 
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 336,500 214,515
Percentage 60.83% 38.78%
County Results

Reagan

  50–60%
  60–70%
President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

 Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elections in Maine

Maine 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 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.

Partisan background

The presidential election of 1984 was a very, very partisan election for Maine, with just under 100% of the electorate voting only either Democratic or Republican, and only four parties appearing on the ballot.[1] Every county in Maine voted in majority for Reagan, a particularly strong turn out in what had been a Republican-leaning state ever since that party formed apart from the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson and the Humphrey/Muskie ticket carried the state. Reagan became the first Republican to win industrialized, Catholic French-Canadian Androscoggin County since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.[2]

Maine weighed in for this election as 2% more Republican than the national average.

Republican victory

Reagan won the election in Maine by 22%. While Maine typically voted more conservative, at the time, than its New England neighbors, the election results in Maine are also reflective of a nationwide reconsolidation of base for the Republican Party which took place through the 1980s; called by Reagan the "second American Revolution."[3] This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. No Republican candidate has since received as strong of support in the Atlantic Northeast, at large, as Reagan did.

Reagan also enjoyed high levels of bipartisan support during the 1984 presidential election in Maine. Many registered Democrats who voted for Reagan (Reagan Democrats) stated that they had chosen to do so because they associated him with the economic recovery, because of his strong stance on national security issues with the Soviet Union, and because they considered the Democrats as "supporting American poor and minorities at the expense of the middle class."[4] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory in Maine.

Results
1984 United States presidential election in Maine
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan 336,500 60.83% 4
Democratic Walter Mondale 214,515 38.78% 0
Communist Party Gus Hall 1,292 0.23% 0
New Alliance Party Dennis Serrette 755 0.14% 0
Write-Ins 82 0.01% 0
Totals 553,144 100.0% 4

Results by county
Ronald Wilson Reagan
Republican		 Walter Fritz Mondale
Democratic		 Various candidates
Other parties		 Margin Total votes cast
County # % # % # % # % #
Androscoggin 26,904 57.24% 19,885 42.31% 211 0.45% 7,019 14.93% 47,000
Aroostook 21,837 63.59% 12,348 35.96% 153 0.45% 9,489 27.63% 34,338
Cumberland 65,842 56.75% 49,894 43.00% 290 0.25% 15,948 13.75% 116,026
Franklin 8,330 62.40% 4,954 37.11% 65 0.49% 3,376 25.29% 13,349
Hancock 14,660 65.12% 7,764 34.49% 87 0.39% 6,896 30.63% 22,511
Kennebec 31,753 59.70% 21,183 39.82% 255 0.48% 10,570 19.87% 53,191
Knox 11,311 65.00% 6,024 34.62% 66 0.38% 5,287 30.38% 17,401
Lincoln 10,312 67.68% 4,869 31.96% 55 0.36% 5,443 35.72% 15,236
Oxford 15,408 64.34% 8,430 35.20% 110 0.46% 6,978 29.14% 23,948
Penobscot 40,403 62.11% 24,445 37.58% 206 0.32% 15,958 24.53% 65,054
Piscataquis 5,427 63.98% 3,016 35.56% 39 0.46% 2,411 28.42% 8,482
Sagadahoc 9,222 63.51% 5,208 35.87% 90 0.62% 4,014 27.64% 14,520
Somerset 13,010 62.64% 7,657 36.86% 104 0.50% 5,353 25.77% 20,771
Waldo 8,814 62.22% 5,289 37.34% 63 0.44% 3,525 24.88% 14,166
Washington 9,713 64.41% 5,308 35.20% 60 0.40% 4,405 29.21% 15,081
York 43,554 60.43% 28,241 39.19% 275 0.38% 15,313 21.25% 72,070
Totals336,50060.83%214,51538.78%2,1290.38%121,98522.05%553,144

See also

References
  1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-11-11.
  2. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 218-219 ISBN 0786422173
  3. Raines, Howell (November 7, 1984). "Reagan Wins By a Landslide, Sweeping at Least 48 States; G.O.P. Gains Strength in House". The New York Times. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  4. Prendergast, William B. (1999). The Catholic vote in American politics. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. pp. 186, 191–193. ISBN 0-87840-724-3.
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