1984 United States presidential election in Ohio

The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for Ohio, with over 99% of the electorate voting only either Democratic or Republican, though several more parties did appear on the ballot.[1] Most counties in Ohio voted in majority for Reagan, a particularly strong turn out even in a state with a strong streak of Appalachian social conservatism. As was typical for the time, two exceptions to this trend were Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, and residents of several counties on the Eastern border with Pennsylvania, who voted largely for Mondale.

Ohio weighed in for this election as 0.12% more Republican than the national average. As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last election in which Lorain County, Lucas County, Athens County, and Summit County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[2] and the last until 2016 that Ashtabula County voted for a Republican candidate.

Walter Mondale accepted the Democratic nomination for presidency after pulling narrowly ahead of Senator Gary Hart of Colorado and Rev. Jesse Jackson of Illinois - his main contenders during what would be a very contentious[3] Democratic primary. During the campaign, Mondale was vocal about reduction of government spending, and, in particular, was vocal against heightened military spending on the nuclear arms race against the Soviet Union,[4] which was reaching its peak on both sides in the early 1980s.

Taking a (what was becoming the traditional liberal) stance on the social issues of the day, Mondale advocated for gun control, the right to choose regarding abortion, and strongly opposed the repeal of laws regarding institutionalized prayer in public schools. He also criticized Reagan for his economic marginalization of the poor, stating that Reagan's reelection campaign was "a happy talk campaign," not focused on the real issues at hand.[5]

A very significant political move during this election: the Democratic Party nominated Representative Geraldine Ferraro to run with Mondale as Vice-President. Ferraro is the first female candidate to receive such a nomination in United States history. She said in an interview at the 1984 Democratic National Convention that this action "opened a door which will never be closed again,"[6] speaking to the role of women in politics.

On the campaign trail, Reagan waves to supports during his whistle-stop tour of Ohio. October, 1984.

President Ronald Reagan shaking hands with unidentified members of the crowd while at Bowling Green University in Ohio on September 26, 1984.

By 1984, Reagan was very popular with voters across the nation as the President who saw them out of the economic stagflation of the early and middle 1970s, and into a period of (relative) economic stability.[7]

The economic success seen under Reagan was politically accomplished (principally) in two ways. The first was initiation of deep tax cuts for the wealthy,[8] and the second was a wide-spectrum of tax cuts for crude oil production and refinement, namely, with the 1980 Windfall profits tax cuts.[9] These policies were augmented with a call for heightened military spending,[10] the cutting of social welfare programs for the poor,[11] and the increasing of taxes on those making less than per year.[8] Collectively called "Reaganomics", these economic policies were established through several pieces of legislation passed between 1980 and 1987.

Reaganomics has (along with legislation passed under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) been criticized by many analysts as "setting the stage" for economic troubles in the United State after 2007, such as the Great Recession.[12]

Virtually unopposed during the Republican primaries, Reagan ran on a campaign of furthering his economic policies. Reagan vowed to continue his "war on drugs," passing sweeping legislation after the 1984 election in support of mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession.[13] Furthermore, taking a (what was becoming the traditional conservative) stance on the social issues of the day, Reagan strongly opposed legislation regarding comprehension of abortion, and (to a lesser extent) environmentalism,[14] regarding the latter as simply being bad for business.

Reagan won the election in Ohio with a decisive 18 point landslide. While Ohio typically leaned conservative at the time, the election results in Ohio 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."[7] This was most evident during the 1984 presidential election. The election of 1984 is also one of the final elections where Ohio has reliably turned out for the Republican presidential candidate, and marks the end of a political era for the State, which has since transformed more into the swing state that we know it as today. No Republican candidate has received as strong of support in the American Great Lakes States, at large, since Reagan.

It is speculated that Mondale lost support with voters nearly immediately during the campaign, namely during his acceptance speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention. There he stated that he intended to increase taxes. To quote Mondale, "By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two thirds. Let's tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."[5] Despite this claimed attempt at establishing truthfulness with the electorate, this promise to raise taxes badly eroded his chances in what had already begun as an uphill battle against the charismatic Ronald Reagan.

Reagan also enjoyed high levels of bipartisan support during the 1984 presidential election, both in Ohio, and across the nation at large. 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 Russia, and because they considered the Democrats as "supporting American poor and minorities at the expense of the middle class."[14] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory, in Ohio and elsewhere.

• Iran–Contra affair
• Nicaragua guerrilla war
• Presidency of Ronald Reagan