1984 United States presidential election in New Mexico

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

1984 United States presidential election in New Mexico

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 5 0 Popular vote 307,101 201,769 Percentage 59.70% 39.23%

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

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

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The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for New Mexico, with more than 98 percent of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties.[1] In typical form for the time, the highly populated counties of Bernalillo and Los Alamos turned out mainly Republican. Meanwhile, the ongoing Democratic stronghold in the northern part of the state, inclusive of Santa Fe County and Rio Arriba County, is evident during this election.

New Mexico weighed in for this election as 1% more Republican than the national average. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Guadalupe County and the only election in which recently created Cibola County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[2] In addition, this is also the most recent presidential election when the Republican candidate won the state by a double-digit margin.

Reagan won the election in New Mexico with a resounding 20-point sweep, making New Mexico 2.3% more Republican than the nation at large. The election results in New Mexico are reflective of a nationwide reconsolidation of the 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 received as strong of support in the American West at large, as Reagan did.

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."[4] Despite this claimed attempt at establishing truthfulness with the electorate, this claim 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 New Mexico, 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."[5] These public opinion factors contributed to Reagan's 1984 landslide victory, in New Mexico and elsewhere.