1984 United States presidential election in Colorado

Main article: 1984 United States presidential election

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

1984 United States presidential election in Colorado

← 1980 November 6, 1984 1988 →

Nominee Ronald Reagan Walter Mondale Party Republican Democratic Home state California Minnesota Running mate George H. W. Bush Geraldine Ferraro Electoral vote 8 0 Popular vote 821,818 454,974 Percentage 63.44% 35.12%

County Results Reagan   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Mondale   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%

President before election Ronald Reagan Republican Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for Colorado, with over 98% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, though several parties appeared on the ballot.^[1] All but two counties gave either Reagan or Mondale an outright majority, the two exceptions being Huerfano (which gave Mondale a plurality) and Lake (which gave Reagan a plurality).

Reagan did best in Rio Blanco County, and Mondale did the best in Costilla County, along the Southern Rockies. As of the 2024 presidential election^[update], this is the last election in which Adams County, Boulder County, Gilpin County, Lake County, Pitkin County, Saguache County, and San Miguel County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.^[2] This was the last election until 2020, won by Democrat Joe Biden, in which Colorado was decided by double digits. This election remains the last time Colorado voted to the right of Texas.

Reagan won Colorado by a landslide margin of 28.3%, a little more than 10% in excess of his national 18.2% margin. His 63.4% vote share made the Columbine State Reagan's 15th-best in the nation. This was typical for Colorado at the time, as the Mountain West in general had trended toward being a Republican bastion since 1952.^[3] Gerald Ford had carried Colorado by a double-digit margin amid his narrow national defeat in 1976. Reagan performed strongly throughout rural Colorado outside the Southern Rockies, along the border with northern New Mexico; not only did he carry a vast majority of Colorado's counties, but he exceeded 60% in a majority of them. However, particularly important for the strength of his win was his strong showing in the state's second and third-largest counties, the Denver-area suburban counties of Jefferson and Arapahoe, in both of which he exceeded two-thirds of the vote.

There were few signs of any shakiness of the Republican strength in Colorado; Reagan even carried Pitkin County, the one county in the state that had switched from Nixon in 1968 to McGovern in 1972. Like several Mountain West states, Colorado was weaker than usual for the Republican Party in 1988, but would rebound to being sufficiently red to vote for Dole in 1996. The beginnings of Colorado's slide toward swing-state status, which would materialize in 2008, could, however, be seen in the ongoing weakening of Republican strength in Boulder County, one of the state's larger counties and at the time a traditionally Republican county. Reagan carried the county with 55.1%, substantially less than his national vote share; in 1976, Ford had carried it with 52.7%, 4.7% in excess of his national vote share. In 1968, Nixon received 57.7% of the county's vote; and in 1960, 61.5%.

Another sign was the city-county of Denver switching from Reagan in 1980 to Mondale in 1984, despite Reagan running considerably stronger nationally in 1984 than in 1980. Denver was not strongly Democratic at the time; it voted for Kennedy and Carter only very narrowly in the nationally close elections of 1960 and 1976, respectively. In 1980, it had given Reagan a 42.2%-41.0% plurality (with John Anderson scoring a strong 13.7%). Republican fortunes in Denver and Boulder County steadily continued to sink after 1984, which was, as of 2024, the last election in which the Republican would stay above 40% in the former or carry the latter.

Results

On the campaign trail, President Reagan is welcomed at the graduation commencement for the United States Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. May, 1984.

1984 United States presidential election in Colorado
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan (incumbent)	821,818	63.44%	8
	Democratic	Walter Mondale	454,974	35.12%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	11,257	0.87%	0
	Independent	Lyndon LaRouche	4,662	0.36%	0
	New Alliance Party	Dennis Serrette	978	0.08%	0
	Prohibition	Earl Dodge	859	0.07%	0
	Socialist Workers Party	Melvin Mason	810	0.06%	0
	Write-Ins		23	>0.01%	0
Totals			1,295,381	100.0%	8

Results by county

County[4]	Ronald Reagan Republican		Walter Mondale Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	55,092	60.20%	35,285	38.56%	1,134	1.24%	19,807	21.64%	91,511
Alamosa	2,953	62.68%	1,720	36.51%	38	0.81%	1,233	26.17%	4,711
Arapahoe	107,556	71.92%	39,891	26.67%	2,107	1.41%	67,665	45.25%	149,554
Archuleta	1,557	71.98%	584	27.00%	22	1.02%	973	44.98%	2,163
Baca	1,903	75.85%	580	23.12%	26	1.03%	1,323	52.73%	2,509
Bent	1,314	59.75%	859	39.06%	26	1.19%	455	20.69%	2,199
Boulder	53,535	55.06%	42,195	43.40%	1,493	1.54%	11,340	11.66%	97,223
Chaffee	3,680	66.31%	1,779	32.05%	91	1.64%	1,901	34.26%	5,550
Cheyenne	892	73.23%	307	25.21%	19	1.56%	585	48.02%	1,218
Clear Creek	2,151	65.34%	1,089	33.08%	52	1.58%	1,062	32.26%	3,292
Conejos	1,669	51.40%	1,553	47.83%	25	0.77%	116	3.57%	3,247
Costilla	621	38.07%	997	61.13%	13	0.80%	-376	-23.06%	1,631
Crowley	993	65.03%	517	33.86%	17	1.11%	476	31.17%	1,527
Custer	832	76.12%	241	22.05%	20	1.83%	591	54.07%	1,093
Delta	6,678	69.28%	2,835	29.41%	126	1.31%	3,843	39.87%	9,639
Denver	105,096	47.83%	110,200	50.15%	4,442	2.02%	-5,104	-2.32%	219,738
Dolores	667	78.47%	173	20.35%	10	1.18%	494	58.12%	850
Douglas	12,249	79.33%	3,011	19.50%	181	1.17%	9,238	59.83%	15,441
Eagle	4,500	67.84%	2,032	30.63%	101	1.53%	2,468	37.21%	6,633
El Paso	88,377	75.04%	28,185	23.93%	1,210	1.03%	60,192	51.11%	117,772
Elbert	2,605	75.27%	802	23.17%	54	1.56%	1,803	52.10%	3,461
Fremont	8,250	67.31%	3,895	31.78%	111	0.91%	4,355	35.53%	12,256
Garfield	7,111	69.14%	3,076	29.91%	98	0.95%	4,035	39.23%	10,285
Gilpin	896	57.03%	634	40.36%	41	2.61%	262	16.67%	1,571
Grand	2,865	72.72%	1,017	25.81%	58	1.47%	1,848	46.91%	3,940
Gunnison	3,100	67.32%	1,424	30.92%	81	1.76%	1,676	36.40%	4,605
Hinsdale	310	74.88%	98	23.67%	6	1.45%	212	51.21%	414
Huerfano	1,581	49.04%	1,602	49.69%	41	1.27%	-21	-0.65%	3,224
Jackson	722	78.22%	191	20.69%	10	1.09%	531	57.53%	923
Jefferson	124,496	68.92%	53,700	29.73%	2,432	1.35%	70,796	39.19%	180,628
Kiowa	850	75.22%	265	23.45%	15	1.33%	585	51.77%	1,130
Kit Carson	2,762	77.06%	778	21.71%	44	1.23%	1,984	55.35%	3,584
La Plata	8,719	67.49%	4,040	31.27%	159	1.24%	4,679	36.22%	12,918
Lake	1,364	49.65%	1,324	48.20%	59	2.15%	40	1.45%	2,747
Larimer	49,883	66.65%	23,896	31.93%	1,069	1.42%	25,987	34.72%	74,848
Las Animas	2,992	44.38%	3,670	54.43%	80	1.19%	-678	-10.05%	6,742
Lincoln	1,661	72.91%	587	25.77%	30	1.32%	1,074	47.14%	2,278
Logan	5,883	72.33%	2,155	26.50%	95	1.17%	3,728	45.83%	8,133
Mesa	23,736	69.66%	9,938	29.17%	400	1.17%	13,798	40.49%	34,074
Mineral	333	72.55%	117	25.49%	9	1.96%	216	47.06%	459
Moffat	3,630	72.88%	1,228	24.65%	123	2.47%	2,402	48.23%	4,981
Montezuma	4,753	73.06%	1,665	25.59%	88	1.35%	3,088	47.47%	6,506
Montrose	7,162	70.40%	2,864	28.15%	147	1.45%	4,298	42.25%	10,173
Morgan	6,097	71.26%	2,331	27.24%	128	1.50%	3,766	44.02%	8,556
Otero	5,373	62.37%	3,005	34.88%	237	2.75%	2,368	27.49%	8,615
Ouray	914	70.85%	366	28.37%	10	0.78%	548	42.48%	1,290
Park	2,041	70.33%	782	26.95%	79	2.72%	1,259	43.38%	2,902
Phillips	1,689	71.36%	651	27.50%	27	1.14%	1,038	43.86%	2,367
Pitkin	3,117	56.39%	2,293	41.48%	118	2.13%	824	14.91%	5,528
Prowers	3,501	68.71%	1,467	28.79%	127	2.50%	2,034	39.92%	5,095
Pueblo	24,634	47.19%	27,126	51.97%	440	0.84%	-2,492	-4.76%	52,200
Rio Blanco	2,131	80.81%	484	18.35%	22	0.84%	1,647	62.46%	2,637
Rio Grande	3,122	73.25%	1,104	25.90%	36	0.85%	2,018	47.35%	4,262
Routt	4,239	66.15%	2,051	32.01%	118	1.84%	2,188	34.14%	6,408
Saguache	1,201	57.63%	867	41.60%	16	0.77%	334	16.03%	2,084
San Juan	320	61.66%	183	35.26%	16	3.08%	137	26.40%	519
San Miguel	833	54.77%	654	43.00%	34	2.23%	179	11.77%	1,521
Sedgwick	1,146	72.39%	429	27.10%	8	0.51%	717	45.29%	1,583
Summit	3,253	66.14%	1,588	32.29%	77	1.57%	1,665	33.85%	4,918
Teller	3,460	75.84%	1,043	22.86%	59	1.30%	2,417	52.98%	4,562
Washington	2,080	77.50%	568	21.16%	36	1.34%	1,512	56.34%	2,684
Weld	31,293	68.51%	13,863	30.35%	523	1.14%	17,430	38.16%	45,679
Yuma	3,394	74.32%	1,121	24.55%	52	1.13%	2,273	49.77%	4,567
Total	821,818	63.44%	454,974	35.12%	18,589	1.44%	366,844	28.32%	1,295,381

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Denver

See also

• Presidency of Ronald Reagan

References

1. "1984 Presidential General Election Results – Colorado". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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. 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.
4. Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 06, 1984