The 1984 United States presidential election in California took place on November 6 1984 as part of the 1984 United Stat

The 1984 United States presidential election in California took place on November 6, 1984, as part of the 1984 United States presidential election. State voters chose 47 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. California voted for the Republican incumbent and former California Governor, Ronald Reagan, in a landslide over the Democratic challenger, former Minnesota Senator and Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan easily won his home state with a comfortable 16.24% margin and carried all but five counties. Despite this, California's margin was 1.97% more Democratic than the nation as a whole.

1984 United States presidential election in California

← 1980

November 6, 1984

1988 →

Turnout

74.93% (of registered voters)

2.31 pp
59.08% (of eligible voters)

2.04 pp


Nominee	Ronald Reagan	Walter Mondale
Party	Republican	Democratic
Home state	California	Minnesota
Running mate	George H. W. Bush	Geraldine Ferraro
Electoral vote	47	0
Popular vote	5,467,009	3,922,519
Percentage	57.51%	41.27%

Reagan

50–60%

60–70%

70–80%

Mondale

40–50%

50–60%

60–70%

70–80%

President before election

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

Reagan holding a campaign rally at **Los Angeles Pierce College** on the eve of the election

**Reagan** and his wife Nancy celebrate at the **Century Plaza Hotel** in **Los Angeles** after the announcement of his 1984 electoral victory

As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last time a Republican carried the following California counties in a presidential election: Contra Costa, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Mendocino, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. Mondale flipped Marin and Santa Cruz Counties. These were among a handful of counties nationwide that he flipped.

Democratic primary

Jesse Jackson's voters were 50% black, 38% white, 7% Hispanic, and 5% were members of other groups. Massachusetts was the only state where black voters composed a smaller percentage of his supporters.

Results

1984 United States presidential election in California
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Wilson Reagan (Incumbent)	5,467,009	57.51%	47
	Democratic	Walter Frederick Mondale	3,922,519	41.27%	0
	Libertarian	David Bergland	115,513	1.22%	0
	American Independent	Bob Richards	39,265	0.41%	0
	Peace and Freedom	Sonia Johnson	26,297	0.28%	0
	No party	Write-in	366	0.00%	0
	No party	Dennis L. Serrette (write-in)	16	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			9,505,423	100.00%	47
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Ronald Reagan Republican		Walter Mondale Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Alameda	192,408	40.01%	282,041	58.65%	6,425	1.34%	-89,633	-18.64%	480,874
Alpine	264	56.65%	194	41.63%	8	1.72%	70	15.02%	466
Amador	6,986	61.48%	4,188	36.86%	189	1.66%	2,798	24.62%	11,363
Butte	45,381	63.06%	25,421	35.32%	1,162	1.62%	19,960	27.74%	71,964
Calaveras	7,632	64.26%	4,081	34.36%	164	1.38%	3,551	29.90%	11,877
Colusa	3,388	65.30%	1,725	33.25%	75	1.45%	1,663	32.05%	5,188
Contra Costa	172,331	54.48%	140,994	44.57%	2,993	0.95%	31,337	9.91%	316,318
Del Norte	3,996	58.41%	2,696	39.41%	149	2.18%	1,300	19.00%	6,841
El Dorado	27,583	64.93%	14,312	33.69%	583	1.38%	13,271	31.24%	42,478
Fresno	104,757	54.30%	86,315	44.74%	1,864	0.96%	18,442	9.56%	192,936
Glenn	6,020	69.74%	2,488	28.82%	124	1.44%	3,532	40.92%	8,632
Humboldt	27,832	51.64%	25,217	46.79%	842	1.57%	2,615	4.85%	53,891
Imperial	13,829	62.01%	8,237	36.94%	235	1.05%	5,592	25.07%	22,301
Inyo	5,863	70.32%	2,360	28.30%	115	1.38%	3,503	42.02%	8,338
Kern	94,776	65.03%	49,567	34.01%	1,401	0.96%	45,209	31.02%	145,744
Kings	13,364	64.10%	7,324	35.13%	160	0.77%	6,040	28.97%	20,848
Lake	10,874	54.83%	8,648	43.61%	309	1.56%	2,226	11.22%	19,831
Lassen	5,352	61.09%	3,254	37.14%	155	1.77%	2,098	23.95%	8,761
Los Angeles	1,424,113	54.50%	1,158,912	44.35%	29,889	1.15%	265,201	10.15%	2,612,914
Madera	13,954	60.04%	8,994	38.70%	293	1.26%	4,960	21.34%	23,241
Marin	56,887	49.02%	57,533	49.58%	1,630	1.40%	-646	-0.56%	116,050
Mariposa	3,989	61.20%	2,399	36.81%	130	1.99%	1,590	24.39%	6,518
Mendocino	16,369	52.09%	14,407	45.85%	646	2.06%	1,962	6.24%	31,422
Merced	24,997	58.85%	17,012	40.05%	468	1.10%	7,985	18.80%	42,477
Modoc	2,995	69.49%	1,219	28.28%	96	2.23%	1,776	41.21%	4,310
Mono	2,659	72.31%	962	26.16%	56	1.53%	1,697	46.15%	3,677
Monterey	55,710	57.16%	40,733	41.79%	1,027	1.05%	14,977	15.37%	97,470
Napa	26,322	57.77%	18,599	40.82%	640	1.41%	7,723	16.95%	45,561
Nevada	19,809	62.36%	11,198	35.25%	761	2.39%	8,611	27.11%	31,768
Orange	635,013	74.70%	206,272	24.27%	8,792	1.03%	428,741	50.43%	850,077
Placer	38,035	62.94%	21,294	35.24%	1,098	1.82%	16,741	27.70%	60,427
Plumas	5,224	56.61%	3,837	41.58%	167	1.81%	1,387	15.03%	9,228
Riverside	182,324	63.48%	102,043	35.53%	2,835	0.99%	80,281	27.95%	287,202
Sacramento	204,922	55.56%	159,128	43.14%	4,791	1.30%	45,794	12.42%	368,841
San Benito	5,695	60.71%	3,554	37.89%	131	1.40%	2,141	22.82%	9,380
San Bernardino	222,071	64.80%	116,454	33.98%	4,180	1.22%	105,617	30.82%	342,705
San Diego	502,344	65.30%	257,029	33.41%	9,894	1.29%	245,315	31.89%	769,267
San Francisco	90,219	31.44%	193,278	67.35%	3,475	1.21%	-103,059	-35.91%	286,972
San Joaquin	81,795	59.61%	53,846	39.24%	1,572	1.15%	27,949	20.37%	137,213
San Luis Obispo	49,035	63.72%	26,946	35.02%	969	1.26%	22,089	28.70%	76,950
San Mateo	135,185	51.87%	122,268	46.91%	3,178	1.22%	12,917	4.96%	260,631
Santa Barbara	89,314	62.76%	51,243	36.01%	1,763	1.23%	38,071	26.75%	142,320
Santa Clara	288,638	54.81%	229,865	43.65%	8,136	1.54%	58,773	11.16%	596,639
Santa Cruz	41,652	45.20%	49,091	53.27%	1,404	1.53%	-7,439	-8.07%	92,147
Shasta	33,041	62.19%	19,298	36.32%	788	1.49%	13,743	25.87%	53,127
Sierra	1,078	56.86%	781	41.19%	37	1.95%	297	15.67%	1,896
Siskiyou	10,544	58.25%	7,130	39.39%	427	2.36%	3,414	18.86%	18,101
Solano	51,678	54.51%	41,982	44.29%	1,138	1.20%	9,696	10.22%	94,798
Sonoma	76,447	51.08%	71,295	47.64%	1,915	1.28%	5,152	3.44%	149,657
Stanislaus	55,665	59.23%	37,459	39.86%	861	0.91%	18,206	19.37%	93,985
Sutter	14,477	71.23%	5,535	27.24%	311	1.53%	8,942	43.99%	20,323
Tehama	11,586	62.78%	6,527	35.37%	342	1.85%	5,059	27.41%	18,455
Trinity	3,544	59.71%	2,218	37.37%	173	2.92%	1,326	22.34%	5,935
Tulare	51,066	63.88%	28,065	35.11%	812	1.01%	23,001	28.77%	79,943
Tuolumne	10,485	58.09%	7,283	40.35%	283	1.56%	3,202	17.74%	18,051
Ventura	151,383	68.67%	66,550	30.19%	2,529	1.14%	84,833	38.48%	220,462
Yolo	24,329	47.84%	25,879	50.89%	645	1.27%	-1,550	-3.05%	50,853
Yuba	9,780	63.52%	5,339	34.68%	278	1.80%	4,441	28.84%	15,397
Total	5,467,009	57.51%	3,922,519	41.27%	115,895	1.22%	1,544,490	16.24%	9,505,423

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Marin
Santa Cruz

By congressional district

Reagan won 37 of the 45 congressional districts, including nineteen held by Democrats.

District	Reagan	Mondale	Representative
1st	52.96%	47.04%	Douglas H. Bosco
2nd	64.45%	35.55%	Eugene A. Chappie
3rd	55.32%	44.68%	Bob Matsui
4th	56.80%	43.20%	Vic Fazio
5th	33.74%	66.26%	Sala Burton
6th	42.90%	57.10%	Barbara Boxer
7th	52.47%	47.53%	George Miller
8th	33.92%	66.08%	Ron Dellums
9th	50.30%	49.70%	Pete Stark
10th	51.53%	48.47%	Don Edwards
11th	50.89%	49.11%	Tom Lantos
12th	57.92%	42.08%	Ed Zschau
13th	58.50%	41.50%	Norman Mineta
14th	65.19%	34.81%	Norman D. Shumway
15th	59.20%	40.80%	Tony Coelho
16th	53.12%	46.88%	Leon Panetta
17th	63.97%	36.03%	Chip Pashayan
18th	51.10%	48.90%	Richard Lehman
19th	63.09%	36.91%	Bob Lagomarsino
20th	70.16%	29.82%	Bill Thomas
21st	72.98%	27%	Bobbi Fiedler
22nd	73.28%	26.72%	Carlos Moorhead
23rd	53.30%	46.70%	Anthony Beilenson
24th	44.24%	55.76%	Henry Waxman
25th	39.11%	60.89%	Edward Roybal
26th	54.55%	45.45%	Howard Berman
27th	46.93%	53.07%	Mel Levine
28th	32.05%	67.95%	Julian Dixon
29th	21.99%	78.01%	Augustus Hawkins
30th	55.87%	44.13%	Matthew Martinez
31st	41.01%	58.99%	Mervyn Dymally
32nd	59.09%	40.91%	Glenn Anderson
33rd	70.68%	29.32%	David Dreier
34th	59.56%	40.44%	Ed Torres
35th	72.10%	27.90%	Jerry Lewis
36th	56.32%	43.68%	George Brown
37th	65.78%	34.22%	Al McCandless
38th	70.15%	J29.85%	Jerry M. Patterson
38th	70.15%	J29.85%	Bob Dornan
39th	77.91%	22.09%	William Dannemeyer
40th	75.83%	24.17%	Robert Badham
41st	64.85%	35.15%	Bill Lowery
42nd	73.10%	26.90%	Dan Lungren
43rd	74.98%	25.02%	Ron Packard
44th	52.70%	47.30%	Jim Bates
45th	71.97%	28.03%	Duncan Hunter

References

"Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
Ranney 1985, p. 54.
"1984 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved August 25, 2008.
"1984 United States Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District". Western Washington University. Retrieved July 25, 2024.

Notes

Along with Keweenaw County, Michigan, Marin County, California, Santa Cruz County, California, Tompkins County, New York, Arlington County, Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia, and Lane County, Oregon.

Works cited

Ranney, Austin, ed. (1985). The American Elections of 1984. Duke University Press. ISBN 0822302306.

[1] "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.

[how-3] Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016

[FOOTNOTERanney198554-4] Ranney 1985, p. 54.

[5] "1984 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved August 25, 2008.

[6] "1984 United States Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District". Western Washington University. Retrieved July 25, 2024.

[2] Along with Keweenaw County, Michigan, Marin County, California, Santa Cruz County, California, Tompkins County, New York, Arlington County, Virginia, Alexandria, Virginia, and Lane County, Oregon.