The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for North Dakota, with over 98% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, though several parties appeared on the ballot.[1] Every county gave either Mondale or Reagan a majority; the vast majority—all but two—gave Reagan a majority. Reagan's best county was McIntosh County, where he got 81.5% of the vote; Mondale's was Sioux County, where he got 58.6% of the vote. Reagan exceeded 70% in 15 counties, including Stark (Dickinson), the state's seventh-largest at the time.
North Dakota weighed in for this election as 13% more Republican than the national average. Reagan won North Dakota by a landslide 31-point margin. His 64.84% vote share made it his twelfth-best state. He carried every county in the state save the majority Native American counties of Sioux and Rolette; he had previously carried Sioux County in 1980. He performed well in both the more populous counties—earning over 60% of the vote in Cass County (Fargo) and Grand Forks County (Grand Forks), and over 2/3 of the vote in Burleigh County (Bismarck) and Ward County (Minot)--as well as in its more rural areas. In only eight counties (including the two he lost) did his vote share even dip below his national share of 58.8%, and in only two (Sargent and Benson) was the margin less than 5%. None of these counties cast more than 4,000 votes.
Apart from its vote for Woodrow Wilson in 1912, the election where the Republican Party was badly split between Theodore Roosevelt's progressive Bull Moose Party and William Howard Taft's conservative supporters; the nationally close election of 1916 and its vote for PopulistJames Weaver in 1892, North Dakota has been a typically Republican state since its admittance in 1889. Indeed, no Republican has won the White House without North Dakota since its admittance to the Union. Alone amongst the free-soilPlains West states, it resisted the appeal of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, and was Warren Harding's best state in 1920. Even so, Reagan's victory in the state was one of the stronger ones compared to other recent Republican landslide winners. His vote share exceeded, for example, Nixon's in 1972 and Eisenhower's in 1956 (although not Eisenhower's in 1952). Reagan's particularly strong appeal in the Flickertail State was first on display in 1980, when Reagan exceeded his national vote share by over 10% in the state (already exceeding the vote shares won by both Nixon in 1972 and Eisenhower in 1956). Reagan's 64.84% vote share would remain unsurpassed until 2020, when Donald Trump received 65.11% in the state. Even so, North Dakota was the state that trended most strongly Democratic in 1984, as Mondale lost the state by 7% less than Carter had done in 1980.[2]
For the 16th election in a row, North Dakota voted the same as the other three free-soil Plains West states (South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas). Since the Dakotas were admitted to the Union in 1889, the four states have disagreed only in 1892, 1896, 1912, and 1916. This region has been a stronghold for the Republican Party since shortly after its founding and, aside from partial flirtations with Bryan and Wilson, has remained so ever since.
Results
1984 United States presidential election in North Dakota
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