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County results
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| Elections in North Dakota | ||||||||
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The1984 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states andthe District of Columbia, were part of the1984 United States presidential election. State voters chose three electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president of the United States.North Dakota was won by incumbent United StatesPresidentRonald Reagan ofCalifornia, who was running against formerVice PresidentWalter Mondale ofMinnesota. Reagan ran for a second time with formerC.I.A. DirectorGeorge H. W. Bush ofTexas, and Mondale ran withRepresentativeGeraldine Ferraro ofNew York, the first major female candidate for the vice presidency.
The presidential election of 1984 was a verypartisan election for North Dakota, with over 98% of the electorate voting for either theDemocratic orRepublican 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 wasMcIntosh County, where he got 81.5% of the vote; Mondale's wasSioux County, where he got 58.6% of the vote. Reagan exceeded 70% in 15 counties, includingStark (Dickinson), the state's seventh-largest at the time.
North Dakota weighed in for this election as 13% moreRepublican 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 ofSioux andRolette; he had previously carried Sioux County in 1980. He performed well in both the more populous counties—earning over 60% of the vote inCass County (Fargo) andGrand Forks County (Grand Forks), and over 2/3 of the vote inBurleigh County (Bismarck) andWard 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 andBenson) was the margin less than 5%. None of these counties cast more than 4,000 votes.
Apart from its vote forWoodrow Wilson in1912, the election where theRepublican Party was badly split betweenTheodore Roosevelt's progressiveBull Moose Party andWilliam Howard Taft's conservative supporters; the nationally close election of1916 and its vote forPopulistJames Weaver in1892, 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 thefree-soilPlains West states, it resisted the appeal ofWilliam Jennings Bryan in1896, and wasWarren Harding's best state in1920. 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 in1972 andEisenhower's in1956 (although not Eisenhower's in1952). Reagan's particularly strong appeal in the Flickertail State was first on display in1980, 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 until2020, whenDonald 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, andKansas). Since the Dakotas were admitted to the Union in 1889, the four states have disagreed only in1892,1896,1912, and1916. This region has been a stronghold for the Republican Party since shortly after its founding and, aside from partial flirtations withBryan andWilson, has remained so ever since.
| 1984 United States presidential election in North Dakota | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Ronald Reagan (incumbent) | 200,336 | 64.84% | 3 | |
| Democratic-NPL | Walter Mondale | 104,429 | 33.80% | 0 | |
| Independent | Lyndon LaRouche | 1,278 | 0.41% | 0 | |
| America First | Bob Richards | 1,077 | 0.35% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | David Bergland | 703 | 0.23% | 0 | |
| Citizen's Party | Sonia Johnson | 368 | 0.12% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers Party | Melvin Mason | 239 | 0.08% | 0 | |
| Prohibition | Earl Dodge | 220 | 0.07% | 0 | |
| Communist Party | Gus Hall | 169 | 0.05% | 0 | |
| New Alliance Party | Dennis Serrette | 152 | 0.05% | 0 | |
| Totals | 308,971 | 100.00% | 3 | ||
| County[3] | Ronald Reagan Republican | Walter Mondale Democratic-NPL | Lyndon LaRouche Independent | Bob Richards America First | David Bergland Libertarian | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Adams | 1,343 | 70.68% | 530 | 27.89% | 17 | 0.89% | 5 | 0.26% | 3 | 0.16% | 2 | 0.11% | 813 | 42.79% | 1,900 |
| Barnes | 4,348 | 62.79% | 2,507 | 36.20% | 18 | 0.26% | 20 | 0.29% | 10 | 0.14% | 22 | 0.32% | 1,841 | 26.59% | 6,925 |
| Benson | 1,729 | 51.41% | 1,599 | 47.55% | 17 | 0.51% | 5 | 0.15% | 5 | 0.15% | 8 | 0.24% | 130 | 3.86% | 3,363 |
| Billings | 505 | 77.34% | 133 | 20.37% | 5 | 0.77% | 8 | 1.23% | 1 | 0.15% | 1 | 0.15% | 372 | 56.97% | 653 |
| Bottineau | 3,356 | 71.59% | 1,279 | 27.28% | 24 | 0.51% | 12 | 0.26% | 6 | 0.13% | 11 | 0.23% | 2,077 | 44.31% | 4,688 |
| Bowman | 1,559 | 72.55% | 562 | 26.15% | 12 | 0.56% | 6 | 0.28% | 1 | 0.05% | 9 | 0.42% | 997 | 46.40% | 2,149 |
| Burke | 1,298 | 69.45% | 543 | 29.05% | 11 | 0.59% | 14 | 0.75% | 2 | 0.11% | 1 | 0.05% | 755 | 40.40% | 1,869 |
| Burleigh | 19,913 | 68.25% | 8,781 | 30.10% | 149 | 0.51% | 135 | 0.46% | 77 | 0.26% | 121 | 0.41% | 11,132 | 38.15% | 29,176 |
| Cass | 29,221 | 61.35% | 18,054 | 37.91% | 89 | 0.19% | 40 | 0.08% | 121 | 0.25% | 104 | 0.22% | 11,167 | 23.44% | 47,629 |
| Cavalier | 2,661 | 69.95% | 1,110 | 29.18% | 13 | 0.34% | 9 | 0.24% | 4 | 0.11% | 7 | 0.18% | 1,551 | 40.77% | 3,804 |
| Dickey | 2,460 | 69.37% | 1,051 | 29.64% | 18 | 0.51% | 5 | 0.14% | 2 | 0.06% | 10 | 0.28% | 1,409 | 39.73% | 3,546 |
| Divide | 1,165 | 63.32% | 626 | 34.02% | 39 | 2.12% | 6 | 0.33% | 1 | 0.05% | 3 | 0.16% | 539 | 29.30% | 1,840 |
| Dunn | 1,583 | 68.12% | 716 | 30.81% | 10 | 0.43% | 9 | 0.39% | 1 | 0.04% | 5 | 0.22% | 867 | 37.31% | 2,324 |
| Eddy | 1,049 | 56.40% | 796 | 42.80% | 4 | 0.22% | 1 | 0.05% | 8 | 0.43% | 2 | 0.11% | 253 | 13.60% | 1,860 |
| Emmons | 1,885 | 73.46% | 620 | 24.16% | 24 | 0.94% | 21 | 0.82% | 2 | 0.08% | 14 | 0.55% | 1,265 | 49.30% | 2,566 |
| Foster | 1,422 | 64.23% | 765 | 34.55% | 13 | 0.59% | 3 | 0.14% | 4 | 0.18% | 7 | 0.32% | 657 | 29.68% | 2,214 |
| Golden Valley | 964 | 73.09% | 325 | 24.64% | 17 | 1.29% | 5 | 0.38% | 4 | 0.30% | 4 | 0.30% | 639 | 48.45% | 1,319 |
| Grand Forks | 15,898 | 60.70% | 10,050 | 38.37% | 52 | 0.20% | 33 | 0.13% | 85 | 0.32% | 73 | 0.28% | 5,848 | 22.33% | 26,191 |
| Grant | 1,607 | 74.92% | 507 | 23.64% | 19 | 0.89% | 2 | 0.09% | 4 | 0.19% | 6 | 0.28% | 1,100 | 51.28% | 2,145 |
| Griggs | 1,254 | 59.89% | 828 | 39.54% | 2 | 0.10% | 3 | 0.14% | 4 | 0.19% | 3 | 0.14% | 426 | 20.35% | 2,094 |
| Hettinger | 1,646 | 74.75% | 524 | 23.80% | 17 | 0.77% | 7 | 0.32% | 2 | 0.09% | 6 | 0.27% | 1,122 | 50.95% | 2,202 |
| Kidder | 1,240 | 68.62% | 506 | 28.00% | 11 | 0.61% | 39 | 2.16% | 2 | 0.11% | 9 | 0.50% | 734 | 40.62% | 1,807 |
| LaMoure | 1,978 | 63.64% | 1,086 | 34.94% | 15 | 0.48% | 7 | 0.23% | 6 | 0.19% | 16 | 0.51% | 892 | 28.70% | 3,108 |
| Logan | 1,222 | 72.91% | 401 | 23.93% | 3 | 0.18% | 41 | 2.45% | 2 | 0.12% | 7 | 0.42% | 821 | 48.98% | 1,676 |
| McHenry | 2,485 | 65.38% | 1,283 | 33.75% | 19 | 0.50% | 10 | 0.26% | 2 | 0.05% | 2 | 0.05% | 1,202 | 31.63% | 3,801 |
| McIntosh | 2,047 | 81.46% | 427 | 16.99% | 12 | 0.48% | 8 | 0.32% | 1 | 0.04% | 18 | 0.72% | 1,620 | 64.47% | 2,513 |
| McKenzie | 2,610 | 71.96% | 974 | 26.85% | 15 | 0.41% | 9 | 0.25% | 14 | 0.39% | 5 | 0.14% | 1,636 | 45.11% | 3,627 |
| McLean | 3,673 | 62.82% | 2,062 | 35.27% | 30 | 0.51% | 44 | 0.75% | 11 | 0.19% | 27 | 0.46% | 1,611 | 27.55% | 5,847 |
| Mercer | 3,705 | 67.24% | 1,729 | 31.38% | 28 | 0.51% | 24 | 0.44% | 11 | 0.20% | 13 | 0.24% | 1,976 | 35.86% | 5,510 |
| Morton | 7,146 | 62.93% | 3,996 | 35.19% | 61 | 0.54% | 70 | 0.62% | 19 | 0.17% | 64 | 0.56% | 3,150 | 27.74% | 11,356 |
| Mountrail | 1,959 | 55.11% | 1,565 | 44.02% | 17 | 0.48% | 4 | 0.11% | 3 | 0.08% | 7 | 0.20% | 394 | 11.09% | 3,555 |
| Nelson | 1,445 | 57.50% | 1,026 | 40.83% | 10 | 0.40% | 14 | 0.56% | 9 | 0.36% | 9 | 0.36% | 419 | 16.67% | 2,513 |
| Oliver | 915 | 67.43% | 419 | 30.88% | 8 | 0.59% | 6 | 0.44% | 2 | 0.15% | 7 | 0.52% | 496 | 36.55% | 1,357 |
| Pembina | 2,895 | 65.99% | 1,367 | 31.16% | 24 | 0.55% | 58 | 1.32% | 29 | 0.66% | 14 | 0.32% | 1,528 | 34.83% | 4,387 |
| Pierce | 1,883 | 71.71% | 691 | 26.31% | 18 | 0.69% | 16 | 0.61% | 6 | 0.23% | 12 | 0.46% | 1,192 | 45.40% | 2,626 |
| Ramsey | 4,150 | 63.33% | 2,304 | 35.16% | 34 | 0.52% | 16 | 0.24% | 15 | 0.23% | 34 | 0.52% | 1,846 | 28.17% | 6,553 |
| Ransom | 1,706 | 59.38% | 1,122 | 39.05% | 11 | 0.38% | 5 | 0.17% | 8 | 0.28% | 21 | 0.73% | 584 | 20.33% | 2,873 |
| Renville | 1,163 | 65.56% | 592 | 33.37% | 13 | 0.73% | 4 | 0.23% | 1 | 0.06% | 1 | 0.06% | 571 | 32.19% | 1,774 |
| Richland | 5,980 | 65.48% | 3,047 | 33.36% | 27 | 0.30% | 36 | 0.39% | 13 | 0.14% | 30 | 0.33% | 2,933 | 32.12% | 9,133 |
| Rolette | 1,479 | 39.43% | 2,179 | 58.09% | 22 | 0.59% | 25 | 0.67% | 14 | 0.37% | 32 | 0.85% | -700 | -18.66% | 3,751 |
| Sargent | 1,385 | 50.83% | 1,295 | 47.52% | 17 | 0.62% | 7 | 0.26% | 2 | 0.07% | 19 | 0.70% | 90 | 3.31% | 2,725 |
| Sheridan | 1,075 | 77.01% | 306 | 21.92% | 8 | 0.57% | 3 | 0.21% | 2 | 0.14% | 2 | 0.14% | 769 | 55.09% | 1,396 |
| Sioux | 442 | 39.53% | 655 | 58.59% | 12 | 1.07% | 3 | 0.27% | 2 | 0.18% | 4 | 0.36% | -213 | -19.06% | 1,118 |
| Slope | 419 | 69.26% | 174 | 28.76% | 4 | 0.66% | 7 | 1.16% | 1 | 0.17% | 0 | 0.00% | 245 | 40.50% | 605 |
| Stark | 7,641 | 71.15% | 2,759 | 25.69% | 63 | 0.59% | 63 | 0.59% | 47 | 0.44% | 167 | 1.55% | 4,882 | 45.46% | 10,740 |
| Steele | 941 | 54.08% | 781 | 44.89% | 6 | 0.34% | 3 | 0.17% | 4 | 0.23% | 5 | 0.29% | 160 | 9.19% | 1,740 |
| Stutsman | 6,591 | 64.57% | 3,495 | 34.24% | 30 | 0.29% | 40 | 0.39% | 20 | 0.20% | 32 | 0.31% | 3,096 | 30.33% | 10,208 |
| Towner | 1,242 | 60.15% | 789 | 38.21% | 10 | 0.48% | 14 | 0.68% | 5 | 0.24% | 5 | 0.24% | 453 | 21.94% | 2,065 |
| Traill | 3,037 | 64.70% | 1,580 | 33.66% | 21 | 0.45% | 28 | 0.60% | 12 | 0.26% | 16 | 0.34% | 1,457 | 31.04% | 4,694 |
| Walsh | 4,347 | 64.84% | 2,264 | 33.77% | 26 | 0.39% | 13 | 0.19% | 22 | 0.33% | 32 | 0.48% | 2,083 | 31.07% | 6,704 |
| Ward | 16,077 | 68.06% | 7,336 | 31.05% | 75 | 0.32% | 57 | 0.24% | 32 | 0.14% | 46 | 0.19% | 8,741 | 37.01% | 23,623 |
| Wells | 2,426 | 69.20% | 1,036 | 29.55% | 17 | 0.48% | 20 | 0.57% | 2 | 0.06% | 5 | 0.14% | 1,390 | 39.65% | 3,506 |
| Williams | 8,166 | 70.87% | 3,177 | 27.57% | 41 | 0.36% | 36 | 0.31% | 42 | 0.36% | 61 | 0.53% | 4,989 | 43.30% | 11,523 |
| Totals | 200,336 | 64.84% | 104,429 | 33.80% | 1,278 | 0.41% | 1,077 | 0.35% | 703 | 0.23% | 1,148 | 0.37% | 95,907 | 31.04% | 308,971 |