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The 1984 United States presidential election in West Virginia took place on November 6, 1984. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1984 United States presidential election. West Virginia voters chose 6 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States. West Virginia 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.

The presidential election of 1984 was a very partisan election for West Virginia, with over 99% of the electorate voting for either the Democratic or Republican parties, and only five parties appearing on the ballot.[1] Most counties turned out for Reagan except for a bloc of heavily unionized, coal-dependent counties in the southern part of the state bordering Virginia and Kentucky.

Reagan won the election in West Virginia by a decisive 10.6 percentage point margin. While a comfortable victory, this made West Virginia 7.6 percentage points more Democratic than the nation at large, as well as Walter Mondale's ninth-best state. Mondale's greatest strength came from heavily unionized southern West Virginia, where he broke 60% in McDowell, Logan, Mingo, Boone, and Fayette Counties; he also carried a number of counties in central West Virginia and two in the Northern Panhandle. Reagan comfortably carried Kanawha County, the state's biggest county and one that was less typically Democratic at the time than some others in the state (having voted to re-elect Carter by only 0.3 percent), and also carried the state's other then-typically Democratic population centers, Harrison County (Clarksburg), Raleigh County (Beckley), and Monongalia County (Morgantown), by margins ranging from narrow to substantial. He won the swing population center of Cabell County (Huntington) by about the same as his national margin, and got over 2/3 of the vote in the state's largest typically Republican county, Wood County (Parkersburg).

Results

1984 United States presidential election in West Virginia
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan (incumbent) 405,483 55.11% 6
Democratic Walter Mondale 328,125 44.60% 0
America First Bob Richards 996 0.14% 0
Socialist Workers Party Melvin Mason 645 0.09% 0
New Alliance Party Dennis Serrette 493 0.07% 0
Totals 735,742 100.00% 6

Results by county

1984 United States presidential election in West Virginia by county[2]
County Ronald Wilson Reagan
Republican
Walter Frederick Mondale
Democratic
Robert Eugene Richards
Populist
Melvin T. Mason
Socialist Workers
Dennis L. Serrette
West Virginia Alliance
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Barbour 3,877 55.43% 3,108 44.43% 6 0.09% 2 0.03% 2 0.03% 769 10.99% 6,995
Berkeley 12,887 67.50% 6,181 32.37% 14 0.07% 7 0.04% 3 0.02% 6,706 35.12% 19,092
Boone 4,656 39.39% 7,121 60.24% 19 0.16% 16 0.14% 9 0.08% -2,465 -20.85% 11,821
Braxton 2,902 46.32% 3,350 53.47% 7 0.11% 3 0.05% 3 0.05% -448 -7.15% 6,265
Brooke 4,819 41.91% 6,636 57.71% 18 0.16% 13 0.11% 12 0.10% -1,817 -15.80% 11,498
Cabell 21,815 58.26% 15,513 41.43% 56 0.15% 33 0.09% 28 0.07% 6,302 16.83% 37,445
Calhoun 1,765 53.88% 1,473 44.96% 8 0.24% 29 0.89% 1 0.03% 292 8.91% 3,276
Clay 1,667 43.91% 2,117 55.77% 5 0.13% 5 0.13% 2 0.05% -450 -11.85% 3,796
Doddridge 2,343 73.33% 836 26.17% 9 0.28% 4 0.13% 3 0.09% 1,507 47.17% 3,195
Fayette 7,360 38.56% 11,650 61.04% 46 0.24% 16 0.08% 14 0.07% -4,290 -22.48% 19,086
Gilmer 1,953 56.58% 1,494 43.28% 4 0.12% 1 0.03% 0 0.00% 459 13.30% 3,452
Grant 3,715 81.58% 828 18.18% 4 0.09% 4 0.09% 3 0.07% 2,887 63.39% 4,554
Greenbrier 7,337 56.55% 5,599 43.16% 18 0.14% 9 0.07% 11 0.08% 1,738 13.40% 12,974
Hampshire 4,065 65.70% 2,102 33.97% 8 0.13% 4 0.06% 8 0.13% 1,963 31.73% 6,187
Hancock 7,326 45.44% 8,708 54.01% 34 0.21% 28 0.17% 28 0.17% -1,382 -8.57% 16,124
Hardy 2,938 64.05% 1,641 35.78% 2 0.04% 2 0.04% 4 0.09% 1,297 28.28% 4,587
Harrison 19,400 56.33% 14,969 43.47% 32 0.09% 21 0.06% 15 0.04% 4,431 12.87% 34,437
Jackson 7,117 62.93% 4,147 36.67% 24 0.21% 7 0.06% 15 0.13% 2,970 26.26% 11,310
Jefferson 5,884 58.06% 4,216 41.60% 18 0.18% 10 0.10% 6 0.06% 1,668 16.46% 10,134
Kanawha 51,499 57.51% 37,832 42.25% 81 0.09% 84 0.09% 46 0.05% 13,667 15.26% 89,542
Lewis 5,297 65.96% 2,693 33.53% 32 0.40% 9 0.11% 0 0.00% 2,604 32.42% 8,031
Lincoln 4,405 44.49% 5,467 55.21% 15 0.15% 11 0.11% 4 0.04% -1,062 -10.73% 9,902
Logan 6,425 36.96% 10,892 62.66% 23 0.13% 25 0.14% 17 0.10% -4,467 -25.70% 17,382
Marion 13,106 48.50% 13,833 51.20% 52 0.19% 24 0.09% 5 0.02% -727 -2.69% 27,020
Marshall 8,615 51.85% 7,947 47.83% 17 0.10% 13 0.08% 24 0.14% 668 4.02% 16,616
Mason 6,648 53.64% 5,701 46.00% 17 0.14% 11 0.09% 16 0.13% 947 7.64% 12,393
McDowell 4,284 33.25% 8,546 66.34% 13 0.10% 31 0.24% 9 0.07% -4,262 -33.08% 12,883
Mercer 13,910 60.07% 9,164 39.58% 43 0.19% 20 0.09% 18 0.08% 4,746 20.50% 23,155
Mineral 7,291 65.46% 3,832 34.40% 10 0.09% 4 0.04% 1 0.01% 3,459 31.06% 11,138
Mingo 4,275 33.59% 8,434 66.27% 6 0.05% 7 0.06% 4 0.03% -4,159 -32.68% 12,726
Monongalia 14,972 52.95% 13,236 46.81% 23 0.08% 27 0.10% 16 0.06% 1,736 6.14% 28,274
Monroe 3,612 60.67% 2,333 39.18% 5 0.08% 3 0.05% 1 0.02% 1,279 21.48% 5,954
Morgan 3,469 70.34% 1,457 29.54% 5 0.10% 1 0.02% 0 0.00% 2,012 40.79% 4,932
Nicholas 4,656 50.21% 4,588 49.48% 16 0.17% 5 0.05% 8 0.09% 68 0.73% 9,273
Ohio 13,447 56.83% 10,163 42.95% 24 0.10% 13 0.05% 15 0.06% 3,284 13.88% 23,662
Pendleton 2,047 58.19% 1,464 41.61% 5 0.14% 2 0.06% 0 0.00% 583 16.57% 3,518
Pleasants 2,255 60.54% 1,458 39.14% 6 0.16% 2 0.05% 4 0.11% 797 21.40% 3,725
Pocahontas 2,479 56.52% 1,903 43.39% 2 0.05% 1 0.02% 1 0.02% 576 13.13% 4,386
Preston 6,955 63.05% 4,054 36.75% 8 0.07% 7 0.06% 7 0.06% 2,901 26.30% 11,031
Putnam 9,238 63.75% 5,208 35.94% 20 0.14% 13 0.09% 13 0.09% 4,030 27.81% 14,492
Raleigh 14,571 50.03% 14,442 49.59% 68 0.23% 24 0.08% 17 0.06% 129 0.44% 29,122
Randolph 6,100 55.64% 4,839 44.14% 11 0.10% 7 0.06% 7 0.06% 1,261 11.50% 10,964
Ritchie 3,355 72.79% 1,231 26.71% 17 0.37% 5 0.11% 1 0.02% 2,124 46.08% 4,609
Roane 3,751 60.11% 2,468 39.55% 9 0.14% 8 0.13% 4 0.06% 1,283 20.56% 6,240
Summers 2,975 52.57% 2,670 47.18% 4 0.07% 4 0.07% 6 0.11% 305 5.39% 5,659
Taylor 4,007 59.23% 2,754 40.71% 1 0.01% 2 0.03% 1 0.01% 1,253 18.52% 6,765
Tucker 2,240 55.80% 1,766 44.00% 8 0.20% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 474 11.81% 4,014
Tyler 3,170 69.29% 1,395 30.49% 3 0.07% 4 0.09% 3 0.07% 1,775 38.80% 4,575
Upshur 5,951 70.29% 2,468 29.15% 26 0.31% 5 0.06% 16 0.19% 3,483 41.14% 8,466
Wayne 8,811 51.12% 8,378 48.61% 23 0.13% 11 0.06% 13 0.08% 433 2.51% 17,236
Webster 1,565 39.86% 2,355 59.98% 5 0.13% 1 0.03% 0 0.00% -790 -20.12% 3,926
Wetzel 4,626 56.37% 3,549 43.24% 7 0.09% 15 0.18% 10 0.12% 1,077 13.12% 8,207
Wirt 1,450 62.45% 868 37.38% 1 0.04% 3 0.13% 0 0.00% 582 25.06% 2,322
Wood 24,821 68.42% 11,357 31.30% 66 0.18% 18 0.05% 17 0.05% 13,464 37.11% 36,279
Wyoming 5,379 48.48% 5,691 51.29% 10 0.09% 15 0.14% 0 0.00% -312 -2.81% 11,095
Total 405,483 55.11% 328,125 44.60% 996 0.14% 645 0.09% 493 0.07% 77,358 10.51% 735,742

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Analysis

Reagan's best county was the Unionist and ancestrally Republican Grant County, where no Democrat has ever reached forty percent and which gave Reagan over eighty percent of its ballots. His strongest performances, in general, were in the northeast of the state, where, along with strong support from Grant and likewise unionist and ancestrally Republican Morgan County, he also did well in Hampshire and Hardy Counties, which had begun to transition from typically Democratic to typically Republican in 1968; and along the middle portion of West Virginia's river border with Ohio. Both were typically Republican-leaning regions within what was otherwise an overall Democratic state at the time. Republicans would not win the state again until 2000. West Virginia was one of five states, alongside Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland and Rhode Island, that Reagan lost in 1980 but won in 1984.

See also

References

  1. ^ "1984 Presidential General Election Results — West Virginia". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved November 11, 2013.
  2. ^ "WV US President — November 06, 1984". Our Campaigns.