From February 20 to June 12, 1984, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1984 United States presidential election. Former Vice President Walter Mondale was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 1984 Democratic National Convention held from July 16 to July 19, 1984, in San Francisco, California.
Background
The Commission on Presidential Nomination was formed in July 1981, under the leadership of Jim Hunt. The commission sought to increase the power of elected officials, who could choose a more moderate and ideologically representative candidate. Alan Cranston, Gillis William Long, and Walter Mondale supported giving elected officials positions as uncommitted delegates while Ted Kennedy opposed it. The report was completed on February 5, 1982. The commission allocated 568 delegates, 14% of the total, to unelected superdelegates, who were party leaders and elected officials. The primary schedule was reduced to occur from March to June, with the exception of Iowa and New Hampshire.
411 of the superdelegates were elected officials and 157 were party officials. Members of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate accounted for 200 delegates. Mondale's campaign capitalized on this and Richard Moe, with 20 lobbyists, gained support for Mondale from members of Congress. Thomas Hale Boggs Jr. lobbied for congressional support for John Glenn.
Twenty-six primaries were held in 1984, less than the thirty-one in 1980. 54% of the delegates were selected using primaries which was a decline from the 72% in 1980, 32% was selected using caucuses, and the remainder were superdelegates. Ten states, six using a primary and four using a caucus, and Puerto Rico used a winner-take-all system. The minimum percentage needed to win delegates was raised from 15% to 20%.
Timeline
Overview and pre-contests
Kennedy, one of the leading possible candidates, announced in December 1982, that he would not run for the presidential nomination.
In June 1983, Cranston won a series of straw polls in Alabama, California, and Wisconsin and placed second in Massachusetts. Mondale won a straw poll in Maine in October. Glenn criticized the excessive spending on the straw poll as Cranston and Mondale both spent $100,000 and Hollings spent $25,000 while campaigning for it.
Jackson ended up winning 21% of the national primary vote but received only 8% of the delegates to the national convention, and he initially charged that his campaign was hurt by the same party rules that allowed Mondale to win. He also poured scorn on Mondale, saying that Hubert Humphrey was the "last significant politician out of the St. Paul-Minneapolis" area.
Colorado Senator Gary Hart was little-known when he announced his run February 1983, and barely received above 1% in the polls compared to other well-known figures. To counter this, Hart started campaigning early in New Hampshire, making a then-unprecedented canvassing tour in late September, months before the primary. This strategy attracted national media attention to his campaign, and by late 1983, he had risen moderately in the polls to the middle of the field, mostly at the expense of the sinking candidacies of John Glenn and Cranston.
Hart criticized Mondale as an "old-fashioned" Great Society Democrat who symbolized "failed policies" of the past. Hart positioned himself as a younger, fresher, and more moderate Democrat who could appeal to younger voters. He emerged as a formidable candidate, winning the key Ohio and California primaries as well as several others, especially in the West. However, Hart could not overcome Mondale's financial and organizational advantages, especially among labor union leaders in the Midwest and industrial Northeast. Hart was also badly hurt during a televised debate when Mondale used a popular television commercial slogan to ridicule Hart's vague "New Ideas" platform. Turning to Hart on camera, Mondale said that whenever he heard Hart talk about his "New Ideas", he was reminded of the Wendy's fast-food slogan "Where's the beef?". The remark drew loud laughter and applause from the audience and caught Hart off-guard. Hart never fully recovered from Mondale's charge that his "New Ideas" were shallow and lacking in specifics. Earlier in the same Democratic primary debate, Hart committed a serious faux pas that largely went underreported. Asked what he would do if an unidentified airplane flew over the Iron Curtain from a Warsaw Pact nation, Hart replied that he would send up a United States Air Force plane and instruct them to determine whether or not it was an enemy plane by looking in the cockpit window to see if the pilots were wearing uniforms. Fellow candidate John Glenn, a former Marine Corps fighter pilot, replied that this was physically impossible.
At a roundtable debate between the three remaining Democratic candidates moderated by Phil Donahue, Mondale and Hart got in such a heated argument over the issue of U.S. policy in Central America that Jackson had to tap his water glass on the table to get them to simmer down.
Jackson's campaign was bolstered after he led a delegation to Syria that convinced Hafez al-Assad to release Bobby Goodman in January 1984. Jackson received large and overwhelming positive news coverage. However, positive news coverage ended after he called Jews "Hymies" and New York City "Hymietown". Jackson was also criticized for his relation with Louis Farrakhan.
Early contests
Mondale won the Iowa caucus with a plurality of the vote. Glenn performed poorly and came in sixth. Hart's campaign was bolstered by his second place showing. Hart, despite not winning Iowa, was now viewed as the only viable opponent to Mondale. Hart was polling below 10% nationally in late February, but was polling above 30% by March 2, and near 40% by March 6.
Mondale led Glenn by two-to-one in New Hampshire and Glenn led Hart by two-to-one in New Hampshire in polling from March 1983 to February 1984. However, Hart's polling improved shortly before the primary and won in New Hampshire. Mondale and Hart both won 6 delegates, despite Hart's popular vote victory, due to mathematical distribution.
Reubin Askew, Alan Cranston, and Fritz Hollings ended their campaigns after their poor results in New Hampshire. Hart had incomplete delegate slates, such as him having 45 delegates slated for the 117 delegates up in Pennsylvania's primary. Hart adopted the delegate slates of withdrawn campaigns.
March contests
Glenn's campaign stated that he needed to win Alabama and perform well in Georgia. Mondale won the statewide popular vote in Georgia, but Hart won in more congressional districts and won a plurality of the state's delegates.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Illinois held their contests with a total of 510 delegates on March 13 as a part of Super Tuesday. The three leading candidates' delegate counts rose from 126 to 301 for Mondale, 17 to 164 for Hart, and 7 to 34 for Jackson.
Hollings was expected to win South Carolina as a favorite son candidate, but withdrew before the state held its caucus.
On March 31, the Kentucky precinct caucuses elected a plurality uncommitted delegation supported by Governor Martha Layne Collins. Mondale won the Virgin Islands caucus.
April contests
Hart won the Wisconsin primary, but none of the major candidates campaigned in the state due to the primary having no pledged delegates. Mondale won the caucus which was responsible for the allocation of 78 of the state's 89 delegates.
Mondale won strong victories in the New York and Pennsylvania primaries, solidifying his front runner status.
Louisiana cancelled its primary, as it was unable to afford the $1.5 million cost, and caucuses were held for both parties instead.
Last contests
On May 1, Jackson won Washington D.C. and Mondale won Tennessee. In order to gain the nomination Hart needed to win 91% of the remaining delegates after these contests.
Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, and Ohio held their contests with a total of 483 delegates on May 8 as part of Super Tuesday II. Hart's surprise victories in Ohio and Indiana were a setback for Mondale, delaying him from clinching the nomination.
Mondale gradually pulled away from Hart in the delegate count, but the race was not decided until June, on Super Tuesday III. Decided that day were delegates from five states: South Dakota, New Mexico, West Virginia, and the big prizes of California and New Jersey. The proportional nature of delegate selection meant that Mondale was likely to obtain enough delegates on that day to secure the stated support of an overall majority of delegates, and hence the nomination, no matter who actually "won" the states contested. However, Hart maintained that unpledged superdelegates that had previously claimed support for Mondale would shift to his side if he swept the Super Tuesday III primary. Once again, Hart committed a faux pas, insulting New Jersey shortly before the primary day. Campaigning in California, he remarked that while the "bad news" was that he and his wife Lee had to campaign separately, "[t]he good news for her is that she campaigns in California while I campaign in New Jersey." Compounding the problem, when his wife interjected that she "got to hold a koala bear," Hart replied that "I won't tell you what I got to hold: samples from a toxic-waste dump." While Hart won California, he decisively lost New Jersey after leading in polls by as much as 15 points.
North Dakota held its first presidential primary, but no delegates were bound by it. Hart won the primary against Lyndon LaRouche, the only other candidate on the ballot.
McGovern endorsed Mondale on July 11, and instructed his 23 delegates to vote for Mondale. Mondale was already 28 delegates above the minimum required to win.
Mondale had the support of 81 state chairs and vice-chairs, Hart had 13, Jackson had 1, and 19 were uncommitted one week before the convention. The final CBS poll of delegates before the convention showed that among the superdelegates 384 supported Mondale, 58 supported Hart, 25 supported Jackson, and 101 were uncommitted.
Convention and aftermath
By the time the Democratic Convention started in San Francisco, Mondale had more than enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination. However, after Mondale's landslide loss to Ronald Reagan, Hart would quickly emerge as the frontrunner for the 1988 Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He would maintain that status until a sex scandal derailed his candidacy in 1987.
Mondale's nomination marked only the fifth time that the Democratic Party nominated a private citizen for President (i.e., not serving in an official government role at the time of the nomination and election), following former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter in 1976, who followed former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II in 1956, who followed former West Virginia Congressman John W. Davis in 1924, who was preceded by former President Grover Cleveland in 1892. The Democratic Party did not nominate another private citizen until former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in 2016. Four years later, the party nominated former vice president Joe Biden. Of the seven private-citizen Democratic nominees, Jimmy Carter, Grover Cleveland, and Joe Biden won their respective presidential elections.
Analysis
Mondale performed best in states with primaries. Hart won more states than Mondale and performed better both in primaries, with 16 victories out of 27, and caucuses, with 13 victories out of 23, but he won in states with lower delegate counts and which allotted them proportionally. Mondale won four of the five winner-take-all states. His plurality victories gave him all of Pennsylvania's 80 delegates and 102 of New Jersey's 107 delegates. Mondale's strong support among superdelegates meant that the delegations of five states won by Hart (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Indiana, Ohio, and New Mexico) were controlled by Mondale.