Challenge: Describe a Reagan '80/Mondale '84 voter

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Farm crisis again.

Marin County, CA is a combination of subtracting Anderson and adding the obvious D trend.

Tompkins County, NY (Cornell University, today the most Democratic county in upstate New York) also flipped from like 41-40 Reagan '80 with Anderson taking double digits to Mondale '84. (And like Marin has never looked back)

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

There are actually a whole scattering of counties which flipped from Reagan '80 to Mondale '84, but these mostly counties Reagan only won with pluralities while Anderson took a lot of votes away from Carter, while in 1984 those Anderson voters returned to Mondale.

As mentioned, you have Marin and Santa Cruz, California, both strong Anderson counties, and the whole Bay Area was obviously trending Dem by the 80s. Tompkins County, New York, again, barely went to Reagan in 1980 since it was Anderson's best county in the state but flipped to Mondale in 1984.

Other examples are Rock Island, Illinois; Jefferson and Cowlitz, Washington; and Denver, Colorado.

Mondale also picked up majority-Reagan '80 Apache County, Arizona, which has since become a Democratic stronghold.

A whole bunch of counties of course flipped blue in Iowa due to the farm crisis, and it was one of the closest/most Democratic states in 84, just like Iowa was nearly painted in blue in '88 as one of Dukakis's best states.

Minnesota, while voting narrowly for Carter '80 and much more narrowly for Mondale '84, had a bunch of counties flip in both directions to produce that result.


1980


1984