1984 Democratic National Convention

Infobox National Political Convention
year = 1984
party = Democratic
date = July 16 - July 19
venue = Moscone Center
city = San Francisco, California
presidential_nominee = Walter Mondale
presidential_nominee_state = Minnesota
vice_presidential_nominee = Geraldine Ferraro
vice_presidential_nominee_state = New York

The 1984 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select a candidate for the 1984 United States presidential election. At the convention Walter Mondale was nominated for President and Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President. Ferraro became the first woman to be nominated by either party for the Presidency or Vice-Presidency. In another first, the 1984 Democratic Convention was chaired by the female governor of Kentucky, Martha Layne Collins.cite book|title=Ferraro: My Story|year=1986|author=Ferraro, Geraldine.|publisher=Bantam, New York, New York|isbn=0553051105]

Events of the Convention

New York Governor Mario Cuomo gave a well-received keynote speech. The speech is available online at [http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html American Rhetoric's] top 100 speeches, number eleven. Mondale's major rivals for the nomination, Senator Hart and Rev. Jackson, also gave speeches.

Jackson also attempted to move the party's platform farther to the left at the Convention, but without much success. He did succeed in one instance, concerning affirmative action.cite news |title=The Jackson Factor |url=http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11993033 |publisher="The Economist" |date=1984-07-21 |accessdate=2008-08-28 ]

Voting

President

The candidates for U.S. president earned the following numbers of delegates: [ [http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=58503 Our Campaigns - US President - D Convention Race - Jul 16, 1984 ] ]
*Walter Mondale - 2,191 (56.41%)
*Gary Hart - 1,201 (30.92%)
*Jesse Jackson - 466 (12.00%)
*Thomas Eagleton - 18 (0.46%)
*George McGovern - 4 (0.10%)
*John Glenn - 2 (0.05%)
*Joe Biden - 1 (0.03%)
*Martha Kirkland - 1 (0.03%)

Jesse Jackson unsuccessfully called for the suspension of the party's electoral rules to give him a number of delegates closer to the 20% average share of the vote he garnered during the primaries. The system tended to punish shallow showings as yielding no delegates at all, hence Jackson's smaller delegate count than would be expected (12%).

Vice-President

Geraldine Ferraro was nominated as the first woman to receive a major party nomination by acclamation on a voice vote.

ee also

*1984 Democratic Presidential Primaries

Notes

sequence
prev=1980
list=Democratic National Conventions
next=1988