The 1984 Democratic National Convention was held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California from July 16 to July 19, 1984, to select candidates for the 1984 United States presidential election. Former Vice President Walter Mondale was nominated for president and Representative Geraldine Ferraro of New York was nominated for vice president. Ferraro became the first woman to be nominated by either major party for the presidency or vice presidency. In another first, the 1984 Democratic Convention was chaired by the governor of Kentucky, Martha Layne Collins. The Democratic National Committee Chairman at the time, Charles T. Manatt, led the convention.

Site selection

+ Finalist bid cities City Venue Previous major party conventions hosted by city Chicago, Illinois McCormick Place Democratic: 1864, 1884, 1892, 1896, 1932, 1940, 1944, 1952, 1956, 1968Republican: 1860, 1868, 1880, 1884, 1888, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1952, 1960 Detroit, Michigan Joe Louis Arena and Cobo Hall Republican: 1980 New York City, New York Madison Square Garden Democratic: 1868, 1924, 1976, 1980 San Francisco, California Moscone Center Democratic: 1920Republican: 1956,** 1964** Washington, D.C. Washington Convention Center **Conventions held in Daly City, California, a municipality adjacent to San Francisco

+ Preliminary bid cities (non-finalist): City Venue Previous major party conventions hosted by city Houston, Texas Astrodome Democratic: 1928 Kansas City, Missouri Democratic: 1900Republican: 1928, 1976 Miami Beach, Florida Democratic: 1972Republican: 1968, 1972 New Orleans, Louisiana Louisiana Superdome Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Democratic: 1936, 1948Republican: 1856, 1872, 1900, 1940, 1948Whig: 1848 Seattle, Washington Kingdome

Logistics The convention was the first to utilize the rule changes recommended by the Hunt Commission in response to the protracted 1980 Democratic Party presidential primaries between Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy, including the use of superdelegates.National Party Conventions: 1831-1996. Internet Archive. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly. 1997. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-1-56802-280-2.

The San Francisco Hilton served as the convention's headquarters hotel. It had previously been the headquarters hotel of the 1964 Republican National Convention.

Nancy Pelosi served as chair of the convention's host committee.

The convention cost in excess of $20 million to stage. $9 million was provided by the City of San Francisco's government itself.

Events of the Convention

Walter Mondale was nominated for president and Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for vice president.

New York Governor Mario Cuomo gave a well-received keynote speech. Mondale's major rivals for the presidential nomination, Senator Gary Hart and Rev. Jesse Jackson, also gave speeches.

Jackson's speech referred to the nation as a "quilt" with places for "[t]he white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the business person, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay, and the disabled". It was the first time anyone mentioned lesbians and gays in a national convention address. 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.

"AIDS poster boy" Bobbi Campbell gave a speech at the National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights, dying of AIDS complications a month later.

Voting The following candidates had their names placed in nomination

President Before the convention had convened, Mondale was widely regarded as having secured the prerequisite delegate support to clinch the nomination. However, he only attained this amount of delegate support with the inclusion of superdelegates that supported his candidacy. His number of pledged delegates (those bound to him and awarded through primaries) alone did not give him enough of a lead to win the nomination without superdelegate support. His number of pledged delegates heading into the convention was 40 shy of the 1,967 needed to win the nomination.Phil Hirschkorn, "America's Last Great Convention: Mondale, Jackson & Hart Dish To Salon About Wild 1984 DNC", Salon. (February 15, 2015)

Jesse Jackson had 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%).

Reo Kirkland, a member of the Alabama Senate and Alabama delegation, was bound to Hart, but voted for Martha Kirkland, his mother and a probate judge in Escambia County, Florida.

Keron Kerr, an uncommitted delegate from Maine and secretary of the Maine Democratic Party, voted for U.S. Senator Joe Biden. She first considered voting for him after seeing him speak at the 1983 Maine Democratic state convention and decided to support him after his speech at the DNC. Kerr later served as a state coordinator for Biden's 1988 presidential campaign.

The candidates for U.S. president received the following numbers of delegates:

Democratic National Convention presidential vote, 1984Our Campaigns - US President - D Convention Race - Jul 16, 1984CandidateVotesPercentageWalter 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% Totals 3,884 100.00%

Vice president For Vice President of the United States, Mondale had a pick between Mayor Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco (future five-term United States Senator from California) and Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro of New York; he chose Congresswoman Ferraro to be his vice presidential running mate, which established her as the first woman to be nominated for Vice President of the United States from a major American political party. Until 2024, this was the most recent time that neither a sitting nor former United States Senator was nominated for vice president by the Democratic Party.

See also 1984 Democratic Party presidential primaries Rosalind Wiener Wyman, chair and chief executive officer of the convention 1983 Libertarian National Convention 1984 Republican National Convention 1984 United States presidential election History of the United States Democratic Party List of Democratic National Conventions United States presidential nominating convention Walter Mondale 1984 presidential campaign

References

Works cited

External links Democratic Party Platform of 1984 at The American Presidency Project Complete video, text and audio of Mario Cuomo's Keynote Address at Democratic National Convention Mondale Nomination Acceptance Speech for President at DNC (transcript) at The American Presidency Project Video of Mondale nomination acceptance speech for President at DNC (via YouTube) Audio of Mondale nomination acceptance speech for President at DNC Video of Ferraro nomination acceptance speech for Vice President at DNC (via YouTube) Transcript and Audio of Ferraro nomination acceptance speech for Vice President at DNC