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Reagan ran on his record of a strong economic recovery from the 1970s stagflation and the 1981–82 recession, and also asserted that his presidency had brought aboyt a revival of national confidence and prestige. He asked the same question of voters as he had when he first ran in 1980, expecting an opposite answer: are you better off today than you were four years ago? At 73, Reagan was, at the time, the oldest person to ever be nominated by a major party for president. The Reagan campaign produced effective television advertising and deftly handled concerns regarding Reagan's age. Mondale criticized Reagan's supply-side economic policies and budget deficits and he called for a nuclear freeze and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
That year the two candidates held two presidential debates, both in the heartland. The first debate between took place on Sunday, October 7, 1984 at the Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville, Kentucky. The debate was moderated by Barbara Walters of ABC News and featured a panel featuring James Wieghart of New York Daily News, Diane Sawyer of ABC News, and Fred Barnes of New Republic. The topics were economic and domestic policy issues. The second and final debate was held on Sunday, October 21, 1984 at the Music Hall, Municipal Auditors in Kansas City, Kansas. The debate was moderated by Edwin Newman formerly of NBC News and featured a panel featuring Georgie Anne Geyer of Universal Press Syndicate, Marvin Kalb of NBC News, and Morton Kondracke of New Republic. The topics were defense and foreign policy issues.
One vice presidential debate was also held between vice president George H. W. Bush and representative Geraldine Ferraro on Thursday, October 11, 1984 at the Pennsylvania Hall Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The debate was moderated by Sander Vanocur of ABC News and featured a panel featuring John Mashek of U.S. News & World Report, Jack White of Time, Norma Quarles of NBC News, and Robert Boyd of Knight-Ridder Newspapers. The topics were domestic and foreign affairs. Both candidates were both praised for their ability to debate. During the debate Ferraro was asked a question about her experience, after being asked how her three House terms stacked up with Bush's two House terms, career as an ambassador to China and the United Nations, Director of Central Intelligence and four years as Vice President. There was one testy exchange between the candidates when discussing the differences between how the Carter administration dealt with Iran and the Reagan administration dealt with Lebanon. Bush said, "Let me help you with the difference, Mrs. Ferraro, between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon." Ferraro responded harshly, telling Bush "Let me just say first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy."
Reagan performed poorly in the first debate, leading to questions about his capacity to endure the grueling demands of the presidency. At one point in the debate he referred to having started going to church "here in Washington", apparently forgetting that the debate was in Louisville, Kentucky. He referred to military uniforms as "wardrobe", and also admitted to being "confused" at one point.
In the next debate on October 21, however, Reagan was much sharper. In response to a question about his age, Reagan joked, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." A video clip of that remark appears below.
Mondale himself laughed at this joke. He later admitted that Reagan had effectively neutralized the age issue with this answer. He said in a subsequent interview after the campaign, "If TV can tell the truth, as you say it can, you'll see that I was smiling. But I think if you come in close, you'll see some tears coming down because I knew he had gotten me there. That was really the end of my campaign that night, I think. I told my wife the campaign was over, and it was."
Mondale was correct. Reagan was re-elected in the November 6 election in an electoral and popular vote landslide. He won 49 states and also won a record 525 electoral votes total (of 538 possible). He received 58.8% of the popular vote. Despite Ferraro's selection, 55% of women polled in exit polls said that they voted for Reagan. Mondale's 13 electoral college votes came from his home state of Minnesota (which he narrowly won by 0.18%) and the District of Columbia. It was the lowest total of any major presidential candidate since Alf Landon's 1936 loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and it was the worst showing for any Democratic Party candidate in American history in the Electoral College since Stephen A. Douglas had won 12 electoral votes in the 1860 election, when the Democratic vote was divided.