1. Elections recap
1980s-2000s

2. 1980 Election

3. 1980
The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, former California Governor Ronald Reagan. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home, won the election in a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a nonincumbent presidential candidate, and became the 40th President of the United States.
Carter, after defeating Ted Kennedy for the Democratic nomination, attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing radical. For his part, Reagan, the former Governor of California, repeatedly ridiculed Carter, and won a decisive victory; in the simultaneous Congressional elections, Republicans won control of the United States Senate for the first time in 28 years. This election marked the beginning of what is popularly called the "Reagan Revolution."1

4. 1984

5. 1984
The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982. Mondale ran a liberal campaign, supporting a nuclear freeze and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). He spoke against what he considered to be unfairness in Reagan's economic policies and the need to reduce federal budget deficits. Mondale chose U.S. Rep. Geraldine A. Ferraro of New York as his running mate, making her the first woman nominated for that position by a major party, and the first Italian American on a major party ticket.
While Ferraro's choice was popular among Democratic activists, polls immediately after the announcement showed that only 22% of women were excited about her selection,
Reagan carried 49 of the 50 states, becoming only the second presidential candidate to do so after Richard Nixon's victory in the 1972 presidential election. Mondale's only electoral votes came from the District of Columbia and his home state of Minnesota—In the national popular vote, Reagan received 58.8% to Mondale's 40.6%. No candidate since then has managed to equal or surpass Reagan's 1984 electoral result.

6. 1988

7. 1988
The United States presidential election of 1988 featured no incumbent president, as President Ronald Reagan could not seek re-election after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, won the Republican nomination, while the Democrats nominated Michael Dukakis, Governor of Massachusetts. Bush capitalized on a good economy, a stable international stage, and on Reagan's popularity, while Dukakis's campaign suffered from several miscues such as the Willie Horton TV ad and riding awkwardly inside a tank. The result was a third consecutive Republican landslide.

8. 1992

9. 1992
The United States presidential election of 1992 had three major candidates: Incumbent Republican President George H. W. Bush; Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, and independent Texas businessman Ross Perot.
Bush had alienated much of his conservative base by breaking his 1988 campaign pledge against raising taxes, the economy was in a recession, and Bush's perceived greatest strength, foreign policy, was regarded as much less important following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the relatively peaceful climate in the Middle East after the defeat of Iraq in the Gulf War.
Clinton won a plurality in the popular vote, and a wide Electoral College margin. The election was a significant realigning election after three consecutive Republican landslides, as the Democratic Party picked up support in the Northeast, the Great Lakes region and California, but only carried four states in Clinton's native South.

10. 1996

11. 1996
The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and the Republican national ticket of former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for President. Businessman Ross Perot ran as candidate for the Reform Party with economist Pat Choate as his running mate; he received less media attention and was excluded from the presidential debates and, while still obtaining substantial results for a third-party candidate, by U.S. standards, did not renew his success of the 1992 election.
Clinton benefited from an economy which recovered from the early 1990s recession and a relatively stable world stage. Compared to the 50-year-old Clinton, then 73-year-old Dole appeared especially old and frail, as illustrated by an embarrassing fall off a stage during a campaign event. Dole further enhanced this contrast on September 18 when he made a reference to a no-hitter thrown the day before by the “Brooklyn Dodgers”, a team that had left Brooklyn for Los Angeles four decades earlier. On November 5, 1996, President Clinton went on to win re-election with a substantial margin in the popular vote and electoral college.

12. 2000

13. 2000
The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush (1989–1993), and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Ralph Nader ran as a third party candidate (Green Party). Many say that he took much-needed votes away from Al Gore.
The election was noteworthy for a controversy over the awarding of Florida's 25 electoral votes, the subsequent recount process in that state, and the unusual event of the winning candidate having received fewer popular votes than the runner-up. It was the fourth election in which the electoral vote winner did not also receive a plurality of the popular vote.
Later research showed that by the standards requested by the Gore campaign in their contest brief and set by the Florida Supreme Court, Bush would have won the recount. However, had the Gore campaign asked for a full, statewide recount the same research indicates that Gore would have probably won the recount by about 100 votes statewide, consequently giving him Florida's electoral votes and victory in the Presidential election.

14. 2004

15. 2004
In the United States presidential election of 2004 Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. Foreign policy was the dominant theme throughout the election campaign, particularly Bush's conduct of the War on Terrorism and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Bush focused his campaign on national security, presenting himself as a decisive leader and contrasted Kerry as a "flip-flopper." Bush's point was that Americans could trust him to be tough on terrorism while Kerry would be "uncertain in the face of danger." Bush also sought to portray Kerry as a "Massachusetts liberal" who was out of touch with mainstream Americans. One of Kerry's slogans was "Stronger at home, respected in the world." This advanced the suggestion that Kerry would pay more attention to domestic concerns; it also encapsulated Kerry's contention that Bush had alienated American allies by his foreign policy.
According to one exit poll, people who voted for Bush cited the issues of terrorism and moral values as the most important factors in their decision.[9] Kerry supporters cited the war in Iraq, the economy and jobs, and health care.
Meanwhile, Kerry was accused by the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, who averred that "phony war crimes charges, his exaggerated claims about his own service in Vietnam, and his deliberate misrepresentation of the nature and effectiveness of Swift boat operations compels us to step forward." The group challenged the legitimacy of each of the combat medals awarded to Kerry by the U.S. Navy, and the disposition of his discharge.

16. 2008

17. 2008
Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365 electoral votes, and McCain 173. The popular vote was 69,456,897 to 59,934,814, respectively. Obama received the most votes for a presidential candidate in American history.
During the presidential election campaign, the major-party candidates ran on a platform of change and reform in Washington. Domestic policy and the economy eventually emerged as the main themes in the last few months of the election campaign after the onset of an economic crisis.
Nine states voted for a different party than they did in the 2004 election. Each had voted for the Republican nominee in 2004 and contributed to Obama's sizable Electoral College victory.
This was the first U.S. presidential election since 1952 in which neither major party nominee was the incumbent president, nor the incumbent vice president. This also was the first U.S. presidential election in which an African American was elected, as well as the first in which an African American won the nomination of one of the two major parties.

18. Themes of Modern Elections
Partisan Politics
Campaign Spending
TV Ads (“Going Negative”)
Selection of VP

19. 1988

20. 2008

21. 2000

22. 2008

23. Campaign Videos
Reagan 1980
Obama 2008 Web Video
McCain 2008 Web Video