Tuesday, February 10, 2009

1984 Presidential Primary Calendar



February
Monday, February 20:
Iowa caucuses (both parties)

Tuesday, February 28:
New Hampshire primary


March
Sunday, March 4:
Maine Democratic caucuses

Saturday, March 10:
Wyoming Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, March 13:
Alabama primary
Florida primary
Georgia primary
Hawaii Democratic caucuses 
Massachusetts primary
Nevada Democratic caucuses 
Oklahoma Democratic caucuses 
Rhode Island primary
Washington Democratic caucuses

Wednesday, March 14:
Delaware Democratic caucuses 
North Dakota Democratic caucuses (through March 28)

Thursday, March 15:
Alaska Democratic caucuses

Saturday, March 17:
Arkansas Democratic caucuses 
Michigan Democratic caucuses
Mississippi Democratic caucuses 
South Carolina Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, March 20:
Illinois primary
Minnesota Democratic caucuses

Saturday, March 24:
Kansas Democratic caucuses
Virginia Democratic caucuses (and March 26)

Sunday, March 25:
Montana Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, March 27:
Connecticut primary

Saturday, March 31:
Kentucky Democratic caucuses


April
Tuesday, April 3:
New York primary
Wisconsin primary (Republicans only)

Saturday, April 7:
Wisconsin Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, April 10:
Pennsylvania primary

Saturday, April 14:
Arizona Democratic caucuses

Wednesday, April 18:
Missouri Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, April 24:
Vermont Democratic caucuses

Wednesday, April 25:
Utah Democratic caucuses


May
Tuesday, May 1:
Tennessee primary
Washington, DC primary

Saturday, May 5:
Colorado Democratic caucuses
Louisiana primary
Texas Democratic caucuses

Tuesday, May 8:
Indiana primary
Maryland primary
North Carolina primary
Ohio primary

Tuesday, May 15:
Nebraska primary
Oregon primary

Thursday, May 24:
Idaho primary and Democratic caucuses (primary was a beauty contest with no delegates at stake;
    delegates were allocated through the caucuses)


June
Tuesday, June 5:
California primary
Mississippi primary (Republicans only)
Montana primary (Republicans only)
New Jersey primary
New Mexico primary
South Dakota primary
West Virginia primary

[Primaries in bold; Caucuses in italics]

States that are split vertically had different dates for different party contests. The shade to the left of that line corresponds with the month in which the Democratic contest took place and the right side represents the Republican contest.

[Source: Congressional Quarterly and news accounts from 1984. The latter was used to double-check the dates or discover missing ones.]

A few notes:
1) 1984, and to a lesser extent 1992 and 1996, are frustrating years for cataloging the full calendar. The Democratic calendar is much easier to put together, but the Republican calendar is harder to come by simply because Ronald Reagan ran virtually unopposed in his bid for the GOP nomination that year. In other words, we know when the GOP primaries were, but have a more difficult time ascertaining when the caucuses were held. This is less a problem in 1992 and 1996 because that data is readily available, though harder to find than, say, the Republican calendar in 2004. As such, this is a tentative map and calendar. It will be augmented as soon as I incorporate the Republican calendar. That information isn't a vital portion of my research question, but it will certainly be something to account for in the future. There are some potentially secondary questions there.

2) The 1984 calendar is an awful lot like the one in 1980. 15 of the 26 primaries (excluding the Idaho beauty contest for the Democrats) held occurred after the beginning of May.
3) However, the date on which the greatest number of delegate selection events were held was March 13; much earlier than in 1980 when the last week had nine contests. Granted in 1980, the first Tuesday in June had nine total contests to the second Tuesday in March's seven, whereas four years later those numbers were in reverse. In other words, there wasn't a large overall shift of contests to earlier dates.

3) Overall, the month of March saw six more contests in 1984 as compared to 1980. But the fact that there were no January contests and four fewer February contests in 1984 was the main factor driving this increase; not movement from the later states of 1980.

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