1980 United States presidential election in Iowa

The 1980 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 4, 1980. All 50 states and The District of Columbia were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1980 United States presidential election in Iowa

← 1976 November 4, 1980 1984 →

Nominee Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter John B. Anderson Party Republican Democratic Independent (Nominated By Petition) Home state California Georgia Illinois Running mate George H. W. Bush Walter Mondale Patrick Lucey Electoral vote 8 0 0 Popular vote 676,026 508,672 115,633 Percentage 51.31% 38.60% 8.78%

County Results Reagan   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Carter   40–50%   50–60%

President before election Jimmy Carter Democratic Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

Iowa was won by former California Governor Ronald Reagan (R) by a comfortable margin of about 13 points.^[1] This was the last presidential election in which a Republican won Iowa by more than 10 points until 2024, as well as the last time a Republican won Polk County,^[2] home to Iowa's capital and most populated city, Des Moines. It was also the last time until Donald Trump in 2016 that a Republican presidential candidate won the following counties: Boone, Cerro Gordo, Lee, Webster and Worth.^[2]

Caucus Results

1980 Democratic Caucus Results

Candidate	SDE	Delegates
Jimmy Carter (incumbent)	1,840	35
Ted Kennedy	995	19
Uncommitted	304	0
Totals	3,139	54

Note: SDE stands for 'State Delegate Equivalents' which (until 2020) was the closest thing to a popular vote available for the Democratic Caucus.

1980 Republican Caucus Results

Candidate	Votes	Delegates
George H.W. Bush	33,530	15
Ronald Reagan	31,348	15
Howard Baker	16,216	8
John Connally	9,861	0
Phil Crane	7,135	0
John Anderson	4,585	0
Uncommitted	1,800	0
Robert Dole	1,576	0
Totals	106,051	38

Results

Presidential Candidate	Running Mate	Party	Electoral Vote (EV)	Popular Vote (PV)
Ronald Reagan of California	George H. W. Bush	Republican	8	676,026	51.31%
Jimmy Carter (incumbent)	Walter Mondale (incumbent)	Democratic	0	508,672	38.60%
John B. Anderson	Patrick Lucey	Independent	0	115,633	8.78%
Edward E. Clark	David Koch	Libertarian	0	13,123	1.00%
Barry Commoner	LaDonna Harris	Citizens	0	2,273	0.17%
David McReynolds	Diane Drufenbrock	Socialist	0	534	0.04%
—	—	Write-ins	0	519	0.04%
Gus Hall	Angela Davis	Communist	0	298	0.02%
Clifton DeBerry	Matilde Zimmermann	Socialist Workers	0	244	0.02%
Percy Greaves Jr.	Frank Varnum	American	0	189	0.01%
Benjamin Bubar	Earl Dodge	Statesman	0	150	0.01%

Results by county

County[3]	Ronald Reagan Republican		Jimmy Carter Democratic		John B. Anderson Nominated By Petition		Ed Clark Libertarian		Barry Commoner Citizens		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adair	2,821	60.16%	1,454	31.01%	356	7.59%	48	1.02%	8	0.17%	2	0.04%	1,367	29.15%	4,689
Adams	1,779	59.62%	940	31.50%	214	7.17%	45	1.51%	2	0.07%	4	0.13%	839	28.12%	2,984
Allamakee	4,000	60.73%	2,170	32.95%	343	5.21%	54	0.82%	11	0.17%	8	0.12%	1,830	27.78%	6,586
Appanoose	3,544	52.68%	2,769	41.16%	353	5.25%	50	0.74%	5	0.07%	7	0.10%	775	11.52%	6,728
Audubon	2,523	57.96%	1,546	35.52%	251	5.77%	25	0.57%	4	0.09%	4	0.09%	977	22.44%	4,353
Benton	5,329	50.11%	4,223	39.71%	948	8.91%	116	1.09%	6	0.06%	13	0.12%	1,106	10.40%	10,635
Black Hawk	29,627	46.49%	27,443	43.07%	5,847	9.18%	535	0.84%	121	0.19%	149	0.23%	2,184	3.42%	63,722
Boone	5,732	47.42%	5,126	42.41%	1,081	8.94%	120	0.99%	16	0.13%	12	0.10%	606	5.01%	12,087
Bremer	6,706	59.25%	3,527	31.16%	970	8.57%	97	0.86%	13	0.11%	5	0.04%	3,179	28.09%	11,318
Buchanan	5,041	53.50%	3,605	38.26%	689	7.31%	76	0.81%	6	0.06%	5	0.05%	1,436	15.24%	9,422
Buena Vista	5,272	54.49%	3,468	35.84%	771	7.97%	144	1.49%	8	0.08%	13	0.13%	1,804	18.65%	9,676
Butler	4,730	65.90%	1,990	27.73%	392	5.46%	56	0.78%	5	0.07%	4	0.06%	2,740	38.17%	7,177
Calhoun	3,633	57.41%	2,150	33.98%	407	6.43%	122	1.93%	4	0.06%	12	0.19%	1,483	23.43%	6,328
Carroll	5,017	51.53%	3,885	39.90%	736	7.56%	84	0.86%	7	0.07%	8	0.08%	1,132	11.63%	9,737
Cass	5,391	66.34%	2,176	26.78%	475	5.85%	70	0.86%	3	0.04%	11	0.14%	3,215	39.56%	8,126
Cedar	4,398	56.41%	2,589	33.21%	697	8.94%	83	1.06%	18	0.23%	12	0.15%	1,809	23.20%	7,797
Cerro Gordo	11,189	49.01%	9,363	41.02%	2,024	8.87%	185	0.81%	31	0.14%	36	0.16%	1,826	7.99%	22,828
Cherokee	4,087	54.49%	2,719	36.25%	599	7.99%	81	1.08%	2	0.03%	12	0.16%	1,368	18.24%	7,500
Chickasaw	3,929	52.86%	2,935	39.49%	500	6.73%	60	0.81%	2	0.03%	7	0.09%	994	13.37%	7,433
Clarke	2,417	54.88%	1,614	36.65%	310	7.04%	59	1.34%	1	0.02%	3	0.07%	803	18.23%	4,404
Clay	4,479	51.11%	3,179	36.27%	991	11.31%	101	1.15%	7	0.08%	7	0.08%	1,300	14.84%	8,764
Clayton	5,115	55.56%	3,297	35.81%	669	7.27%	106	1.15%	9	0.10%	10	0.11%	1,818	19.75%	9,206
Clinton	13,025	51.66%	9,698	38.47%	2,140	8.49%	260	1.03%	35	0.14%	53	0.21%	3,327	13.19%	25,211
Crawford	4,883	61.02%	2,500	31.24%	509	6.36%	97	1.21%	10	0.12%	3	0.04%	2,383	29.78%	8,002
Dallas	6,296	48.57%	5,310	40.96%	1,200	9.26%	128	0.99%	16	0.12%	14	0.11%	986	7.61%	12,964
Davis	2,003	50.97%	1,689	42.98%	200	5.09%	32	0.81%	2	0.05%	4	0.10%	314	7.99%	3,930
Decatur	2,212	47.67%	2,048	44.14%	318	6.85%	50	1.08%	7	0.15%	5	0.11%	164	3.53%	4,640
Delaware	4,316	55.38%	2,671	34.27%	727	9.33%	62	0.80%	16	0.21%	2	0.03%	1,645	21.11%	7,794
Des Moines	9,158	44.85%	9,977	48.87%	1,041	5.10%	183	0.90%	29	0.14%	29	0.14%	-819	-4.02%	20,417
Dickinson	4,028	54.13%	2,620	35.21%	687	9.23%	86	1.16%	11	0.15%	10	0.13%	1,408	18.92%	7,442
Dubuque	18,649	44.90%	18,689	44.99%	3,708	8.93%	368	0.89%	67	0.16%	58	0.14%	-40	-0.09%	41,539
Emmet	3,062	53.49%	2,153	37.61%	446	7.79%	55	0.96%	4	0.07%	4	0.07%	909	15.88%	5,724
Fayette	6,374	55.32%	4,377	37.98%	647	5.61%	100	0.87%	10	0.09%	15	0.13%	1,997	17.34%	11,523
Floyd	4,665	51.16%	3,634	39.86%	728	7.98%	66	0.72%	5	0.05%	20	0.22%	1,031	11.30%	9,118
Franklin	3,290	57.90%	1,920	33.79%	406	7.15%	56	0.99%	3	0.05%	7	0.12%	1,370	24.11%	5,682
Fremont	2,693	65.19%	1,203	29.12%	191	4.62%	43	1.04%	1	0.02%	0	0.00%	1,490	36.07%	4,131
Greene	3,154	53.11%	2,210	37.21%	510	8.59%	55	0.93%	5	0.08%	5	0.08%	944	15.90%	5,939
Grundy	4,644	66.10%	1,869	26.60%	440	6.26%	56	0.80%	10	0.14%	7	0.10%	2,775	39.50%	7,026
Guthrie	3,214	58.29%	1,866	33.84%	384	6.96%	44	0.80%	3	0.05%	3	0.05%	1,348	24.45%	5,514
Hamilton	4,745	57.40%	2,741	33.16%	679	8.21%	82	0.99%	11	0.13%	8	0.10%	2,004	24.24%	8,266
Hancock	3,681	60.42%	1,918	31.48%	462	7.58%	17	0.28%	8	0.13%	6	0.10%	1,763	28.94%	6,092
Hardin	5,329	53.72%	3,757	37.87%	730	7.36%	89	0.90%	3	0.03%	12	0.12%	1,572	15.85%	9,920
Harrison	4,502	63.83%	2,152	30.51%	311	4.41%	81	1.15%	1	0.01%	6	0.09%	2,350	33.32%	7,053
Henry	4,430	52.35%	3,317	39.20%	629	7.43%	70	0.83%	11	0.13%	5	0.06%	1,113	13.15%	8,462
Howard	2,975	53.35%	2,214	39.71%	336	6.03%	42	0.75%	5	0.09%	4	0.07%	761	13.64%	5,576
Humboldt	3,575	60.60%	1,840	31.19%	394	6.68%	77	1.31%	7	0.12%	6	0.10%	1,735	29.41%	5,899
Ida	2,825	64.88%	1,235	28.36%	254	5.83%	37	0.85%	1	0.02%	2	0.05%	1,590	36.52%	4,354
Iowa	4,153	55.21%	2,606	34.65%	667	8.87%	84	1.12%	5	0.07%	7	0.09%	1,547	20.56%	7,522
Jackson	4,479	51.17%	3,518	40.19%	622	7.11%	106	1.21%	16	0.18%	13	0.15%	961	10.98%	8,754
Jasper	8,286	48.84%	7,258	42.78%	1,221	7.20%	152	0.90%	28	0.17%	21	0.12%	1,028	6.06%	16,966
Jefferson	4,099	56.16%	2,577	35.31%	505	6.92%	99	1.36%	9	0.12%	10	0.14%	1,522	20.85%	7,299
Johnson	13,642	31.73%	20,122	46.80%	8,101	18.84%	508	1.18%	403	0.94%	221	0.51%	-6,480	-15.07%	42,997
Jones	4,506	50.56%	3,521	39.50%	759	8.52%	114	1.28%	4	0.04%	9	0.10%	985	11.06%	8,913
Keokuk	3,145	52.64%	2,390	40.00%	369	6.18%	62	1.04%	1	0.02%	8	0.13%	755	12.64%	5,975
Kossuth	5,568	54.26%	3,810	37.13%	775	7.55%	94	0.92%	10	0.10%	5	0.05%	1,758	17.13%	10,262
Lee	8,793	48.14%	8,204	44.92%	1,047	5.73%	183	1.00%	21	0.11%	17	0.09%	589	3.22%	18,265
Linn	36,254	46.35%	31,950	40.84%	8,773	11.22%	994	1.27%	107	0.14%	146	0.19%	4,304	5.51%	78,224
Louisa	2,530	55.19%	1,700	37.09%	291	6.35%	57	1.24%	4	0.09%	2	0.04%	830	18.10%	4,584
Lucas	2,593	52.61%	1,989	40.35%	291	5.90%	49	0.99%	6	0.12%	1	0.02%	604	12.26%	4,929
Lyon	4,349	70.05%	1,431	23.05%	375	6.04%	48	0.77%	2	0.03%	3	0.05%	2,918	47.00%	6,208
Madison	3,320	51.79%	2,496	38.93%	505	7.88%	72	1.12%	7	0.11%	11	0.17%	824	12.86%	6,411
Mahaska	5,650	54.52%	3,968	38.29%	603	5.82%	106	1.02%	21	0.20%	15	0.14%	1,682	16.23%	10,363
Marion	6,665	49.30%	5,490	40.61%	1,232	9.11%	108	0.80%	10	0.07%	13	0.10%	1,175	8.69%	13,518
Marshall	10,707	54.56%	7,114	36.25%	1,541	7.85%	188	0.96%	37	0.19%	39	0.20%	3,593	18.31%	19,626
Mills	3,581	69.09%	1,244	24.00%	281	5.42%	60	1.16%	6	0.12%	11	0.21%	2,337	45.09%	5,183
Mitchell	3,401	58.00%	2,040	34.79%	361	6.16%	49	0.84%	5	0.09%	8	0.14%	1,361	23.21%	5,864
Monona	3,268	61.85%	1,660	31.42%	275	5.20%	69	1.31%	6	0.11%	6	0.11%	1,608	30.43%	5,284
Monroe	2,003	48.65%	1,866	45.32%	216	5.25%	22	0.53%	4	0.10%	6	0.15%	137	3.33%	4,117
Montgomery	4,115	67.97%	1,556	25.70%	301	4.97%	65	1.07%	5	0.08%	12	0.20%	2,559	42.27%	6,054
Muscatine	7,829	51.69%	5,597	36.96%	1,522	10.05%	160	1.06%	21	0.14%	16	0.11%	2,232	14.73%	15,145
O'Brien	4,937	63.61%	2,210	28.48%	536	6.91%	63	0.81%	8	0.10%	7	0.09%	2,727	35.13%	7,761
Osceola	2,177	62.45%	1,051	30.15%	234	6.71%	20	0.57%	2	0.06%	2	0.06%	1,126	32.30%	3,486
Page	5,618	71.93%	1,772	22.69%	356	4.56%	49	0.63%	5	0.06%	10	0.13%	3,846	49.24%	7,810
Palo Alto	3,025	50.69%	2,463	41.27%	412	6.90%	60	1.01%	4	0.07%	4	0.07%	562	9.42%	5,968
Plymouth	6,515	62.97%	2,965	28.66%	756	7.31%	92	0.89%	8	0.08%	10	0.10%	3,550	34.31%	10,346
Pocahontas	3,194	56.17%	1,959	34.45%	397	6.98%	113	1.99%	7	0.12%	16	0.28%	1,235	21.72%	5,686
Polk	64,156	44.63%	61,984	43.12%	15,819	11.00%	1,301	0.90%	309	0.21%	189	0.13%	2,172	1.51%	143,758
Pottawattamie	20,222	60.96%	10,709	32.29%	1,870	5.64%	319	0.96%	17	0.05%	33	0.10%	9,513	28.67%	33,170
Poweshiek	4,598	50.52%	3,529	38.77%	821	9.02%	72	0.79%	66	0.73%	16	0.18%	1,069	11.75%	9,102
Ringgold	1,884	57.95%	1,150	35.37%	191	5.88%	25	0.77%	1	0.03%	0	0.00%	734	22.58%	3,251
Sac	3,725	59.47%	1,976	31.55%	467	7.46%	89	1.42%	1	0.02%	6	0.10%	1,749	27.92%	6,264
Scott	34,701	51.09%	26,391	38.85%	5,760	8.48%	832	1.22%	143	0.21%	99	0.15%	8,310	12.24%	67,926
Shelby	4,147	64.03%	1,892	29.21%	372	5.74%	54	0.83%	7	0.11%	5	0.08%	2,255	34.82%	6,477
Sioux	10,768	76.01%	2,698	19.04%	610	4.31%	64	0.45%	17	0.12%	10	0.07%	8,070	56.97%	14,167
Story	15,829	42.36%	13,529	36.20%	7,252	19.41%	503	1.35%	184	0.49%	74	0.20%	2,300	6.16%	37,371
Tama	4,840	56.27%	3,049	35.45%	593	6.89%	98	1.14%	8	0.09%	14	0.16%	1,791	20.82%	8,602
Taylor	2,715	64.44%	1,226	29.10%	240	5.70%	28	0.66%	1	0.02%	3	0.07%	1,489	35.34%	4,213
Union	3,372	56.40%	2,182	36.49%	368	6.15%	46	0.77%	3	0.05%	8	0.13%	1,190	19.91%	5,979
Van Buren	2,142	58.21%	1,311	35.63%	183	4.97%	36	0.98%	2	0.05%	6	0.16%	831	22.58%	3,680
Wapello	7,475	42.31%	8,923	50.50%	1,050	5.94%	176	1.00%	27	0.15%	17	0.10%	-1,448	-8.19%	17,668
Warren	7,360	47.43%	6,610	42.59%	1,369	8.82%	131	0.84%	22	0.14%	27	0.17%	750	4.84%	15,519
Washington	3,967	52.01%	2,877	37.72%	703	9.22%	67	0.88%	4	0.05%	9	0.12%	1,090	14.29%	7,627
Wayne	2,221	54.12%	1,627	39.64%	218	5.31%	36	0.88%	2	0.05%	0	0.00%	594	14.48%	4,104
Webster	10,438	49.63%	9,001	42.80%	1,386	6.59%	154	0.73%	28	0.13%	23	0.11%	1,437	6.83%	21,030
Winnebago	3,808	58.77%	2,208	34.08%	417	6.44%	35	0.54%	4	0.06%	7	0.11%	1,600	24.69%	6,479
Winneshiek	5,033	54.10%	3,201	34.40%	938	10.08%	81	0.87%	39	0.42%	12	0.13%	1,832	19.70%	9,304
Woodbury	23,553	54.43%	15,930	36.81%	3,184	7.36%	489	1.13%	41	0.09%	78	0.18%	7,623	17.62%	43,275
Worth	2,247	52.13%	1,721	39.93%	301	6.98%	31	0.72%	5	0.12%	5	0.12%	526	12.20%	4,310
Wright	3,936	55.07%	2,645	37.01%	497	6.95%	57	0.80%	4	0.06%	8	0.11%	1,291	18.06%	7,147
Totals	676,026	51.31%	508,672	38.60%	115,633	8.78%	13,123	1.00%	2,273	0.17%	1,934	0.15%	167,354	12.71%	1,317,661

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Adams
• Appanoose
• Audubon
• Benton
• Boone
• Carroll
• Cerro Gordo
• Chickasaw
• Clarke
• Crawford
• Dallas
• Davis
• Decatur
• Floyd
• Greene
• Guthrie
• Hamilton
• Henry
• Howard
• Jackson
• Jasper
• Keokuk
• Kossuth
• Lee
• Linn
• Lucas
• Madison
• Marion
• Mitchell
• Monona
• Monroe
• Palo Alto
• Pocahontas
• Polk
• Poweshiek
• Ringgold
• Tama
• Union
• Van Buren
• Warren
• Webster
• Wayne
• Worth
• Wright

See also

• United States presidential elections in Iowa