Labor Mondale Ferraro Illinois AFL-CIO Button, 1984

Organized labor leaders strongly backed Walter Mondale's presidential run in 1984. The AFL-CIO endorsed Mondale before the primaries began, and Mondale eventually won the Democratic nomination. In the general election, Mondale won the votes of a majority of union members, but his Republican opponent, incumbent President Ronald Reagan, chipped away many rank-and-file members on the way to a landslide victory.