Jesse Jackson 1984 presidential campaign

rdf:langString Jesse Jackson 1984 presidential campaign

rdf:langString Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr.

rdf:langString Jackson 1984 campaign logo.svg

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rdf:langString In 1984, Jesse Jackson became the second African American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for President of the United States, running as a Democrat. In the primaries, Jackson, who had been written off by pundits as a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the nomination, surprised many when he took third place overall, behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3,282,431 primary votes, or 18.2 percent of the total, in 1984. He won five primaries and caucuses: Louisiana, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, Virginia, and one of two separate contests in Mississippi. He thus became the first African-American candidate to win any major-party state primary or caucus. As he had gained 21 percent of the popular vote but only eight percent of delegates, Jackson afterwards complained that he had been handicapped by party rules. While Mondale (in the words of his aides) was determined to establish a precedent with his vice presidential candidate by picking a woman or visible minority, Jackson criticized the screening process as a "p.r. parade of personalities". He also mocked Mondale, saying that Hubert Humphrey was the "last significant politician out of the St. Paul–Minneapolis" area.