When former Vice President Walter Mondale faced President Ronald Reagan in the 1984 election, it was an uphill battle that turned into arguably the largest landslide in presidential election history. Mondale was nearly shut out.
Reagan, the Republican, won 49 states and came within a whisker of winning all 50. The one that got away was Minnesota -- Mondale's home state. But even that one was close. Mondale beat Reagan there by 3,761 votes out of more than 2 million.
Reagan won 525 electoral votes nationwide, leaving the Democrat Mondale with 13 (10 from Minnesota and three from the District of Columbia). Reagan also won the national popular vote by 58.8% to 40.6% -- a difference of nearly 17 million out of 92 million ballots cast.
Mondale was battling Reagan at a time when the Republican was leading the U.S. out of an economic recession. Reagan's approval rating was about 58%, according to FiveThirtyEight. That's the highest for any incumbent president at election time in the past 40 years.
Mondale's 13 electoral votes were second-fewest ever by a second place finisher in a presidential election, according to 270 To Win. Alfred Landon received eight electoral votes in 1936 when he lost to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The last Republican to pull off a win in Minnesota was Richard Nixon in 1972.
