In the 1984 election , the major contenders for the presidential nomination were Gary Hart , Jesse Jackson , and Walter Mondale . Entering the final handful of primaries on June 5 , 1984 , Mondale was leading Hart in the delegate count , with Jackson far behind . The battle for delegates became more dramatic that night when Hart won three primaries , including the big prize of California in a cliffhanger . The Mondale campaign said , and some news reports agreed , that Mondale secured the needed 1,967 delegates to clinch the nomination that night in spite of losing California . But the Associated Press concluded he was " barely short of the magic majority . " Mondale wanted to make it indisputable that he had enough delegate votes , and his campaign set a deadline of one minute before noon ; he made 50 calls in three hours to nail down an additional 40 superdelegates and declared at a press conference that he had 2,008 delegate votes . At the convention in July , Mondale won on the first ballot
the convention
1984 Democratic National Convention
Superdelegate