By the time the final primaries concluded , Mondale had a considerable lead in total delegates , though he was 40 delegates short of clinching victory . Superdelegates voted overwhelmingly for Mondale at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco on July 16 , making him the presidential nominee . Hart , already aware that the nomination was all but Mondale 's after the final primaries , lobbied for the vice presidential slot on the ticket , claiming that he would do better than Mondale against President Ronald Reagan ( an argument undercut by a June 1984 Gallup poll that showed both men nine points behind the president ) . While Hart was given serious consideration , Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro instead . In his address to the convention , after his name was placed in nomination for president by Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey and he received a 15-minute standing ovation , Hart concluded , " Our party and our country will continue to hear from us . This is one Hart you will not leave in San Francisco . " This race for the nomination was the most recent occasion that a major party presidential nomination has gone all the way to the convention . Mondale was later defeated in a landslide by the incumbent Reagan , winning only his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia . Many felt that Hart and other similar candidates , younger and more independent-minded , represented the future of the party . Hart had refused to take money from Political Action Committees ( PACs ) , and as a result he mortgaged his house to self-finance his campaign , and was more than $ 1 million in debt at the end of the campaign
Democratic National Convention
1984 Democratic National Convention
Gary Hart