Ronald Reagan was elected president at the open of the eighties, and in 1984 it was no surprise to Nebraska, or America as a whole, that he was victorious again. Winning all, but one state, Reagan was a well supported candidate. This support was shown all throughout the United States and Nebraska was no exception, when polled, a vast majority of UNL students stated that they would vote for President Ronald Reagan, 75 percent (Mona Z. Koppelman). However strong the support for Reagan, there were also those who supported Democrat candidate, Walter Mondale, especially from the university's Young Democrat party (Paul Shavlik). Though there was support, no matter what Mondale did, if he won political debates or not, Reagan was the favorite and this was clearly proved when the two candidates debated in Kansas City, KS and Lee Atwater, an assistant press secretary for the Reagan campaign stated that No matter who teh winner was, Mondale has little chance to win the election. Atwater even went as far as to challenge the press with a $1000 bet that Reagan would carry the Midwest (Jeff Browne and Mona Z. Koppelman). This lack of confidence for Mondale was not spread across the board, in fact the Daily Nebraskan openly supported Mondale in the election (Chris Welsch). When the November 6 election was finalized, a majority of students were pleased, however, they were also intersted in learning that the Daily Nebraskan was not the only Big Eight newspaper to endorse Mondale even though the opinion did not reflect the views of the student majority. In fact no Big Eight paper endorsed Reagan, but the majority did say that they thought Reagan was the choice among students (Lisa Nutting/ Gene Gentrup).