On July 19, 1984, the Democratic National Convention officially nominated Geraldine Ferraro, a first-generation Italian-American lawyer and Congressional Representative from Queens, for vice president of the United States. A 1960 graduate of Fordham Law School (where she was one of two women in her class), Ferraro became the first female nominated to run on the ticket of a major political party. Walter Mondale was her running mate; President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George .H. W. Bush were their opponents. Ferraro, a former prosecutor, ran using her maiden name, not her married one (Zaccaro). Following her nomination, she faced media inquiries about her spouse’s finances and about possible links to organized crime.
Reagan and Bush won, winning 49 states, including New York.
Ferraro died in 2011 at age 75. To date, no woman has served as president or vice president of the United States.
—Lori Tripoli