United States presidential election, 1976

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United States presidential election, 1976
United States
1972 ←
 November 2, 1976
 → 1980
  JimmyCarterPortrait2.jpg Gerald Ford.jpg
Nominee Jimmy Carter Gerald Ford
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Georgia Michigan
Running mate Walter Mondale Bob Dole
Electoral vote 297 240
States carried 23 + DC 27
Popular vote 40,831,881 39,148,634
Percentage 50.1% 48.0%

ElectoralCollege1976.svg
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Carter/Mondale, Red denotes those won by Ford/Dole. Ronald Reagan received one electoral vote from a "faithless elector" in Washington. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election

Gerald Ford
Republican

 Elected President

Jimmy Carter
Democratic

The United States presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. Ford was saddled with a slow economy and paid a political price for his pardon of Nixon. Carter ran as a Washington outsider and reformer and won a narrow victory. He was the first president elected from the Deep South since Zachary Taylor in 1848.

No post-1976 Democratic candidate has managed to match or better Carter's electoral performance in the American South.

Contents

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Democratic Party

Main article: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1976

Democratic candidates

[edit] Candidates gallery

The surprise winner of the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination was Jimmy Carter, a former state senator and governor of Georgia. When the primaries began Carter was relatively unknown at the national level, and many political pundits regarded a number of better-known candidates, such as Senator Henry M. Jackson of Washington, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, and California Governor Jerry Brown, as the favorites for the nomination. However, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Carter realized that his status as a Washington "outsider", political centrist, and moderate reformer could give him an advantage over his better-known "establishment" rivals. Carter also took advantage of the record number of state primaries and caucuses in 1976 to eliminate his better-known rivals one-by-one. By June 1976 he had captured more than enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination. At the 1976 Democratic National Convention Carter easily won the nomination on the first ballot; he then chose Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale, a liberal and political protégé of Hubert Humphrey, as his running mate.

[edit] Republican Party

Main article: Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1976

Republican candidates

[edit] Candidates gallery

The 1976 Republican National Convention at Kemper Arena in Kansas City. Vice-Presidential Candidate Bob Dole is on the far left, then Nancy Reagan, Ronald Reagan is at the center shaking hands with President Gerald Ford, Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller is just to the right of Ford, followed by Susan Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.

The contest for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 1976 was between two serious candidates: Gerald Ford, the leader of the GOP's moderate wing and the incumbent President, from Michigan; and Ronald Reagan, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing and the former two-term governor of California. The presidential primary campaign between the two men was hard-fought and relatively even; by the start of the Republican Convention in August 1976 the race for the nomination was still too close to call. Ford defeated Reagan by a narrow margin on the first ballot at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, and chose Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his running mate. The 1976 Republican Convention was the last political convention to open with the presidential nomination still being undecided until the actual balloting at the convention.

[edit] Others

Eugene McCarthy, a former Democratic Senator from Minnesota, ran as an independent candidate.

[edit] General election

[edit] Fall campaign

Carter and Ford in debate.

One of the advantages Ford held over Carter as the general election campaign began was that, as President, he was privileged to preside over events dealing with the United States Bicentennial; this often resulted in favorable publicity for Ford. The Washington, D.C. fireworks display on the Fourth of July was presided over by the President and televised nationally.[1] On July 7, 1976, the President and First Lady served as hosts at a White House state dinner for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of the United Kingdom, which was televised on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) network. These events were part of Ford's "Rose Garden" strategy to win the election; instead of appearing as a typical politician, Ford presented himself as a "tested leader" who was busily fulfilling the role of national leader and Chief Executive. Not until October did Ford leave the White House to actively campaign across the nation.

Jimmy Carter ran as a reformer who was "untainted" by Washington political scandals,[citation needed] which many voters found attractive in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which had led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. Ford, although personally unconnected with Watergate, was seen by many as too close to the discredited Nixon administration, especially after Ford granted Nixon a presidential pardon for any crimes he may have committed during his term of office. Ford's pardon of Nixon caused his popularity, as measured by public-opinion polls, to plummet. Ford's refusal to publicly explain his reasons for pardoning Nixon (he would do so in his memoirs several years later), also hurt his image. His son, Jack Ford, gave an interview in 1976 in which he stated that his father felt that he "(doesn't) have to prove anything" regarding the pardon of Nixon, and thus did not feel compelled to talk about it.[2]

Ford unsuccessfully asked Congress to end the 1950s-era price controls on natural gas, which caused a dwindling of American natural gas reserves after the 1973 Oil Crisis.[3] Carter stated during his campaign that he opposed the ending of the price controls and thought such a move would be "disastrous."[3]

After the Democratic National Convention, Carter held a huge 33-point lead over Ford in the polls. However, as the campaign continued, the race greatly tightened. During the campaign Playboy magazine published a controversial interview with Carter; in the interview, Carter admitted to having "lusted in my heart" for women other than his wife, which cut into his support among women and evangelical Christians. Also, on September 23, Ford performed well in what was the first televised presidential debate since 1960. Polls taken after the debate showed that most viewers felt that Ford was the winner. Carter was also hurt by Ford's charges that he lacked the necessary experience to be an effective national leader, and that Carter was vague on many issues. Carter pledged to end desegregation busing.[4]

Carter campaign headquarters

However, Ford also committed a costly blunder in the campaign that halted his momentum. During the second presidential debate on October 6, Ford stumbled when he asserted that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." He added that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union," and made the same claim with regards to Yugoslavia and Romania.[5] Ford refused to retract his statement for almost a week after the debate. Neo-conservatives, who were becoming increasingly anti-Soviet, were appalled. Combined with Carter's pledge of a pardon for all Vietnam War opponents and refugees, Ford's surge stalled and Carter was able to maintain a slight lead in the polls.

A vice-presidential debate between Robert Dole and Walter Mondale also hurt the Republican ticket when Dole asserted that military unpreparedness on the part of Democratic presidents was responsible for all of the wars the U.S. had fought in the twentieth century. Dole, a World War II veteran, noted that in every twentieth-century war from World War I to the Vietnam War, a Democrat had been President. Dole then pointed out that the number of U.S. casualties in "Democrat wars" was roughly equal to the population of Detroit. Many voters felt that Dole's criticism was unfairly harsh and that his dispassionate delivery made him seem cold. One factor which did help Ford in the closing days of the campaign was a series of popular television appearances he did with Joe Garagiola, Sr., a retired baseball star for the St. Louis Cardinals and a well-known announcer for NBC Sports. Garagiola and Ford appeared in a number of shows in several large cities. During the show Garagiola would ask Ford questions about his life and beliefs; the shows were so informal, relaxed, and laid-back that some television critics labelled them the "Joe and Jerry Show." Ford and Garagiola obviously enjoyed one another's company, and they remained friends after the election was over.

[edit] Results

Election results by county.

Despite his campaign's blunders, Ford managed to close the remaining gap in the polls and by election day the race was judged to be even. Election day was November 2, and it took most of that night and the following morning to determine the winner. It wasn't until 3:30 am (EST), that the NBC television network was able to pronounce that Carter had carried Mississippi, and had thus accumulated more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win (seconds later, ABC News also declared Carter the winner based on projections for Carter in Wisconsin and Hawaii; CBS News announced Carter's victory at 3:45 am).[6] Carter defeated Ford by two percentage points in the national popular vote.

A campaign button from election night where Carter and Mondale spent the evening in Flint Michigan at a rally It is notable as only a handful of counties in Michigan went to Carter in 1976, and no surrounding counties where Carter held the rally went to him.

The electoral vote was the closest since 1916; Carter took 23 states with 297 electoral votes, while Ford won 27 states and 240 electoral votes (one elector from Washington state, pledged to Ford, voted for Reagan). Carter's victory came primarily from his near-sweep of the South (he lost only Virginia), and his narrow victories in large Northern states such as New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Ford did well in the West, carrying every state except Hawaii. The states that ultimately decided the election were Wisconsin (1.68% margin) and Ohio (.27% margin), both won by Carter. Had Ford won these states and all other states he carried, he would have won the presidency. The 27 states Ford won were and remain the most states ever carried by a losing candidate.

Carter was the first Democrat since John F. Kennedy in 1960 to carry the states of the Deep South, and the first since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 to carry an unquestionable majority of southern states. Carter performed very strongly in his home state of Georgia, carrying 66.7% of the vote and every county in the state. His 50.1% of the vote was the only time since 1964 that a Democrat managed to obtain a majority of the popular vote in a presidential election, until Barack Obama won about 53% of the vote 32 years later. Carter is one of five Democrats to gain a majority of the popular vote since the American Civil War, with the others being Samuel Tilden, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Barack Obama.[7]

Had Ford won the election, the provisions of the 22nd amendment would have disqualified him from running in 1980, because he had served more than two years of Nixon's remaining term.

[edit] Statistics

Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote		 Running mate Running mate's
home state		 Running mate's
electoral vote
Count Pct
James Earl Carter, Jr. Democratic Georgia 40,831,881 50.08% 297 Walter Frederick Mondale Minnesota 297
Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. Republican Michigan 39,148,634 48.02% 240 Bob Dole Kansas 241
Ronald Wilson Reagan Republican (Independent) California —(a) —(a) 1
Eugene McCarthy (none) Minnesota 740,460 0.91% 0  (b)  (b) 0
Roger MacBride Libertarian Vermont 172,553 0.21% 0 David Bergland California 0
Lester Maddox American Independent Georgia 170,274 0.21% 0 William Dyke Wisconsin 0
Thomas J. Anderson American  (c) 158,271 0.19% 0 Rufus Shackelford   0
Peter Camejo Socialist Workers California 90,986 0.11% 0 Willie Mae Reid 0
Gus Hall Communist New York 58,709 0.07% 0 Jarvis Tyner 0
Margaret Wright People's 49,013 0.06% 0 Benjamin Spock 0
Lyndon LaRouche U.S. Labor New York 40,043 0.05% 0 R. Wayne Evans 0
Other 70,785 0.08% — Other —
Total 81,531,584 100% 538 538
Needed to win 270 270

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1976 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (August 7, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (August 7, 2005).

(a) Mike Padden, a Republican faithless elector from Washington, gave Ronald Reagan one electoral vote.
(b) The running mate of McCarthy varied from state to state.
(c) Research has not yet determined whether Anderson's home state was Tennessee or Texas at the time of the 1976 election.

[edit] Close states

Gerald Ford (right) watching election returns with Joe Garagiola on election night in 1976. Garagiola is reacting to television reports that Ford had just lost Texas to Carter.

States where margin of victory was under 5%

  1. Oregon, 0.17%
  2. Ohio, 0.27%
  3. Maine, 0.84%
  4. Iowa, 1.01%
  5. Oklahoma, 1.21%
  6. Virginia, 1.34%
  7. South Dakota, 1.48%
  8. Wisconsin, 1.68%
  9. California, 1.78%
  10. Mississippi, 1.88%
  11. Illinois, 1.97%
  12. New Jersey, 2.16%
  13. New Mexico, 2.47%
  14. Hawaii, 2.53%
  15. Pennsylvania, 2.66%
  16. Texas, 3.17%
  17. Missouri, 3.63%
  18. Washington, 3.88%
  19. Nevada, 4.36%
  20. New York, 4.43%

States where margin of victory was more than 5%, but less than 10%

  1. Connecticut, 5.16%
  2. Florida, 5.29%
  3. Michigan, 5.39%
  4. Delaware, 5.41%
  5. Louisiana, 5.78%
  6. North Dakota, 5.86%
  7. Maryland, 6.08%
  8. Kentucky, 7.18%
  9. Montana, 7.44%
  10. Kansas, 7.55%
  11. Indiana, 7.62%

[edit] Voter demographics

Social groups and the presidential vote, 1980 and 1976
Size[A 1] '80 Carter '80 Reagan '80 Anderson '76 Carter '76 Ford
Party
Democratic 43 66 26 6 77 22
Independent 23 30 54 12 43 54
Republican 28 11 84 4 9 90
Ideology
Liberal 18 57 27 11 70 26
Moderate 51 42 48 8 51 48
Conservative 31 23 71 4 29 70
Ethnicity
Black 10 82 14 3 82 16
Hispanic 2 54 36 7 75 24
White 88 36 55 8 47 52
Sex
Female 48 45 46 7 50 48
Male 52 37 54 7 50 48
Religion
Protestant 46 37 56 6 44 55
White Protestant 41 31 62 6 43 57
Catholic 25 40 51 7 54 44
Jewish 5 45 39 14 64 34
Family income
Less than US$10,000 13 50 41 6 58 40
$10,000–$14,999 15 47 42 8 55 43
$15,000–$24,999 29 38 53 7 48 50
$25,000–$50,000 24 32 58 8 36 62
Over $50,000 5 25 65 8 — —
Occupation
Professional or manager 39 33 56 9 41 57
Clerical, sales, white-collar 11 42 48 8 46 53
blue-collar 17 46 47 5 57 41
Agriculture 3 29 66 3 — —
Unemployed 3 55 35 7 65 34
Education
Less than high school 11 50 45 3 58 41
High school graduate 28 43 51 4 54 46
Some college 28 35 55 8 51 49
College graduate 27 35 51 11 45 55
Union membership
Labor union household 28 47 44 7 59 39
No member of household in union 62 35 55 8 43 55
Age
18–21 years old 6 44 43 11 48 50
22–29 years old 17 43 43 11 51 46
30–44 years old 31 37 54 7 49 49
45–59 years old 23 39 55 6 47 52
60 years or older 18 40 54 4 47 52
Region
East 25 42 47 9 51 47
South 27 44 51 3 54 45
White South 22 35 60 3 46 52
Midwest 27 40 51 7 48 50
Far West 19 35 53 9 46 51
Community size
City over 250,000 18 54 35 8 60 40
Suburb/small city 53 37 53 8 53 47
Rural/town 29 39 54 5 47 53

Source: CBS News/ New York Times interviews with 12,782 voters as they left the polls, as reported in the New York Times, November 9, 1980, p. 28, and in further analysis. The 1976 data are from CBS News interviews.

  1. ^ “Size” = share of 1980 national total

[edit] Miscellaneous

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Election of 1976: A Political Outsider Prevails. C-SPAN. Retrieved on 2006-12-31.
  2. ^ Ford, Jack. "My Father the President" Best Life 5 no5 pgs. 126-7 June/July 200.'
  3. ^ a b Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. pp. 321–322. ISBN 0465041957. 
  4. ^ Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 265. ISBN 0465041957. 
  5. ^ "Debating Our Destiny: The Second 1976 Presidential Debate - October 6, 1976". Pbs.org. 1976-10-06. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/debatingourdestiny/76debates/2_b.html. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 
  6. ^ Jules Witcover. Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency, 1972–1976 (New York: Viking), p. 11.
  7. ^ Six won the plurality of the popular vote: Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. Though Gore won the plurality of the popular vote in 2000, his opponent won the majority of the electoral vote. Cleveland won the plurality of the popular vote in 1884, 1888, and 1892 along with the majority of the electoral vote in 1884 and 1892, but his opponent won the majority of the electoral vote in 1888. Wilson in 1912 and 1916, Truman in 1948), Kennedy in 1960, and Clinton in 1992 and 1996 all won the plurality of the popular vote and the majority of the electoral vote.
  8. ^ "year=1976&fips=51&f=1&off=0&elect=0 1976 Presidential General Election Results - Virginia". Uselectionatlas.org. http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php. Retrieved 2010-05-28. 

[edit] External links

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