The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial
presidential election
A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President.
Elections by country
Albania
The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public.
Chile
The p ...
. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980.
Republican nominee
Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent
Democratic President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
in a landslide victory. This was the second successive election in which the incumbent president was defeated, after Carter himself defeated
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
four years earlier in
1976, marking only the second time in American history that this occurred, after
1892. Additionally, it was only the third time an incumbent Democrat lost re-election, and only the second (and last) time a Republican has defeated an incumbent Democrat. Additionally, this was only the second time in history that an incumbent Democrat lost the popular vote, after 1840, and the only time it occurred against a Republican. Due to the rise of
conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
following Reagan's victory, some historians consider the election to be a
political realignment that began with
Barry Goldwater's
presidential campaign in 1964, and the 1980 election marked the start of the
Reagan Era.
Carter's unpopularity and poor relations with Democratic leaders encouraged an intra-party challenge by Senator
Ted Kennedy, a younger brother of President
John F. Kennedy. Carter defeated Kennedy in the majority of the
Democratic primaries, but Kennedy remained in the race until Carter was officially nominated at the
1980 Democratic National Convention. The
Republican primaries were contested between Reagan, who had previously served as the Governor of California, former Congressman
George H. W. Bush of Texas, Congressman
John B. Anderson
John Bayard Anderson (February 15, 1922 – December 3, 2017) was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 to 1981. A member ...
of Illinois, and several other candidates. All of Reagan's opponents had dropped out by the end of the primaries, and the
1980 Republican National Convention nominated a ticket consisting of Reagan and Bush. Anderson entered the race as an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independe ...
candidate, and convinced former Wisconsin Governor
Patrick Lucey, a Democrat, to serve as his running mate. Reagan campaigned for increased defense spending, implementation of
supply-side economic
Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory that postulates economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics, consumers will benefit fr ...
policies, and a balanced budget. His campaign was aided by Democratic dissatisfaction with Carter, the
Iran hostage crisis, and a worsening economy at home marked by
high unemployment and inflation. Carter attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing extremist, and warned that Reagan would cut
Medicare and
Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
.
Reagan won the election by a
landslide, taking 489
electoral votes and 50.8% of the popular vote with a margin of 9.7%. Reagan received the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate. In the simultaneous Congressional elections, Republicans
won control of the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and po ...
for the first time since 1955. Carter won 41% of the vote, but carried just six states and
Washington, D. C. Anderson won 6.6% of the popular vote, and he performed best among liberal Republican voters dissatisfied with Reagan. Reagan, then 69, was the oldest person to ever be elected to a first term, beating
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
's record in 1840.
Background
Throughout the 1970s, the United States underwent a wrenching period of
low economic growth, high inflation and interest rates, and
intermittent energy crises.
By October 1978,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
—a major oil supplier to the United States at the time—was experiencing a
major uprising that severely damaged its oil infrastructure and greatly weakened its capability to produce oil.
In January 1979, shortly after Iran's leader
Shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi fled the country, Iranian opposition figure
Ayatollah
Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیتالله, āyatollāh) is an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Etymology
The title is originally derived from Arabic word ...
Ruhollah Khomeini
Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...
ended his 14-year exile in France and returned to Iran to establish an
Islamic Republic
The term Islamic republic has been used in different ways. Some Muslim religious leaders have used it as the name for a theoretical form of Islamic theocratic government enforcing sharia, or laws compatible with sharia. The term has also been u ...
, largely hostile to American interests and influence in the country.
In the spring and summer of 1979, inflation was on the rise and various parts of the United States were experiencing energy shortages.
Carter was widely blamed for the return of the long gas lines in the summer of 1979 that was last seen just after the 1973
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
. He planned on delivering his fifth major speech on energy, but he felt that the American people were no longer listening. Carter left for the presidential retreat of
Camp David. "For more than a week, a veil of secrecy enveloped the proceedings. Dozens of prominent Democratic Party leaders—
members of Congress, governors, labor leaders, academics and clergy—were summoned to the mountaintop retreat to confer with the beleaguered president." His pollster,
Pat Caddell, told him that the American people simply faced a crisis of confidence because of the assassinations of
John F. Kennedy,
Robert F. Kennedy and
Martin Luther King Jr.; the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
; and
Watergate. On July 15, 1979, Carter gave a nationally televised address in which he identified what he believed to be a "crisis of confidence" among the American people. This came to be known as his "
Malaise speech
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President ...
", although Carter never used the word in the speech.
Many expected Senator Ted Kennedy to successfully challenge Carter in the upcoming Democratic primary. Kennedy's official announcement was scheduled for early November. A television
interview with Roger Mudd of CBS a few days before the announcement went badly, however. Kennedy gave an "incoherent and repetitive"
answer to the question of why he was running, and the polls, which showed him leading the President by 58–25 in August now had him ahead 49–39.
Meanwhile, Carter was given an opportunity for political redemption when the Khomeini regime again gained public attention and allowed the taking of
52 American hostages by a group of
Islamist students and militants at the U.S. embassy in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
on November 4, 1979. Carter's calm approach towards the handling of this crisis resulted in his approval ratings jump in the 60-percent range in some polls, due to a "rally round the flag" effect.
By the beginning of the election campaign, the prolonged
Iran hostage crisis had sharpened public perceptions of a national crisis. On April 25, 1980, Carter's ability to use the hostage crisis to regain public acceptance eroded when his high risk
attempt to rescue the hostages ended in disaster when eight servicemen were killed. The unsuccessful rescue attempt drew further skepticism towards his leadership skills.
Following the failed rescue attempt, Carter took overwhelming blame for the Iran hostage crisis, in which the followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini burned
American flags
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...
and chanted anti-American slogans, paraded the captured American hostages in public, and burned Carter in
effigy
An effigy is an often life-size sculptural representation of a specific person, or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests and for the figures burned in certai ...
. Carter's critics saw him as an inept leader who had failed to solve the worsening economic problems at home. His supporters defended the president as a decent, well-intentioned man being unfairly criticized for problems that had been escalating for years.
When
the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979, Carter seized international leadership in rallying opposition. He cut off American grain sales, which hurt Soviet consumers and annoyed American famers. In terms of prestige the Soviets were deeply hurt by the large-scale boycott of their
1980 Summer Olympics. Furthermore Carter began secret support of the opposition forces in Afghanistan that successfully tied down the Soviet army for a decade. The effect was to end détente and reopen the Cold War.
Nominations
Republican Party
Other major candidates
The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks and cable news channels, were listed in publicly published national polls, or had held a public office. Reagan received 7,709,793 votes in the primaries.
Former governor
Ronald Reagan of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
was the odds-on favorite to win his party's nomination for president after
nearly beating incumbent President
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
just four years earlier. Reagan dominated the primaries early, driving from the field Senate Minority Leader
Howard Baker from Tennessee, former governor
John Connally of Texas, Senator
Robert Dole
Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) was an American politician and attorney who represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996. He was the Republican Leader of the Senate during the final 11 years of his t ...
from Kansas, Representative
Phil Crane from Illinois, and Representative
John Anderson from Illinois, who dropped out of the race to run as an Independent.
George H. W. Bush from Texas posed the strongest challenge to Reagan with his victories in the Pennsylvania and Michigan primaries, but it was not enough to turn the tide. Reagan won the nomination on the first round at the
1980 Republican National Convention in
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, in July, then chose Bush (his top rival) as his running mate. Reagan, Bush, and Dole would all go on to be the nominee in the next four elections. (Reagan in
1984, Bush in
1988 and
1992, and Dole in
1996)
Democratic Party
Other major candidates
The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks, were listed in published national polls, or had held public office. Carter received 10,043,016 votes in the primaries.
The three major Democratic candidates in early 1980 were incumbent President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
, Senator
Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Governor
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of S ...
of California. Brown withdrew on April 2. Carter and Kennedy faced off in 34 primaries. Not counting the
1968 election in which
Lyndon Johnson withdrew his candidacy, this was the most tumultuous
primary race that an elected incumbent president had encountered since
President Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected p ...
, during the highly contentious
election of 1912
The following elections occurred in the year 1912.
Asia
* 1912 Chinese National Assembly election (first election for the newly founded National Assembly of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China)
* 1912 Philippine Assembly electio ...
.
During the summer of 1980, there was a short-lived "Draft Muskie" movement; Secretary of State
Edmund Muskie was seen as a favorable alternative to a deadlocked convention. One poll showed that Muskie would be a more popular alternative to Carter than Kennedy, implying that the attraction was not so much to Kennedy as to the fact that he was not Carter. Muskie was polling even with Ronald Reagan at the time, while Carter was seven points behind. Although the underground "Draft Muskie" campaign failed, it became a political legend.
After defeating Kennedy in 24 of 34 primaries, Carter entered the party's
convention in New York in August with 60 percent of the delegates pledged to him on the first ballot. Still, Kennedy refused to drop out. At the convention, after a futile last-ditch attempt by Kennedy to alter the rules to free delegates from their first-ballot pledges, Carter was renominated with 2,129 votes to 1,146 for Kennedy. Vice President
Walter Mondale was also renominated. In his acceptance speech, Carter warned that Reagan's conservatism posed a threat to world peace and progressive social welfare programs from the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
to the
Great Society.
Other candidates
John B. Anderson
John Bayard Anderson (February 15, 1922 – December 3, 2017) was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 to 1981. A member ...
was defeated in the Republican primaries, but entered the general election as an independent candidate. He campaigned as a liberal Republican alternative to Reagan's conservatism. Anderson's campaign appealed primarily to frustrated anti-Carter voters from Republican and Democratic backgrounds. Despite maintaining the support of millions of liberal, pro-ERA, anti-Reagan and anti-Carter voters all the way up to election day to finish third with 5.7 million votes, Anderson's poll ratings had ebbed away through the campaign season as many of his initial supporters were pulled away by Carter and Reagan. Anderson's running mate was
Patrick Lucey, a Democratic former
Governor of Wisconsin and then ambassador to Mexico, appointed by President Carter.
The
Libertarian Party nominated
Ed Clark
Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election.
Clark is an ho ...
for president and
David Koch
David Hamilton Koch ( ; May 3, 1940 – August 23, 2019) was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held c ...
for vice president. They received almost one million votes and were on the ballot in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C. Koch, a co-owner of
Koch Industries, pledged part of his personal fortune to the campaign. The Libertarian Party platform was the only political party in 1980 to contain a plank advocating for the
equal rights of homosexual men and women as well as the only party platform to advocate explicitly for "amnesty" for all illegal non-citizens.
[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php http://www.lpedia.org/1980_Libertarian_Party_Platform#3._Victimless_Crimes ] The platform was also unique in favoring the repeal of the
National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and ...
, all state
Right to Work laws, Medicare, Medicaid, and “the increasingly oppressive” Social Security.
Clark emphasized his support for an end to the
war on drugs
The war on drugs is a global campaign, led by the United States federal government, of drug prohibition, military aid, and military intervention, with the aim of reducing the illegal drug trade in the United States.Cockburn and St. Clair, 1 ...
. He advertised his opposition to the draft and wars of choice.
The Clark–Koch ticket received 921,128 votes (1.1% of the total nationwide), finishing in fourth place nationwide. This was the highest overall number of votes earned by a Libertarian candidate until the
2012 election, when
Gary Johnson
Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for Presid ...
and
James P. Gray James P. Gray may refer to:
* Jim Gray (jurist) (James Polin Gray), American jurist, writer and Libertarian Party candidate
* Jim Gray (American politician)
James P. Gray II (born August 18, 1953) is an American politician who is the Kentucky Sec ...
became the first Libertarian ticket to earn more than a million votes, albeit with a lower overall vote percentage than Clark–Koch. The 1980 total remained the highest percentage of popular votes a Libertarian Party candidate received in a presidential race until Johnson and
William Weld received 3.3% of the popular vote in
2016. Clark's strongest support was in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...
, where he came in third place with 11.7% of the vote, finishing ahead of Independent candidate John B. Anderson and receiving almost half as many votes as Jimmy Carter.
The
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America,"The article of this organization shall be the Socialist Party of the United States of America, hereinafter called 'the Party'". Art. I of th"Constitution o ...
nominated
David McReynolds for president and Sister
Diane Drufenbrock
Diane Joyce Drufenbrock (7 October 1929 – 4 November 2013), also known as Sister Madeleine Sophie, was an American religious sister as a member of the Catholic School Sisters of St. Francis. She was a Christian socialist who was the vic ...
for vice president, making McReynolds the first openly gay man to run for president and Drufenbrock the first nun to be a candidate for national office in the U.S.
The
Citizens Party ran
biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually specialize ...
Barry Commoner
Barry Commoner (May 28, 1917 – September 30, 2012) was an American cellular biologist, college professor, and politician. He was a leading ecologist and among the founders of the modern environmental movement. He was the director of the ...
for president and
Comanche
The Comanche or Nʉmʉnʉʉ ( com, Nʉmʉnʉʉ, "the people") are a Native American tribe from the Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the federally recognized Comanche Nation, headquartered in ...
Native American activist
LaDonna Harris for vice president. The Commoner–Harris ticket was on the ballot in twenty-nine states and in the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...
.
The
Communist Party USA ran
Gus Hall for president and
Angela Davis for vice president.
The
American Party nominated
Percy L. Greaves Jr.
Percy L. Greaves Jr. (August 24, 1906 – August 13, 1984) was an American free-market economist, historian, and presidential candidate.
Biography
Greaves was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 24, 1906. He received a B.S. in business admi ...
for president and Frank L. Varnum for vice president.
Rock star
Joe Walsh ran a mock campaign as a
write-in candidate, promising to make his song "
Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and running on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone." Though the 33-year-old Walsh was not old enough to actually assume the office, he wanted to raise public awareness of the election.
General election
Campaign
Under federal election laws, Carter and Reagan received $29.4 million each, and Anderson was given a limit of $18.5 million with private fund-raising allowed for him only. They were not allowed to spend any other money. Carter and Reagan each spent about $15 million on television advertising, and Anderson under $2 million. Reagan ended up spending $29.2 million in total, Carter $29.4 million, and Anderson spent $17.6 million—partially because he (Anderson) didn't get
Federal Election Commission money until after the election.
The 1980 election marked a
political realignment, with Reagan gaining in former Democratic strongholds such as the South and white ethnics (dubbed "
Reagan Democrats
A Reagan Democrat is a traditionally Democratic voter in the Northern United States, referring to working class residents who supported Republican presidential candidates Ronald Reagan in the 1980 or the 1984 presidential elections, or George ...
." Reagan exuded upbeat optimism.
David Frum says Carter ran an attack-based campaign based on "despair and pessimism" which "cost him the election."
Carter emphasized his record as a peacemaker, and said Reagan's election would threaten
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
and social programs that stretched back to the
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...
. Reagan's platform also emphasized the importance of peace, as well as a prepared self-defense.
Immediately after the conclusion of the primaries, a
Gallup poll held that Reagan was ahead, with 58% of voters upset by Carter's handling of the Presidency.
One analysis of the election has suggested that "Both Carter and Reagan were perceived negatively by a majority of the electorate." While the three leading candidates (Reagan, Anderson and Carter) were religious Christians, Carter had the most support of evangelical Christians according to a Gallup poll.
However, in the end,
Jerry Falwell's
Moral Majority lobbying group is credited with giving Reagan two-thirds of the white evangelical vote.
According to Carter: "that autumn
980
Year 980 ( CMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place Europe
* Peace is concluded between Emperor Otto II (the Red) and King Lothair III (or Lothair IV) a ...
a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian."
The election of 1980 was a key turning point in American politics. It signaled the new electoral power of the
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...
s and the
Sun Belt
The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — d ...
. Reagan's success as a
conservative would initiate a realigning of the parties, as
liberal Republicans and
conservative Democrats would either leave politics or change party affiliations through the 1980s and 1990s to leave the parties much more ideologically polarized.
While during
Barry Goldwater's
1964 campaign, many voters saw his warnings about a too-powerful government as hyperbolic and only 30% of the electorate agreed that government was too powerful, by 1980 a majority of Americans believed that government held too much power.
Promises
Reagan promised a restoration of the nation's military strength, at the same time 60% of Americans polled felt defense spending was too low.
Reagan also promised an end to "trust me government" and to restore economic health by implementing a
supply-side economic
Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory that postulates economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics, consumers will benefit fr ...
policy. Reagan promised a
balanced budget within three years (which he said would be "the beginning of the end of inflation"), accompanied by a 30% reduction in tax rates over those same years. With respect to the economy, Reagan famously said, "A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his."
Reagan also criticized the "
windfall profit tax" that Carter and Congress enacted that year in regards to domestic oil production and promised to attempt to repeal it as president.
The tax was not a tax on profits, but on the difference between the
price control
Price controls are restrictions set in place and enforced by governments, on the prices that can be charged for goods and services in a market. The intent behind implementing such controls can stem from the desire to maintain affordability of good ...
-mandated price and the market price.
On the issue of
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countri ...
there was much division, with many feminists frustrated with Carter, the only major-party candidate who supported the
Equal Rights Amendment. After a bitter Convention fight between Republican feminists and antifeminists the Republican Party dropped their forty-year endorsement of the ERA. Reagan, however, announced his dedication to women's rights and his intention to, if elected, appoint women to his cabinet and the first female justice to the
Supreme Court.
He also pledged to work with all 50 state governors to combat discrimination against women and to equalize federal laws as an alternative to the ERA.
Reagan was convinced to give an endorsement of women's rights in his nomination acceptance speech.
Carter was criticized by his own aides for not having a "grand plan" for the recovery of the economy, nor did he ever make any campaign promises; he often criticized Reagan's economic recovery plan, but did not create one of his own in response.
Events
In August, after the
Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech at the annual
Neshoba County
Neshoba County is located in the central part of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 29,087. Its county seat is Philadelphia. It was named after ''Nashoba'', a Choctaw chief. His name means "wolf" in the ...
Fair on the outskirts of
Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were
murdered in 1964. He was the first presidential candidate ever to campaign at the fair. Reagan famously announced, "Programs like education and others should be turned back to the states and local communities with the tax sources to fund them. I believe in
states' rights. I believe in people doing as much as they can at the community level and the private level."
Reagan also stated, "I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these pr ...
to that federal establishment." He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them." President Carter criticized Reagan for injecting "hate and racism" by the "rebirth of
code words like 'states' rights'".
Two days later, Reagan appeared at the
Urban League convention in New York, where he said, "I am committed to the protection and enforcement of the civil rights of black Americans. This commitment is interwoven into every phase of the plans I will propose."
He then said that he would develop "
enterprise zones" to help with urban renewal.
The media's main criticism of Reagan centered on his gaffes. When Carter kicked off his general election campaign in
Tuscumbia, Reagan—referring to the Southern U.S. as a whole—claimed that Carter had begun his campaign in the birthplace of the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...
. In doing so, Reagan seemed to insinuate that the KKK represented the South, which caused many Southern governors to denounce Reagan's remarks. Additionally, Reagan was widely ridiculed by Democrats for saying that trees caused pollution; he later said that he meant only certain types of pollution and his remarks had been misquoted.
Meanwhile, Carter was burdened by a continued weak economy and the
Iran hostage crisis.
Inflation, high interest rates, and unemployment continued through the course of the campaign, and the ongoing hostage crisis in Iran became, according to
David Frum in ''How We Got Here: The '70s'', a symbol of American impotence during the Carter years.
John Anderson's independent candidacy, aimed at eliciting support from liberals, was also seen as hurting Carter more than Reagan,
especially in reliably Democratic states such as Massachusetts and New York.
Presidential debates
The
League of Women Voters, which had sponsored the 1976 Ford/Carter debate series, announced that it would do so again for the next cycle in the spring of 1979. However, Carter was not eager to participate with any debate. He had repeatedly refused to a debate with Senator
Edward M. Kennedy during the primary season, and had given ambivalent signals as to his participation in the fall.
The League of Women Voters had announced a schedule of debates similar to 1976, three presidential and one vice presidential. No one had much of a problem with this until it was announced that Rep.
John B. Anderson
John Bayard Anderson (February 15, 1922 – December 3, 2017) was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 16th congressional district from 1961 to 1981. A member ...
might be invited to participate along with Carter and Reagan. Carter steadfastly refused to participate with Anderson included, and Reagan refused to debate without him. It took months of negotiations for the League of Women Voters to finally put it together. It was held on September 21, 1980, in the
Baltimore Convention Center. Reagan said of Carter's refusal to debate: "He
arterknows that he couldn't win a debate even if it were held in the
Rose Garden before an audience of Administration officials with the questions being asked by
Jody Powell."
The League of Women Voters promised the Reagan campaign that the debate stage would feature an empty chair to represent the missing president. Carter was very upset about the planned chair stunt, and at the last minute convinced the league to take it out. The debate was moderated by
Bill Moyers. Anderson, who many thought would handily dispatch Reagan, managed only a narrow win, according to many in the media at that time, with Reagan putting up a much stronger performance than expected. Despite the narrow win in the debate, Anderson, who had been as high as 20% in some polls, and at the time of the debate was over 10%, dropped to about 5% soon after, although Anderson got back up to winning 6.6% of the vote on election day. In the debate, Anderson failed to substantively engage Reagan enough on their social issue differences and on Reagan's advocation of supply-side economics. Anderson instead started off by criticizing Carter: "Governor Reagan is not responsible for what has happened over the last four years, nor am I. The man who should be here tonight to respond to those charges chose not to attend," to which Reagan added: "It's a shame now that there are only two of us here debating, because the two that are here are in more agreement than disagreement."
In one moment in the debate, Reagan commented on a rumor that Anderson had invited Senator
Ted Kennedy to be his running mate by asking the candidate directly, "John, would you really prefer Teddy Kennedy to me?"
As September turned into October, the situation remained essentially the same. Governor Reagan insisted Anderson be allowed to participate in a three-way debate, while President Carter remained steadfastly opposed to this. As the standoff continued, the second debate was canceled, as was the vice presidential debate.
With two weeks to go to the election, the Reagan campaign decided that the best thing to do at that moment was to accede to all of President Carter's demands, including that Anderson not feature, and LWV agreed to exclude Congressman Anderson from the final debate, which was rescheduled for October 28 in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
.
The presidential debate between President Carter and Governor Reagan was moderated by
Howard K. Smith and presented by the League of Women Voters. The showdown ranked among the highest ratings of any
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
program in the previous decade. Debate topics included the Iranian hostage crisis, and nuclear arms treaties and proliferation. Carter's campaign sought to portray Reagan as a reckless "war hawk," as well as a "dangerous right-wing radical". But it was President Carter's reference to his consultation with 12-year-old daughter
Amy
Amy is a female given name, sometimes short for Amanda, Amelia, Amélie, or Amita. In French, the name is spelled ''" Aimée"''.
People A–E
* Amy Acker (born 1976), American actress
* Amy Vera Ackman, also known as Mother Giovanni (1886– ...
concerning nuclear weapons policy that became the focus of post-debate analysis and fodder for late-night television
jokes. President Carter said he had asked Amy what the most important issue in that election was and she said, "the control of
nuclear arms." A famous political cartoon, published the day after Reagan's landslide victory, showed Amy Carter sitting in Jimmy's lap with her shoulders shrugged asking "the economy? the hostage crisis?"
When President Carter criticized Reagan's record, which included voting against
Medicare and
Social Security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
benefits, Governor Reagan audibly sighed and replied: "
There you go again".
In describing the national debt that was approaching $1 trillion, Reagan stated "a billion is a thousand millions, and a trillion is a thousand billions." When Carter would criticize the content of Reagan's campaign speeches, Reagan began his counter with the words: "Well ... I don't know that I said that. I really don't."
In his closing remarks, Reagan asked viewers: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago? Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we're as strong as we were four years ago? And if you answer all of those questions 'yes', why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don't agree, if you don't think that this course that we've been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have."
After trailing Carter by 8 points among registered voters (and by 3 points among likely voters) right before their debate, Reagan moved into a 3-point lead among likely voters immediately afterward.
Endorsements
In September 1980, former
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's contin ...
prosecutor
Leon Jaworski accepted a position as honorary chairman of
Democrats for Reagan.
Five months earlier, Jaworski had harshly criticized Reagan as an "extremist"; he said after accepting the chairmanship, "I would rather have a competent extremist than an incompetent moderate."
Former Democratic Senator
Eugene McCarthy
Eugene Joseph McCarthy (March 29, 1916December 10, 2005) was an American politician, writer, and academic from Minnesota. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the United States Senate from 1959 to 1971. ...
of Minnesota (who in
1968
The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide.
Events January–February
* January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
* J ...
had challenged
Lyndon Johnson from the left, causing the then-President to all but abdicate) endorsed Reagan.
[MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour (December 12, 2005)]
Online NewsHour: "Remembering Sen. Eugene McCarthy"
December 12, 2005. PBS.
Three days before the November 4 voting in the election, the
National Rifle Association endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time in its history, backing Reagan. Reagan had received the California Rifle and Pistol Association's Outstanding Public Service Award. Carter had appointed
Abner J. Mikva
Abner Joseph Mikva (January 21, 1926 – July 4, 2016) was an American politician, federal judge, lawyer and law professor. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Mikva served in the United States House of Representatives representing Illinois' ...
, a fervent proponent of
gun control, to a federal judgeship and had supported the Alaska Lands Bill, closing to hunting.
General election endorsements
Anderson had received endorsements from:
;Former officeholders
* Former
Representative (
Arizona's 2nd congressional district
Arizona's 2nd congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of Arizona. For election purposes, it is now located in the northeast corner of the state. For representational purposes until January 2023, it is located ...
) and
Interior Secretary
The United States secretary of the interior is the head of the United States Department of the Interior. The secretary and the Department of the Interior are responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land along with natur ...
Stewart Udall
Stewart Lee Udall (January 31, 1920 – March 20, 2010) was an American politician and later, a federal government official. After serving three terms as a congressman from Arizona, he served as Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969, und ...
(D-AZ)
;Current and former state and local officials and party officeholders
:Massachusetts
*
Middlesex County Sheriff John J. Buckley (D-MA)
* Former
Massachusetts State Representative
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...
Francis W. Hatch Jr. (R-MA)
* Former
Massachusetts Republican Party chairman
Josiah Spaulding (R-MA)
;Celebrities, political activists, and political commentators
;Newspapers
* ''
The Hutchinson News'' in
Hutchinson, Kansas
* ''
The Burlington Free Press'' in
Burlington, VT
Carter had received endorsements from:
;Newspapers
* ''
The Des Moines Register'' in
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...
* The ''
Penn State Daily Collegian'' in
State College, Pennsylvania
Commoner had received endorsements from:
;Celebrities, political activists, and political commentators
*
Montgomery County precinct committeeman and Consumer Party
Auditor General candidate Darcy Richardson (D-PA)
DeBerry had received endorsements from:
;Celebrities, political activists and political commentators
* American People's Historical Society director
Bernie Sanders of
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...
Reagan had received endorsements from:
;United States Senate
*
Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ)
*
Virginia Senator Harry Byrd Jr. (D-VA)
*
New York Senator Jacob Javits (R-NY)
*Former
Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke (R-MA)
;United States House of Representatives
*
Representative (
California's 12th congressional district
California's 12th congressional district is a congressional district in northern California. Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, has represented the district since January 2013. She has represente ...
)
Pete McCloskey
Paul Norton McCloskey Jr. (born September 29, 1927) is an American politician who represented San Mateo County, California as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983.
Born in Loma Linda, California, McCloskey pursued ...
(R-CA)
* Former
Representative (
California's 26th congressional district)
James Roosevelt
James Roosevelt II (December 23, 1907 – August 13, 1991) was an American businessman, Marine, activist, and Democratic Party politician. The eldest son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, he served as an official Secret ...
(D-CA; son of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
;Governors and State Constitutional officers
* Former
Georgia Governor
The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor also has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either veto or approve bills passed by the Georgia Legi ...
Lester Maddox (D-GA)
* Former
Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson (D-AL)
* Former
Texas Governor
The governor of Texas heads the state government of Texas. The governor is the leader of the executive and legislative branch of the state government and is the commander in chief of the Texas Military. The current governor is Greg Abbott, w ...
Preston Smith (D-TX)
* Former
Mississippi Governor John Bell Williams (D-MS)
;Current and former state and local officials and party officeholders
:Florida
*
Fort Lauderdale
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facer ...
City Advisory Board member
Jim Naugle (D-FL)
:New York
* Former
New York State Senator Jeremiah B. Bloom
Jeremiah B. Bloom (May 25, 1913 – October 2, 1983) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.
Biography
He was born on May 25, 1913, in New York City. He attended Brooklyn Evening Technical High School. He graduated from St. John's U ...
(D-NY)
;Celebrities, political activists and political commentators
* Former
UCLA men's basketball head coach John Wooden
John Robert Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball coach and player. Nicknamed the Wizard of Westwood, he won ten National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) national championships in a 12-year period as hea ...
* Retired
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...
Elmo Zumwalt (D-VA)
;Newspaper endorsements
* ''
The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily Lists of newspapers, newspaper published in Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain ...
'' in
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...
* ''
The Desert Sun'' in
Palm Springs, California
* The ''
Omaha World-Herald in
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest ...
* The ''
Quad-City Times'' in
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and ...
* ''
The Record
The Record may refer to:
Music
* ''The Record'' (album), a 1982 studio album by the hardcore-punk band Fear
* The Records, an English power pop band
* '' Their Greatest Hits: The Record'', a 2001 greatest-hits album by the pop-music group Bee G ...
'' in
Stockton, California
Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after R ...
* ''
The Repository
''The Repository'' is an American daily local newspaper serving the Canton, Ohio area. It is currently owned by Gannett.
History
Historically, the newspaper had strong Republican connections, most notably with President William McKinley, who wa ...
'' in
Canton, Ohio
* ''
The Plain Dealer'' in
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S ...
* ''
The Blade'' in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnat ...
* ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
'' in
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
* ''
Richmond Times-Dispatch'' in
Richmond, Virginia
(Thus do we reach the stars)
, image_map =
, mapsize = 250 px
, map_caption = Location within Virginia
, pushpin_map = Virginia#USA
, pushpin_label = Richmond
, pushpin_m ...
Results
The election was held on November 4, 1980. Ronald Reagan and running mate
George H. W. Bush beat Carter by almost 10 percentage points in the popular vote.
Republicans also gained control of the Senate on
Reagan's coattails for the first time since 1952. The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing six states and Washington, D.C.).
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
projected Reagan as the winner at 8:15 pm EST (5:15 PST), before voting was finished in the West, based on
exit polls; it was the first time a broadcast network used exit polling to project a winner, and took the other broadcast networks by surprise. Carter conceded defeat at 9:50 pm EST. Some of Carter's advisors urged him to wait until 11:00 pm EST to allow poll results from the West Coast to come in, but Carter decided to concede earlier in order to avoid the impression that he was sulking. Speaker of the House
Tip O'Neill
Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr. (December 9, 1912 – January 5, 1994) was an American politician who served as the 47th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1987, representing northern Boston, Massachusetts, as ...
angrily accused Carter of weakening the party's performance in the
Senate elections for doing this. Carter's loss was the worst performance by an incumbent president since Herbert Hoover lost to Franklin D. Roosevelt by a margin of 18% in 1932, and his 49 electoral college votes were the fewest won by an incumbent since
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected pr ...
won only 8 in 1912. Carter was the first incumbent Democrat to serve only one full term since
James Buchanan and also the first to serve one full term, seek re-election, and lose since
Martin Van Buren;
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...
served two non-consecutive terms while
Harry Truman and
Lyndon B. Johnson served one full term in addition to respectively taking over following the deaths of
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
John F. Kennedy.
Carter carried only
Georgia (his home state),
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over t ...
(Mondale's home state),
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
,
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...
,
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, and the
District of Columbia
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle (Washington, D.C.), Logan Circle, Jefferson Memoria ...
.
John Anderson won 6.6% of the popular vote but failed to win any state outright. He found the most support in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, fueled by liberal and moderate Republicans who felt Reagan was too far to the right and with voters who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration. His best showing was in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, where he won 15% of the popular vote. Conversely, Anderson performed worst in the
South, receiving under 2% of the popular vote in South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Anderson claims that he was accused of
spoiling the election for Carter by receiving votes that might have otherwise been cast for Carter. However, 37 percent of Anderson voters polled preferred Reagan as their second choice. Even if all Anderson votes had gone for Carter, Reagan would have still held enough majorities and pluralities to maintain 331 electoral votes.
Libertarian Party candidate
Ed Clark
Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election.
Clark is an ho ...
received 921,299 popular votes (1.06%). The Libertarians succeeded in getting Clark on the ballot in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Clark's best showing was in Alaska, where he received 11.66% of the vote. The 921,299 votes achieved by the Clark–Koch ticket was the best performance by a Libertarian presidential candidate until 2012, when the Johnson–Gray ticket received 1,273,667 votes. In addition, the popular vote percentage was the highest of a Libertarian presidential candidate until 2016, when the Johnson-Weld ticket received 3.28%.
Reagan coalition
Reagan won 53% of the vote in reliably Democratic
South Boston.
His electoral college victory of 489 electoral votes (90.9% of the electoral vote) was the most lopsided electoral college victory for a first-time President-elect, with the exception of George Washington's unanimous victory in 1788. Although Reagan was to win an even greater Electoral College majority in 1984, the 1980 election nonetheless stands as the last time some currently very strong Democratic counties gave a Republican majority or plurality. Notable examples are
Jefferson County in Washington State,
Lane County, Oregon
Lane County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 382,971, making it the fourth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Eugene. It is named in honor of Joseph Lane, Ore ...
,
Marin and
Santa Cruz Counties in California,
McKinley County, New Mexico, and
Rock Island County, Illinois. This election is the last time a Republican won the presidency without winning Georgia. This is the first time Massachusetts voted for the Republican candidate since 1956. 1980 is one of only two occurrences of a pair of consecutive elections seeing the incumbent president defeated, the other one happening in
1892. This is the only time in the 20th century a party was voted out after a single four-year term, and the first since 1892. This would not occur again until 2020.
Survey research and post-election polling indicated that the landslide result had been more a repudiation of Carter than an embrace of Reagan and his conservatism. However, the public was aware that Reagan would move the nation in a more conservative direction, and were, apparently, willing to give it a chance to avoid four more years of Carter.
At 69 years old, Reagan was the oldest non-incumbent to win a presidential election. Thirty-six years later in
2016 this record was surpassed by
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
at 70 years old. It was then surpassed again by
Joe Biden who was elected at 77 years old in
2020.
Results
Source (popular vote):
Source (electoral vote):
File:1980 United States presidential election results map by county.svg, Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
Results by state
Maine allowed its electoral votes to be split between candidates. Two electoral votes were awarded to the winner of the statewide race and one electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district. Reagan won all four votes.
Close states
Margin of victory less than 1% (30 electoral votes):
#
Massachusetts, 0.15% (3,829 votes)
#
Tennessee, 0.29% (4,710 votes)
#
Arkansas, 0.61% (5,123 votes)
Margin of victory less than 5% (135 electoral votes):
#
Alabama, 1.30% (17,462 votes)
#
Mississippi, 1.32% (11,808 votes)
#
Kentucky, 1.46% (18,857 votes)
#
South Carolina, 1.53% (13,647 votes)
#
Hawaii, 1.90% (5,767 votes)
#
North Carolina, 2.12% (39,383 votes)
#
Delaware, 2.33% (5,498 votes)
#
New York, 2.67% (165,459 votes)
#
Maryland, 2.96% (45,555 votes)
#
Maine's 1st Congressional District, 3.15% (8,661 votes)
#
Maine, 3.36% (17,548 votes)
#
Maine's 2nd Congressional District, 3.73% (8,887 votes)
#
Minnesota, 3.94% (80,933 votes)
#
West Virginia, 4.51% (33,256 votes)
#
Wisconsin, 4.72% (107,261 votes)
Margin of victory more than 5%, but less than 10% (113 electoral votes):
#
Louisiana, 5.45% (84,400 votes)
#
Vermont, 5.96% (12,707 votes)
#
Michigan, 6.49% (253,693 votes)
#
Missouri, 6.81% (142,999 votes)
#
Pennsylvania, 7.11% (324,332 votes)
#
''Illinois, 7.93% (376,636 votes)'' ''(
tipping-point state)''
#
Connecticut, 9.64% (135,478 votes)
#
Oregon, 9.66% (114,154 votes)
Statistics
Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Republican)
#
Banner County, Nebraska 90.41%
#
Madison County, Idaho 88.41%
#
McIntosh County, North Dakota
McIntosh County is a county in the U.S. state of North Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,530. Its county seat is Ashley. The county is notable for being the county with the highest percentage of German-Americans in the Unite ...
86.01%
#
McPherson County, South Dakota
McPherson County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,411. Its county seat is Leola.
History
The county was created in 1873 and organized in 1884. It is named for American Civil War Gen ...
85.60%
#
Franklin County, Idaho 85.31%
Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Democratic)
#
Macon County, Alabama 80.10%
#
Hancock County, Georgia
Hancock County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,735. The county seat is Sparta. The county was created on December 17, 1793, and named for John Hancock, a Founding Father of the ...
78.50%
#
Duval County, Texas
Duval County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 9,831. The county seat is San Diego. The county was founded in 1858 and later organized in 1876. It is named for Burr H. Duval, a soldie ...
77.91%
#
Jefferson County, Mississippi 77.84%
#
Greene County, Alabama 77.09%
Counties with highest percentage of the vote (Other)
#
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachus ...
21.63%
#
Winnebago County, Illinois
Winnebago County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 285,350 making it the seventh most populous county in Illinois behind Cook County and its five surrounding collar countie ...
21.50%
#
Dukes County, Massachusetts 20.88%
#
Pitkin County, Colorado 20.82%
#
Story County, Iowa 19.41%
Voter demographics
Source:
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
and ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' exit poll from the
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
__NOTOC__
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University is the world's oldest archive of social science data and the largest specializing in data from public opinion surveys. It's collection includes over 24,000 datasets and ...
(
15,201 surveyed)
Conspiracy theory
The "October Surprise conspiracy theory" alleges the existence of a plot to influence the outcome of the election. One of the leading national issues was the
release of 66 Americans being held hostage in Iran since November 4, 1979.
Reagan won the election. On the day of
his inauguration—in fact, minutes after he concluded his 20-minute inaugural address—the
Islamic Republic of Iran announced the release of the hostages.
The timing gave rise to an allegation that representatives of Reagan's presidential
campaign had conspired with Iran to delay the release until after the election to thwart President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
from pulling off an "
October surprise
In U.S. political jargon, an October surprise is a news event that may influence the outcome of an upcoming November election (particularly one for the U.S. presidency), whether deliberately planned or spontaneously occurring. Because the dat ...
".
See also
*
1980 United States House of Representatives elections
The 1980 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1980 which coincided with the election of Ronald Reagan as President, defeating Democratic incumbent President Jimmy Cart ...
*
1980 United States Senate elections
The 1980 United States Senate elections coincided with Ronald Reagan's victory in the presidential election. Reagan's large margin of victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter gave a huge boost to Republican Senate candidates, allowing them to flip ...
*
1980 United States gubernatorial elections
*
History of the United States (1964–1980)
The history of the United States from 1964 through 1980 includes the climax and end of the Civil Rights Movement; the escalation and ending of the Vietnam War; the drama of a generational revolt with its sexual freedoms and use of drugs; and the ...
*
History of the United States (1980–1991)
The history of the United States from 1980 until 1991 includes the last year of the Jimmy Carter presidency, eight years of the Ronald Reagan administration, and the first three years of the George H. W. Bush presidency, up to the collapse of the ...
* ''
Anderson v. Celebrezze''
*
October Surprise conspiracy theory
*
Political activities of the Koch brothers
*
First inauguration of Ronald Reagan
*
Debategate per allegations of Carter's briefing books being leaked to Reagan campaign prior to their debate
References
Further reading
Books
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online review by Michael Barone* Davies, Gareth, and Julian E. Zelizer, eds. ''America at the Ballot Box: Elections and Political History'' (2015) pp. 196–218.
*
*
*
* Hogue, Andrew P. ''Stumping God: Reagan, Carter, and the Invention of a Political Faith'' (Baylor University Press; 2012) 343 pages; A study of religious rhetoric in the campaign
* Mason, Jim (2011)
Lanham, MD: University Press of America. .
*
*
* Stanley, Timothy. ''Kennedy vs. Carter: The 1980 Battle for the Democratic Party's Soul'' (University Press of Kansas, 2010) 298 pages. A revisionist history of the 1970s and their political aftermath that argues that Ted Kennedy's 1980 campaign was more popular than has been acknowledged; describes his defeat by Jimmy Carter in terms of a "historical accident" rather than perceived radicalism.
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Journal articles
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Newspaper articles
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External links
Campaign commercials from the 1980 election* —Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
*
Portrayal of 1980 presidential elections in the U.S. by the Soviet televisionElection of 1980 in Counting the Votes
{{Authority control
1980 United States Presidential Election
1980
Events January
* January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission.
* January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC.
* January 9 – In ...
Ronald Reagan
Jimmy Carter
Walter Mondale
George H. W. Bush
November 1980 events in the United States