The 1980 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 4, 1980. All fifty states and
The District of Columbia
)
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were part of the
1980 United States presidential election
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. Republican nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. ...
. Voters chose four electors to the
Electoral College, who voted for
president and
vice president.
Maine was won by former California
Governor Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
(R) by a slim margin of 3%, carrying fourteen out of sixteen counties. In recent years, however, the state has grown much more liberal, and no Republican presidential nominee has carried it since
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
.
The already embattled incumbent Democratic president Carter was hurt in the state by the strong
third party candidacy of
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 o ...
, a
liberal Republican Congressman who ran in 1980 as an independent after failing to win the Republican Party's own presidential nomination. Anderson proved very popular with liberal and moderate voters in
New England who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter administration and viewed Reagan as too far to the right. New England overall would prove to be Anderson's strongest region in the nation, with all six New England states giving double-digit percentages to Anderson. However, Maine would prove to be Anderson's weakest state in New England with only 10.20% of the popular vote, whereas all five of the other states in New England gave Anderson over 12% of the popular vote, peaking at 15.15% in
Massachusetts.
As a result of the split in the vote, Cumberland County flipped to Carter in this election, thereby making Reagan the first Republican to ever win without this county. This was the last presidential election in which Hancock County was the most Republican county in Maine.
Primaries
Results
Results by congressional district
Reagan won both of Maine's congressional districts.
Results by county
See also
*
United States presidential elections in Maine
Following is a table of United States presidential elections in Maine, ordered by year. Since its admission to statehood in 1820, Maine has participated in every U.S. presidential election. Prior to 1820, much of the territory currently comprising ...
*
Presidency of Ronald Reagan
References
{{United States elections
Maine
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 – ...
1980 Maine elections