The 1980 United States presidential election in Rhode Island took place on November 4, 1980, as 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 representatives, or electors, to the
Electoral College, who voted for
president and
vice president.
The
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
candidate,
incumbent President Jimmy Carter, won the state of
Rhode Island over 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 ...
by 43,549 votes, giving him one of just seven victories in the election (other than Rhode Island, Carter also carried
Maryland,
Minnesota,
Hawaii,
West Virginia, the
District of Columbia and his home state of
Georgia). As a result of Rhode Island voting for Carter, it became the only state in
New England to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate in 1980.
While Carter was able to win Rhode Island by more than 10%, some of his votes were taken away 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 viewed Reagan as too far to the right and with normally leaning Democratic voters who were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration. 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. In fact, Rhode Island would ultimately prove to be John Anderson's third strongest state in the nation after neighboring
Massachusetts and
Vermont, his 14.38% of the vote in the state more than double the 6.61% he got nationwide.
Nationally, Reagan won the election with 489 electoral votes and 50.75% of the popular vote. This is the third and final time that the state voted for a different candidate than Massachusetts (along with 1852 and 1972).
Results
By county
See also
*
United States presidential elections in Rhode Island
References
Notes
Rhode Island
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 Rhode Island elections
{{RhodeIsland-election-stub