U.S. presidential election, 1976

The U.S. presidential election of 1976 followed the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It pitted incumbent President Gerald Ford against the relatively unknown former governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Ford was saddled with a slow economy and paid a political price for his pardon of Nixon. Carter ran as an outsider and a reformer and won.

General election

Campaign

Ford and Carter in debate.

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Jimmy Carter ran as an honest outsider and reformer, which many voters found attractive in the wake of the Watergate Scandal. President Ford, although personally unconnected with Watergate, was seen by many as too close to the discredited Richard Nixon administration, especially after Ford granted Nixon a presidential pardon.

Related Topics:
Watergate Scandal - Richard Nixon - Presidential pardon

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Carter led consistently in the polls as Ford was never able to shake voter dissatisfaction following Watergate. Ford was seen as the winner of the first debate, looking more presidential, but during the second debate Ford made an important blunder when he stated that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." (He also said that he did not "believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union.") In the end, Ford eliminated most of Carter's lead in a dramatic surge, but Carter still narrowly won the election. 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; in fact, he carried all but Virginia. It would be 16 more years before any Southern state endorsed a Democrat for president when Bill Clinton, a fellow Southerner, ran for president in 1992.

Related Topics:
Debate - Soviet - Eastern Europe - John F. Kennedy in 1960 - Deep South - Lyndon Johnson in 1964 - Southern states - Virginia - Bill Clinton - Ran for president in 1992

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The election was held on November 2, 1976.

Related Topics:
November 2 - 1976

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

Related Topics:
22nd amendment - 1980

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Results

Source (Popular Vote): {{Leip PV source 2| year=1976| as of=August 7, 2005}}

Related Topics:
August 7 - 2005

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Source (Electoral Vote): {{National Archives EV source| year=1976| as of=August 7, 2005}}

Related Topics:
August 7 - 2005

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(a) A rogue Republican elector from Washington State gave Ronald Reagan one electoral vote.

Related Topics:
Washington State - Ronald Reagan

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(b) The running mate of McCarthy varied from state to state, possibly in an effort to attract local voters similar to that tried by the Whigs in 1836, but this reasoning is an unverified theory.

Related Topics:
Whigs - 1836

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(c) Wikipedia research has not yet determined whether Anderson's home state was Tennessee or Texas at the time of the 1976 election.

Related Topics:
Tennessee - Texas

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