U.S. presidential election, 1976

(Larger version)

• Democratic Candidates
  • Birch Bayh - Senator from Indiana
  • Jimmy Carter - Governor from Georgia
  • Fred R. Harris - Former Senator from Oklahoma
  • Henry Scoop Jackson - Senator from Washington
  • R. Sargent Shriver - Organizer and first director of the Peace Corps
  • Mo Udall - Representative from Arizona

Carter, starting from a position of being largely unknown nationally, won primaries first in his native Georgia, then in Alabama and Indiana, and gained increasing momentum and popularity. At the Democratic Party convention he received the party's nomination on the first ballot.

• Republican Candidates
  • Gerald Ford - Incumbent President
  • Ronald Reagan - Governor from California

Centerist Ford succeeded in putting down challenge from the party's right wing backing Reagan.

Ford and Carter in debate.

Jimmy Carter ran as an honest outsider 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.

Independent Eugene J. McCarthy received 756,691 popular votes.

Libertarian Party candidate Roger MacBride received 173,011 votes.

Segregationist Lester Maddox of the American Independent Party received 170,531 votes.

Thomas J. Anderson of the American Party received 160,773 votes.

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

The election was held on November 2, 1976.

See also: President of the United States, U.S. presidential election, 1976, History of the United States (1964-1980)

Referenced By