1980 United States presidential election
The 1980 United States presidential election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 4, 1980. The Republican nominee, former California governor Ronald Reagan, defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory.
538 members of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Carter's unpopularity and poor relations with Democratic leaders encouraged an unsuccessful intra-party challenge from Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. Meanwhile, the Republican primaries were contested between former California Governor Ronald Reagan, former Central Intelligence Agency director George H. W. Bush, Illinois Representative John B. Anderson, and several other candidates. All of Reagan's opponents had dropped out by the end of the primaries, and the Republicans nominated a ticket consisting of Reagan and Bush. Anderson entered the general election as an independent candidate with Patrick Lucey, former Wisconsin governor, as his running mate.
Reagan campaigned for increased defense spending, supply-side economic policies, and a balanced budget. His campaign was aided by Democratic dissatisfaction with Carter, the Iran hostage crisis, and a worsening economy marred by stagflation. Carter attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing extremist, and warned that Reagan would cut Medicare and Social Security. The Carter campaign was aided early on by the rally 'round the flag effect from the hostage crisis, but as the crisis lasted to election day, it became a detriment.[2]
Reagan won the election in a landslide, with 489 Electoral College votes to Carter's 49 and 50.8% of the popular vote to Carter's 41.0%. Anderson won 6.6% of the popular vote and no electoral votes. Due to the rise of conservatism following Reagan's victory, historians have considered the election a political realignment that began with Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964. To date, this is the most recent election in which an incumbent Democratic president was not reelected and the only time that a Republican nominee defeated a Democratic incumbent in both the popular and the electoral vote.[3]
General election[edit]
Campaign[edit]
Reagan gained in former Democratic strongholds such as the South and white ethnics dubbed "Reagan Democrats",[25] and exuded upbeat optimism.[26] David Frum says Carter ran an attack-based campaign based on "despair and pessimism" which "cost him the election."[27] Carter emphasized his record as a peacemaker, and said Reagan's election would threaten civil rights and social programs that stretched back to the New Deal. Reagan's platform also emphasized the importance of peace, as well as a prepared self-defense.[26]
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.[26] One analysis of the election has suggested that "Both Carter and Reagan were perceived negatively by a majority of the electorate."[28] 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.[26] However, in the end, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority lobbying group is credited with giving Reagan two-thirds of the white evangelical vote.[29] According to Carter: "that autumn [1980] 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."[30]
The election of 1980 was a key turning point in American politics. It signaled the new electoral power of the suburbs and the Sun Belt. 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.[16] 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.[31]
Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
Results by congressional district, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
Change in vote margins at the county level from the 1976 election to the 1980 election.
