1980 - Reagan vs. Carter
Ronald and Nancy Reagan campaign in South Carolina, with 1948 Dixiecrat presidential candidate Strom Thurmond; Courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Library
President Jimmy Carter faces an unusual primary challenge, from Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy manages to win the Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut primaries, but Carter beats him decisively everywhere else and wins renomination by a two-to-one margin at a rancorous party convention.
Republicans are even more eager for a shot at Carter, who has been weakened by rising energy prices, other economic woes, and the Iran hostage crisis. Eight GOP candidates emerge, including former California Governor Ronald Reagan, the early favorite in the polls. Former Texas Governor John B. Connally — who lags behind Reagan and former congressman, U.N. ambassador, and CIA director George H.W. Bush — makes history by becoming the first presidential candidate to turn down federal matching funds for the primaries. Connally, who raises $11 million — far more than the other candidates — apparently figures that he’ll make the most of his financial advantage. Instead, he ignominiously tanks in the primaries, winning just one delegate.
Although Reagan loses several primaries to Bush, in the end he wins the GOP nomination by a comfortable margin and selects Bush as his running mate. One of the other also-rans, Republican Representative John B. Anderson of Illinois, decides to mount an independent campaign in opposition to Reagan, whom he considers too conservative.
For the general-election campaign, Carter and Reagan each are allotted $29 million in federal funds, with Anderson receiving more than $4 million. As in 1976, both official campaigns are compelled to be frugal. Carter, for example, flies to some campaign events in a smaller military jet instead of Air Force One so that he doesn’t have to pay as much compensation to the government. But independent committees, which have no official links to a candidate and thus can operate outside the restrictions of federal campaign-finance law, pump millions more into the race. At least five such organizations raise and spend money to support Reagan’s candidacy. One of them, Americans for Change, raises nearly as much money as Reagan’s official campaign receives in federal funds. Another, the National Conservative Political Action Committee, underwrites television commercials with strident anti-Carter messages in southern states in the month before the election.
Though the contest had seemed close, on Election Day Reagan wins in a rout. Reagan takes 50.7 percent of the popular vote to 41 percent for Carter and 6.6 percent for Anderson, and he dominates the Electoral College by a 489-49-0 tally.
SOURCES: Terence Smith, “Man in the News,” The New York Times, August 14, 1980; “May the Best Man Win,” Time, November 12, 1979; Dan Balz, “Connally Decides Not To Accept U.S. Matching Funds,” The Washington Post, December 12, 1979; Texas State Historical Association, “John Bowden Connally, Jr.,” The Handbook of Texas Online; Dom Bonafede, “Can John Anderson Succeed Where Teddy Roosevelt Failed?” National Journal, May 17, 1980; Mike Shanahan, “Anderson Gives Up Bank Borrowing Effort,” Associated Press, October 15, 1980; Edward Walsh, “Let the Race Begin,” The Washington Post, September 2, 1980; Robert G. Kaiser and Bill Peterson, “GOP To Spend $4.3 Million More on Nationwide TV Ads,” The Washington Post, August 27, 1980; “Campaign Notes,” The Washington Post, September 24, 1980; “1980 Presidential Election Results,” David Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
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