1980 State by State Results

[GPORTER]

I noticed that though Carter held on to his homestate, much of the south was close and Florida was closer than I thought that it might have been. Why did many of these southern states not go to carter?

[Adlai Stevenson]

There is no single reason really I think - I voted for 'Because of his unpopularity'.  Carter was not wholly abandoned by Southerners in 1980, in fact African Americans came out in greater numbers for him than they had in 1976 and in some counties his support increased.  If you look at the results in Arkanas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama Carter and Reagan were very close to each other - Carter could just have easily carried most of the South as he did four years earlier with a shift of just 1%-2%.  Florida and Texas were closer than the rest of the South in 1976 and have always been less Southern and homogenised than the region as a whole - thus Carter lost them by wider margins. 

[memphis]

The South was still Carter's best region. He lost nearly every Southern state by just a couple of points. Carter, like W, just wasn't an effective president.

[Dr. Cynic]

It stems from the fact that Carter was too much of an idealist. Idealists tend to make more bad Presidents than good. (Sad to say, in my opinion idealists often have the best ideas)

Carter flip-flopped quite a bit and had horrible relations with Congress, which was of his own party. Carter did get Egypt and Israel to agree on peace, which was a great accomplishment. However, Carter totally failed with every other crisis presented, with the exception of bringing in Edmund Muskie, just before the end to negotiate the freedom of our hostages in Iran.

In the end, as one Congressman said of him, "Carter couldn't get the Pledge of Allegiance through Congress". I think it was Carter's poor relationship with Congress, and his poor leadership that did him in.

[OC]

Bush being a texan helped in a few states, not specifically helped in the south because Nixon selected Agnew and won in 1968 NC and SC the heart of the south. It had to do with the tax cuts, Reagan blamed government as the problem and people saw that increase in taxes were the blame.

[Padfoot]

If Nixon hadn't been such a paranoid freak, Carter probably never would have been president.  The country was really trending GOP in the 70's but Nixon screwed any hopes they had for victory in '76.

[© Tweed the Younger]

Carter lost the support of evangelicals during his presidency.  They strongly supported him in '76 but rallied around Reagan in 1980.