U.S. presidential election, 1980

United States presidential election, 1980

← 1976 November 4, 1980 1984 →
All 538 electoral votes of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout	52.6% 1.0 pp
Nominee Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter John B. Anderson Party Republican Democratic Independent Home state California Georgia Illinois Running mate George H. W. Bush Walter Mondale Patrick Lucey Electoral vote 489 49 0 States carried 44 6 + DC 0 Popular vote 43,903,230 35,480,115 5,719,850 Percentage 50.7% 41.0% 6.6%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Reagan/Bush, blue denotes those won by Carter/Mondale. Numbers indicate the electoral votes per state.
President before election Jimmy Carter Democratic Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

External video

Reagan-Carter presidential debate, October 28, 1980 on YouTube

Jimmy Carter
Democratic

Ronald Reagan
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1980 was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. The contest was between the Democratic national ticket of incumbent President Jimmy Carter from Georgia and Vice President Walter Mondale from Minnesota, and the Republican national ticket of Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor and former Governor from California with his running mate George H.W. Bush, a former Congressman and CIA Director from Texas who would eventually win the presidency eight years later, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent. Reagan, aided by the Iran hostage crisis and a worsening economy at home marked by high unemployment and inflation, won the election by a landslide, receiving the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate.