U.S. presidential election, 1980

Primaries

Republican Party

Contenders:

• John Bayard Anderson - U.S. Representative from Illinois
• Howard Baker - U.S. Senator from Tennessee
• George H. W. Bush - former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and chairman of the Republican National Committee
• John Connally - former Texas Governor
• Philip Crane - U.S. Representative from Illinois
• Robert Dole - U.S. Senator from Kansas
• Ronald Reagan - former California Governor

Toward the beginning of the race, the party favorite was George Bush, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and chairman of the Republican National Committee. However, in the initial debates, Ronald Reagan emerged as a serious candidate, sparring with Bush on economic issues.

Reagan was an adherant to a policy known as "supply side economics." Supply-side economists led the assault on the welfare state built up by the New Deal and Great Society. They assumed that the woes of the US economic were in large part a result of excessive taxation (de-emphasizing the role of high foreign policy, the rise of overseas competition, and massive expenditures on Vietnam), which "crowded out" money away from private investors and thus stifled economic growth. The solution, they argued, was to offer generous benefits to corporations and wealthy taxpayers in order to encourage new investments and to cut benefits geared toward the poor.

Reagan promised an economic revival that would affect all sectors of the population. But since cutting taxes would reduce government revenues, it would also be necessary to target "big government." Otherwise, large federal deficits might negate the effects of the tax cut by requiring the government to borrow in the marketplace, thus raising interest rates and drying up capital for investment once again. Thus, Reagan promised a drastic cut in "big government," which he pledged would produce a balanced budget for the first time since 1969. Bush famously called Reagan's economic policy "voodoo economics."

Bush won the Iowa caucuses, and Reagan won big in the New Hampshire primary, causing most of the other candidates to drop out of the race. Anderson dropped out of the primary, running an independent bid. Reagan went on to win most of the subsequent primaries and caucuses, securing the Republican Party nomination. There was wide speculation that Reagan would ask Gerald Ford to be his running mate, but instead Reagan chose Bush.

Democratic Party

Contenders:

• Jerry Brown - Governor of California
• Jimmy Carter - incumbent President
• Ted Kennedy - Senator from Massachusetts

President Carter's prospects for reelection were weakened by a primary challenge by liberal icon Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Kennedy, although a far more magnetic personality than Carter and beloved by the Democratic base, could not transcend personal controversies, most notably a 1969 automobile accident at Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts that had left a young woman dead. Carter easily won the nomination at the Democratic convention. The party also renominated Walter Mondale for vice president.

General election

1980 is considered by some to be a realigning election. Reagan ran a campaign of upbeat optimism, "A New Morning in America," together with implications of a more militarily aggressive foreign policy. This contrasted with the "malaise" ridden attitude of the late Carter administration and its apparent impotence in the face of the Iran hostage crisis. Towards the end of the campaign, as Carter's poll numbers continued to slip and Reagan's rose, Carter responded with more militaristic rhetoric and announced plans to bring back the military draft; this succeeded only in alienating some of Carter's supporters.

Reagan promised an end to the drift in post-Vietnam and post-Iran hostage US foreign policy and a restoration of the nation's military strength. Reagan also promised an end to "big government" and to restore economic health by implementing a supply-side economic policy.

Critics charged that Reagan's attacks on the welfare state were merely demagogic, appealing to a white middle class insensitive to the continued plights to victims of socio-economic injustice and with little understanding of the international forces creating the economic problems plaguing the country since the end of the Vietnam War.

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; moreover, it was a watershed ushering out the commitment to social justice characteristic of the 1960s civil rights movement and Great Society. It also signaled a commitment to a militaristic, aggressive foreign policy.

Although Reagan's candidacy was burdened by Representative John B. Anderson of Illinois, a moderate Republican and primary opponent who ran as an independent, the two major issues of the campaign were far greater threats to Carter's prospects for reelection: the economy, national security, and the Iranian hostage crisis. Carter seemed unable to control inflation and had not succeeded in obtaining the release of US hostages in Tehran before the election.

The election was held on November 4, 1980. Reagan won a landslide victory, and Republicans also gained control of the Senate for the first time in twenty-five years. Reagan received 43,904,153 votes in the election (50.7 percent of total votes cast), and Carter 35,483,883 (41.0 percent). Reagan won 489 votes in the electoral college to Carter's 49. John Anderson won no electoral votes, but got 5,720,060 popular votes. Anderson's share of the popular, totaling 6.6 percent, was moderately impressive for a third party candidate in the United States, demonstrating that a sizable share of moderate voters, while disenchanted with Carter, did not forget that only several years earlier Reagan was regarded as a dangerous far-right reactionary.

Libertarian Party candidate Ed Clark received 921,299 popular votes. Citizens Party candidate Barry Commoner received 234,294 popular votes. His running mate, La Donna Harris, was the second known Native American to run for national office, after Charles Curtis in 1928.

See also: President of the United States, U.S. presidential election, 1980, History of the United States (1980-1988)