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Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter passed away December 29, 2024.
In 1966, after briefly considering a run for the United States House of Representatives, Carter instead decided to run for governor. However, in the midst of a white backlash to the Civil Rights Movement, Carter’s liberal campaign failed to gain momentum in the Democratic primaries, and he finished a distant third place.
The eventual winner was Lester Maddox, an ardent segregationist who had infamously barricaded the doors of his restaurant and brandished an axe to ward off Black customers.Governors were limited to one term under Georgia law, though, so Carter almost immediately began positioning himself for the 1970 gubernatorial election.
This time around, Carter ran a campaign specifically targeted at the white rural voters who had rejected him as too liberal in 1966. Carter publicly opposed busing as a method of integrating public schools, limited public appearances with Black leaders, and actively courted the endorsements of several noted segregationists, including Governor Maddox. He so completely reversed his staunch commitment to civil rights that the liberal Atlanta Constitution Journal called him an “ignorant, racist, backward, ultra-conservative, red-necked South Georgia peanut farmer.” Nevertheless, the strategy worked, and in 1970, Carter defeated Carl Sanders to become governor of Georgia.
1976 Presidential Campaign Always forward-thinking, Carter carefully observed the national political currents of the 1970s. After the liberal George McGovern got pounded by Republican Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, Carter decided the Democrats needed a centrist figure to regain the presidency in 1976. When the Watergate scandal shattered American confidence in Washington politics, Carter further concluded that the next president would need to be an outsider. He thought he fit the bill on both counts.
Carter was one of 10 candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976, and at first, he was probably the least well-known. However, in a time of deep frustration with establishment politicians, Carter’s anonymity proved an advantage. He campaigned on such centrist themes as reducing government waste, balancing the budget, and increasing government assistance to the poor.