The presidency of Gerald Ford began on August 9, 1974, when Gerald Ford became President of the United States upon the resignation of Richard Nixon from office, and ended on January 20, 1977, a period of 895 days. After a contentious series of primaries, Ford won his party's nomination at the 1976 Republican National Convention. In the general election, Carter defeated Ford by a narrow margin in the popular and electoral vote. In polls of historians and political scientists, Ford is generally ranked highest for his moral authority and lowest for his vision and ability to set an agenda. In the months after his confirmation as vice president, Ford continued to support Nixon's innocence with regards to Watergate, even as evidence mounted that the Nixon administration had ordered the break-in and subsequently sought to cover it up. In July 1974, after the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over recordings of certain meetings he had held as president, the House Judiciary Committee voted to begin impeachment proceedings against Nixon.