Carter wanted reforms through the legislature that would give equal state aid to schools in the wealthy and poor areas of Georgia. He helped create centers for mentally handicapped children and education programs for convicts. He also wrote a program that made appointing federal judges based on their experience rather than political party.
In a controversial decision, he vetoed a plan to build a dam on Georgia's Flint River. He argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was not giving the right numbers on the project's cost and its impact on the region. The veto became popular with environmentalists nationwide.
Carter was not allowed to run for re-election because of term limits. Looking toward a possible presidential run, Carter became involved in national politics and public appearances. He was a delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention, where Carter hoped he would be George McGovern's running mate. He supported Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, to distance himself from George Wallace.
In May 1973, Carter warned the Democratic Party to not make the Watergate scandal a political issue.
On December 12, 1974, Carter announced his candidacy for President of the United States at National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He talked about inequality, optimism, and change.
When Carter entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries, he was considered to have little chance against better-known politicians. However, by mid-March 1976 Carter was not only polling ahead of the active candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, he also led President Ford by a few percentage points. Carter published "Why Not the Best?" in June 1976 to help introduce himself to the American public.
Carter became the front-runner early on by winning the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. He used a two-prong strategy: in the South, Carter ran as a moderate and inthe North, Carter was a favorite to conservative Christian and rural voters. He had traveled over , visited 37 states, and delivered over 200 speeches before any other candidate entered the race. Carter ended up winning 30 states, with a total of 6,235,609 (39.2%) of the popular vote. He was formally nominated as the presidential Democratic nominee at the national convention, with U.S. Senator Walter Mondale from Minnesota as his running mate.
During his presidential campaign in April 1976, Carter responded to an interviewer and said, "I have nothing against a community that is ... trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods". His remark was to show support of open-housing laws.
Carter's stated positions during his campaign include public financing of congressional campaigns, his support for the creation of a federal consumer protection agency, creating a separate department for education, signing a peace treaty with the Soviet Union against the usage of nuclear weapon, reducing the defense budget, increasing taxes for the rich and lowering them for the middle class, making multiple amendments to the Social Security Act, and having a balanced budget by the end of his term.
Carter and President Gerald Ford were in three televised debates during the 1976 election. The debates were the first presidential debates since 1960.
Carter was interviewed by Robert Scheer of "Playboy" for the November 1976 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple of weeks before the election. While discussing his religion's view of pride, Carter said: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times". He also said in another interview that he did not mind if people said the word "fuck". This led to a media to criticize the idea if politicians should be separated from their political campaigns and their private intimate lives.
Carter began the race with a lead over Ford, who narrowed the gap during the campaign, but lost to Carter in by a small margin on November 2, 1976. Carter won the popular vote by 50.1 percent to 48.0 percent for Ford, and received 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. Carter won fewer states than Ford, with Carter winning 23 states compared to Ford winning 27.
Carter was inaugurated as president on January 20, 1977.
On April 18, 1977, Carter delivered a televised speech declaring that the U.S. energy crisis during the 1970s was like war. He supported energy conservation by all Americans and added solar water heating panels on the White House. He wore sweaters because he turned down the heat in the White House. On August 4, 1977, Carter signed the Department of Energy Organization Act of 1977, forming the Department of Energy, the first new cabinet position in eleven years. During the signing ceremony, Carter said the current "crisis of energy shortages" made him create the Department of Energy. At the start of a September 1977 news conference, Carter said that the House of Representatives had "adopted almost all" of the energy proposal. The following month, on October 13, Carter stated he believed in the Senate's ability to pass the energy reform bill and said that "the most important domestic issue that we will face while I am in office" was the energy criss.
On January 12, 1978, during a press conference, Carter said the discussions about his energy reform proposal were not being made and that Congress was not being respectful.
In an April 11, 1978 news conference, Carter said his biggest surprise "in the nature of a disappointment" since becoming president was the difficulty Congress had in passing legislation for an energy reform bill.
On March 1, 1979, Carter proposed a standby gasoline rationing plan at the request of Congress. On April 5, he delivered an address in which he stressed the importance of energy conservation. During an April 30 news conference, Carter said it was important that the House commerce committee approve the standby gasoline rationing plan and called on Congress to pass the several other standby energy conservation plans he had proposed. On July 15, 1979, Carter delivered a nationally televised address in which he said the crisis was a "" among the American people. The address had negative reaction from Americans. memorable for mixed reactions People criticized Carter for not doing enough to solve the crisis as they believed he was depending too much on Americans.
In 1978, Carter declared a federal emergency in the neighborhood of Love Canal in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. During the 1940s, the canal was used as the site to dump 21,800 short tons of chemical products from dyes, perfumes, and solvents for rubber and synthetic resins. More than 800 families were evacuated from the neighborhood, which was built on top of a toxic waste landfill. The Superfund law was created in response to the situation. Carter said that several more "Love Canals" existed across the country, and that discovering such hazardous dumpsites was "one of the grimmest discoveries of our modern era".
In 1979, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that residents near the Love Canal accident showed high white blood cell counts, which may cause leukemia.
Carter's presidency had an economic history of two periods: the first two years being a time of continuing recovery from the severe 1973–75 recession and the last two years marked by double-digit inflation, with very high interest rates, oil shortages, and slow economic growth. 1977 and 1978 saw the creation of millions of new jobs, in part as a result of the $30 billion economic stimulus legislation.
The 1979 energy crisis ended this period of growth, however, and as both inflation and interest rates rose, economic growth, job creation, and consumer confidence quickly went down. The sudden shortage of gasoline as the 1979 summer vacation season began to increase the problem.