page_title: Jimmy Carter
section_title: Democratic primary
hierarchical_section_title: Jimmy Carter / 1976 presidential campaign / Democratic primary
caption_attribution_description: English: Campaign flyer from Democratic Party presidential primary
context_page_description: James Earl Carter Jr. is an American politician and philanthropist. He was the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he was a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and the 76th Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975.
  Born and raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and joined the United States Navy. In 1953, Carter left his naval career and returned home to Georgia to take charge of the family's peanut-growing business. Carter was politically motivated to protest against racial segregation and support the growing civil rights movement. He became an activist within the Democratic Party. From 1963 to 1967, Carter was in the Georgia State Senate, and in 1970, he was elected as Governor of Georgia, beating former Governor Carl Sanders in the Democratic primary. Carter remained as governor until 1975.
  At first, he was seen as a dark-horse candidate since not many people knew him outside of Georgia at the start of the presidential campaign, Carter won the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination.
context_section_description: 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 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers), 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.
caption: Campaign flyer from Democratic Party presidential primary
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