United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1980

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1980

November 4, 1980

Nominee Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter John B. Anderson Party Republican Democratic Independent Home state California Georgia Illinois Running mate George H. W. Bush Walter Mondale Patrick Lucey Electoral vote 14 0 0 Popular vote 1,057,631 1,053,802 382,539 Percentage 41.90% 41.75% 15.15%

County Results   Carter—50-60%   Carter—<50%   Reagan—<50%   Reagan—50-60%

President before election Jimmy Carter Democratic Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

The 1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 4, 1980 as part of the 1980 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.

Massachusetts was very narrowly carried by the Republican nominee, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, over incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Independent candidate Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois.

On election day, Reagan won a plurality of 41.90% of the vote in the state to Carter's 41.75%, with Anderson in third at 15.15%, giving Reagan a razor-thin margin of 0.15%.

With President Carter a greatly weakened incumbent by 1980, Reagan won a comfortable election victory nationwide.

However, Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960. In 1972, Massachusetts was the only state in the nation to vote for Democrat George McGovern over Republican Richard Nixon in his 49-state landslide. Thus Reagan's victory made 1980 the first time a Republican had won Massachusetts' electoral votes since the landslide re-election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

A major contributing factor to Reagan's win in Massachusetts was the strong third party candidacy of John Anderson, a liberal Republican Congressman who ran in 1980 as an independent after failing to win the Republican Party's own presidential nomination. Anderson proved very popular with liberal and moderate voters in New England who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration and viewed Reagan as too far to the right. In 1976, Carter had won Massachusetts with 56% of the vote, however in 1980 he bled a substantial amount of this support to Anderson, allowing Reagan to eke out a narrow win with only 41.90% of the vote.

Massachusetts would ultimately prove to be John Anderson's strongest state in the nation, his 15.15% of the vote in the state more than double the 6.61% he got nationwide.

While Reagan nationally won a convincing victory in the electoral college, Massachusetts would be his narrowest win, with the state being about 10% more Democratic than the national average.

Results

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1980[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Ronald Reagan	1,057,631	41.90%	14
	Democratic	Jimmy Carter	1,053,802	41.75%	0
	Independent	John B. Anderson	382,539	15.15%	0
	Libertarian	Ed Clark	22,038	0.87%	0
	Socialist Workers	Clifton DeBerry	3,735	0.15%	0
	Citizens (Write-in)	Barry Commoner (Write-in)	2,056	0.08%	0
	Write-ins	Write-ins	2,497	0.09%	0
Totals			2,524,298	100.00%	14
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered)					59%/80%

Results by Municipality

Results by town. Red indicates towns carried by Ronald Reagan, blue indicates towns carried by Jimmy Carter.

References

1. "1980 Presidential General Election Results - Massachusetts". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-02-07.

See also

• Presidency of Ronald Reagan