1976 United States presidential election in Indiana

Main article: 1976 United States presidential election

1976 United States presidential election in Indiana

←  1972 November 2, 1976 1980  →

Nominee Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Party Republican Democratic Home state Michigan Georgia Running mate Bob Dole Walter Mondale Electoral vote 13 0 Popular vote 1,183,958 1,014,714 Percentage 53.32% 45.70%

County Results Ford   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Carter   50–60%   60–70%

President before election Gerald Ford Republican Elected President Jimmy Carter Democratic

The 1976 United States presidential election in Indiana was held on November 2, 1976. Incumbent President Gerald Ford won the state of Indiana with 53% of the vote, carrying the state's 13 electoral votes. ^[1] He defeated Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter in Indiana by a margin of 7.62 points.

Ford won Indiana by a comfortable margin of 7.62%, making the state almost 10% more Republican than the nation at-large. Carter did, however, perform vastly better than George McGovern's performance in the previous election. Ford did well in the central and northern parts of the state, while Carter managed to keep the margin within single digits by winning most of Southern Indiana. Vigo County, a national bellwether and home to Terre Haute, had supported the winner of the electoral college in all but two elections from 1888 to 2020, maintained its streak, voting for Carter by 2.3 percentage points, a similar margin to the nation as a whole.

One of the Carter campaign's state organizers in Indiana was Hillary Rodham. ^[2] Rodham (who would later adopt her husband's surname of Clinton) would go on to serve as a First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. Forty years later, during her turn as the Democratic nominee for president, Carter gave a speech in support of her candidacy saying, "During my 1976 presidential run, a young woman moved to Indianapolis to help turn out the Indiana vote for me. Forty years later, I will proudly cast my vote for that same woman to be the next President of the United States." ^[3]

As of the 2020 presidential election ^[update] , this is the last election in which Dearborn County, Dubois County, Martin County, Ohio County, and Owen County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, ^[4] and the last in which St. Joseph County did not vote for the national popular vote winner until 2024. This also remains the last time that Indiana has voted for a different candidate than North Carolina in a presidential election.

Results

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Gerald Ford (incumbent)	Republican	Michigan	1,183,958	53.32%	13	Bob Dole	Kansas	13
Jimmy Carter	Democrat	Georgia	1,014,714	45.70%	0	Walter Mondale	Minnesota	0
Thomas J. Anderson	American Independent	Tennessee	14,048	0.63%	0	Rufus Shackelford	Florida	0
Earle Harold Munn	Prohibition	Michigan	4,616	0.22%	0	Rolland Fisher	Kansas	0
Peter Camejo	Socialist Workers	California	5,695	0.06%	0	Willie Mae Reid	Illinois	0
Lyndon LaRouche	U.S. Labor	New York	1,947	0.09%	0	R. Wayne Evans	—	0
Total			2,220,362	100%	13			13
Needed to win					270			270

Results by county

County	Gerald Ford Republican		Jimmy Carter Democratic		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	6,280	55.55%	4,908	43.41%	118	1.04%	1,372	12.14%	11,306
Allen	71,321	60.56%	44,744	37.99%	1,704	1.45%	26,577	22.57%	117,769
Bartholomew	14,771	56.41%	11,203	42.78%	213	0.81%	3,568	13.63%	26,187
Benton	3,093	59.09%	2,071	39.57%	70	1.34%	1,022	19.52%	5,234
Blackford	2,886	47.16%	3,174	51.86%	60	0.98%	-288	-4.70%	6,120
Boone	9,214	61.48%	5,686	37.94%	86	0.57%	3,528	23.54%	14,986
Brown	2,466	50.29%	2,381	48.55%	57	1.16%	85	1.74%	4,904
Carroll	4,797	56.48%	3,606	42.46%	90	1.06%	1,191	14.02%	8,493
Cass	10,342	56.73%	7,610	41.74%	279	1.53%	2,732	14.99%	18,231
Clark	12,732	42.82%	16,670	56.07%	329	1.11%	-3,938	-13.25%	29,731
Clay	5,674	50.37%	5,433	48.23%	158	1.40%	241	2.14%	11,265
Clinton	8,199	54.80%	6,662	44.52%	102	0.68%	1,537	10.28%	14,963
Crawford	2,181	44.08%	2,721	54.99%	46	0.93%	-540	-10.91%	4,948
Daviess	6,829	57.69%	4,952	41.83%	57	0.48%	1,877	15.86%	11,838
Dearborn	6,176	49.04%	6,348	50.40%	71	0.56%	-172	-1.36%	12,595
Decatur	5,555	55.63%	4,365	43.72%	65	0.65%	1,190	11.91%	9,985
DeKalb	7,860	55.17%	6,151	43.18%	235	1.65%	1,709	11.99%	14,246
Delaware	26,417	50.72%	25,151	48.29%	519	1.00%	1,266	2.43%	52,087
Dubois	6,383	45.97%	7,385	53.19%	116	0.84%	-1,002	-7.22%	13,884
Elkhart	27,291	60.07%	17,581	38.70%	557	1.23%	9,710	21.37%	45,429
Fayette	5,704	50.53%	5,519	48.89%	65	0.58%	185	1.64%	11,288
Floyd	11,259	46.42%	12,744	52.54%	252	1.04%	-1,485	-6.12%	24,255
Fountain	4,903	54.16%	4,089	45.17%	60	0.66%	814	8.99%	9,052
Franklin	3,557	51.96%	3,234	47.25%	54	0.79%	323	4.71%	6,845
Fulton	5,083	58.41%	3,488	40.08%	132	1.52%	1,595	18.33%	8,703
Gibson	7,105	45.55%	8,430	54.04%	64	0.41%	-1,325	-8.49%	15,599
Grant	16,847	55.14%	13,468	44.08%	239	0.78%	3,379	11.06%	30,554
Greene	6,442	46.54%	7,263	52.47%	138	1.00%	-821	-5.93%	13,843
Hamilton	21,828	72.86%	7,857	26.23%	273	0.91%	13,971	46.63%	29,958
Hancock	10,072	61.31%	6,191	37.69%	164	1.00%	3,881	23.62%	16,427
Harrison	4,911	45.90%	5,685	53.14%	103	0.96%	-774	-7.24%	10,699
Hendricks	16,725	64.07%	9,066	34.73%	313	1.20%	7,659	29.34%	26,104
Henry	11,620	53.19%	10,137	46.40%	91	0.42%	1,483	6.79%	21,848
Howard	19,571	56.48%	14,815	42.75%	267	0.77%	4,756	13.73%	34,653
Huntington	9,182	57.78%	6,515	41.00%	193	1.21%	2,667	16.78%	15,890
Jackson	7,615	49.58%	7,610	49.55%	133	0.87%	5	0.03%	15,358
Jasper	5,398	60.76%	3,286	36.99%	200	2.25%	2,112	23.77%	8,884
Jay	4,606	52.24%	4,124	46.77%	87	0.99%	482	5.47%	8,817
Jefferson	5,573	46.94%	6,139	51.71%	161	1.36%	-566	-4.77%	11,873
Jennings	4,505	49.99%	4,430	49.16%	77	0.85%	75	0.83%	9,012
Johnson	16,414	61.36%	10,075	37.66%	260	0.97%	6,339	23.70%	26,749
Knox	9,100	48.25%	9,612	50.97%	148	0.78%	-512	-2.72%	18,860
Kosciusko	14,505	65.56%	7,328	33.12%	291	1.32%	7,177	32.44%	22,124
LaGrange	3,876	57.24%	2,835	41.86%	61	0.90%	1,041	15.38%	6,772
Lake	90,119	42.36%	120,700	56.74%	1,922	0.90%	-30,581	-14.38%	212,741
LaPorte	21,989	54.09%	18,217	44.81%	449	1.10%	3,772	9.28%	40,655
Lawrence	9,278	53.20%	7,908	45.34%	254	1.46%	1,370	7.86%	17,440
Madison	32,437	51.63%	29,811	47.45%	572	0.91%	2,626	4.18%	62,820
Marion	177,767	54.60%	145,274	44.62%	2,535	0.78%	32,493	9.98%	325,576
Marshall	9,707	59.16%	6,424	39.15%	277	1.69%	3,283	20.01%	16,408
Martin	2,702	48.55%	2,827	50.80%	36	0.65%	-125	-2.25%	5,565
Miami	8,263	54.52%	6,257	41.29%	635	4.19%	2,006	13.23%	15,155
Monroe	18,938	53.06%	16,609	46.53%	148	0.41%	2,329	6.53%	35,695
Montgomery	9,509	63.01%	5,320	35.25%	263	1.74%	4,189	27.76%	15,092
Morgan	10,983	59.99%	7,181	39.22%	145	0.79%	3,802	20.77%	18,309
Newton	3,204	58.44%	2,236	40.78%	43	0.78%	968	17.66%	5,483
Noble	6,885	52.91%	5,875	45.15%	253	1.94%	1,010	7.76%	13,013
Ohio	1,027	43.95%	1,300	55.63%	10	0.43%	-273	-11.68%	2,337
Orange	4,399	51.90%	4,031	47.56%	46	0.54%	368	4.34%	8,476
Owen	2,896	47.83%	3,103	51.25%	56	0.92%	-207	-3.42%	6,055
Parke	3,929	55.00%	3,158	44.20%	57	0.80%	771	10.80%	7,144
Perry	4,088	41.95%	5,620	57.66%	38	0.39%	-1,532	-15.71%	9,746
Pike	3,138	44.19%	3,938	55.46%	25	0.35%	-800	-11.27%	7,101
Porter	25,489	59.75%	16,468	38.60%	701	1.64%	9,021	21.15%	42,658
Posey	5,136	48.97%	5,298	50.51%	54	0.51%	-162	-1.54%	10,488
Pulaski	3,586	54.21%	2,813	42.52%	216	3.27%	773	11.69%	6,615
Putnam	6,063	53.67%	5,116	45.29%	118	1.04%	947	8.38%	11,297
Randolph	6,891	55.93%	5,330	43.26%	99	0.80%	1,561	12.67%	12,320
Ripley	5,293	52.11%	4,792	47.18%	72	0.71%	501	4.93%	10,157
Rush	4,723	60.32%	3,052	38.98%	55	0.70%	1,671	21.34%	7,830
Scott	2,657	38.14%	4,229	60.71%	80	1.15%	-1,572	-22.57%	6,966
Shelby	8,918	55.22%	7,098	43.95%	134	0.83%	1,820	11.27%	16,150
Spencer	4,166	46.34%	4,796	53.35%	28	0.31%	-630	-7.01%	8,990
St. Joseph	50,358	50.20%	49,156	49.00%	810	0.81%	1,202	1.20%	100,324
Starke	4,354	47.12%	4,753	51.43%	134	1.45%	-399	-4.31%	9,241
Steuben	5,079	59.23%	3,323	38.75%	173	2.02%	1,756	20.48%	8,575
Sullivan	3,747	41.61%	5,198	57.72%	61	0.68%	-1,451	-16.11%	9,006
Switzerland	1,329	38.07%	2,150	61.59%	12	0.34%	-821	-23.52%	3,491
Tippecanoe	29,186	61.33%	17,850	37.51%	551	1.16%	11,336	23.82%	47,587
Tipton	4,776	57.35%	3,428	41.16%	124	1.49%	1,348	16.19%	8,328
Union	1,631	58.25%	1,160	41.43%	9	0.32%	471	16.82%	2,800
Vanderburgh	37,975	51.87%	34,911	47.69%	325	0.44%	3,064	4.18%	73,211
Vermillion	3,674	43.03%	4,791	56.11%	73	0.86%	-1,117	-13.08%	8,538
Vigo	23,555	48.46%	24,684	50.78%	371	0.76%	-1,129	-2.32%	48,610
Wabash	8,534	59.51%	5,704	39.78%	102	0.71%	2,830	19.73%	14,340
Warren	2,377	55.13%	1,906	44.20%	29	0.67%	471	10.93%	4,312
Warrick	7,200	47.69%	7,804	51.70%	92	0.61%	-604	-4.01%	15,096
Washington	3,794	45.61%	4,409	53.01%	115	1.38%	-615	-7.40%	8,318
Wayne	16,697	57.20%	12,306	42.16%	188	0.64%	4,391	15.04%	29,191
Wells	5,596	56.33%	4,250	42.78%	88	0.89%	1,346	13.55%	9,934
White	6,287	60.63%	3,963	38.22%	119	1.15%	2,324	22.41%	10,369
Whitley	6,761	54.34%	5,445	43.77%	235	1.89%	1,316	10.57%	12,441
Totals	1,183,958	53.32%	1,014,714	45.70%	21,690	0.98%	169,244	7.62%	2,220,362

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Blackford
• Clark
• Crawford
• Dearborn
• Dubois
• Floyd
• Gibson
• Greene
• Harrison
• Jefferson
• Knox
• Lake
• Martin
• Ohio
• Owen
• Posey
• Perry
• Pike
• Scott
• Switzerland
• Spencer
• Starke
• Sullivan
• Vermillion
• Vigo
• Warrick
• Washington

See also

• United States presidential elections in Indiana

References

1. "1976 Presidential General Election Results - Indiana" . Retrieved May 12, 2016.
2. Groppe, Maureen (October 7, 2015). "'Indianoplace'? That's what Hillary Clinton called us". www.indystar.com. Indy Star. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
3. Sheinin, Aaron Gould (August 30, 2016). "Jimmy Carter makes fund raising plea for Hillary Clinton". www.ajc.com. AJC. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
4. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016