1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts

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1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Flag of Massachusetts.svg
  1976 November 4, 1980 1984  
  Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981-cropped.jpg Carter cropped.jpg John B. Anderson in New Jersey (cropped).jpg
Nominee Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter John B. Anderson
Party Republican Democratic Anderson Coalition
Home state California Georgia Illinois
Running mate George H. W. Bush Walter Mondale Patrick Lucey
Electoral vote1400
Popular vote1,057,6311,053,802382,539
Percentage41.90%41.75%15.15%

Massachusetts Presidential Election Results 1980.svg
1980 Presidential Election in Massachusetts By Municipality.svg

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. By an exceptionally narrow margin, Massachusetts was carried by the Republican nominee, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, over incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter of Georgia. Also contesting the state was independent candidate Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, who won an unexpectedly solid 15.15%, mostly from disaffected Democratic voters.

Contents

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 0.1517%. This constitutes the fifteenth-smallest percentage margin in any statewide presidential election since the Civil War, (twentieth overall) and the smallest since Kennedy won Hawaii by 115 votes in that state's inaugural presidential election two decades previously. The only smaller percentage margins since have been Florida (537 votes or 0.009%) and New Mexico (361 votes or 0.061%) in the controversial 2000 election, and Missouri in 2008, which John McCain won by 3,903 votes or 0.1343%.

To date, this is the last time that the towns of Belmont, Fairhaven, Heath, Hull, Lexington, Lincoln, Swampscott, Truro, Warwick, and Wellfleet have voted Republican.

Primaries

1980 Democratic Primary [1]
CandidateVotesDelegates[ citation needed ]
Ted Kennedy590,39381
Jimmy Carter (incumbent)260,40136
Jerry Brown31,4980
No preference19,6630
Blank votes16,7710
Others5,3680
Totals907,314117
1980 Republican Primary [2]
CandidateVotesDelegates[ citation needed ]
George H.W. Bush124,36516
John Anderson122,98716
Ronald Reagan115,33414
Howard Baker19,3660
John B. Connally4,7140
Philip M. Crane4,6690
Robert J. Dole5570
Benjamin Fernandez3740
Harold Stassen2180
No preference2,2430
Blank votes5,8070
Others5,9790
Totals406,63346

Results

1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts [3]
PartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan 1,057,63141.90%14
Democratic Jimmy Carter (incumbent)1,053,80241.75%0
Anderson Coalition John B. Anderson 382,53915.15%0
Libertarian Ed Clark 22,0380.87%0
Socialist Workers Clifton DeBerry 3,7350.15%0
Citizens (Write-in) Barry Commoner (Write-in)2,0560.08%0
Write-ins Write-ins 2,4970.09%0
Totals2,524,298100.00%14
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered)59%/80%

Results by county

County [4] Ronald Reagan
Republican
Jimmy Carter
Democratic
John B. Anderson
Anderson Coalition
Ed Clark
Libertarian
Various candidates
Other parties
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %# %# %
Barnstable 41,49350.43%23,95229.11%15,95119.39%5670.69%3100.38%17,54121.32%82,273
Berkshire 27,06339.78%29,45843.30%10,57515.54%7401.09%1950.29%-2,395-3.52%68,031
Bristol 77,54541.12%83,46044.25%25,42313.48%1,6950.90%4820.26%-5,915-3.13%188,605
Dukes 1,80933.52%2,37043.91%1,12720.88%581.07%330.61%-561-10.39%5,397
Essex 130,25243.78%116,17339.05%47,67016.02%2,6540.89%7840.26%14,0794.73%297,533
Franklin 12,52841.59%11,83039.27%5,16217.14%3361.12%2660.88%6982.32%30,122
Hampden 72,52840.36%80,36944.72%24,76513.78%1,6760.93%3820.21%-7,841-4.36%179,720
Hampshire 21,11734.99%27,61145.75%10,11916.77%6561.09%8521.41%-6,494-10.76%60,355
Middlesex 256,99940.30%270,75142.46%102,18016.02%5,2000.82%2,5490.40%-13,752-2.16%637,679
Nantucket 1,14940.49%1,04036.65%61421.63%220.78%120.46%1093.84%2,838
Norfolk 136,18444.84%117,27438.61%47,07615.50%2,4480.81%7470.25%18,9106.23%303,729
Plymouth 85,59349.40%58,77233.92%26,51015.30%1,9521.13%4210.24%26,82115.48%173,248
Suffolk 73,27133.89%113,41652.46%26,98812.48%1,8610.86%6710.31%-40,145-18.57%216,207
Worcester 120,10043.11%117,32642.12%38,37913.78%2,1730.78%5830.21%2,7740.99%278,561
Totals1,057,63141.90%1,053,80241.75%382,53915.15%22,0380.87%8,2880.33%3,8290.15%2,524,298

Counties flipped from Democratic to Republican

Analysis

With President Carter a greatly weakened incumbent by 1980, Reagan won a comfortable election victory nationwide. 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. However, in 1980 the Democratic Party in Massachusetts was divided and weakened after Carter had been unsuccessfully challenged by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (brother of the late President John F. Kennedy) in a bitter primary race which left many liberal voters in the state estranged from the incumbent, thus allowing Reagan to become the first Republican to win Massachusetts’ electoral votes since the landslide re-election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Another major contributing factor to Reagan's win in Massachusetts was the strong independent 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. Nevertheless, Reagan became the first Republican ever to win the White House without carrying Dukes County, which cast only its third-ever Democratic vote in 1980, after 1964 and 1976. With 15.15% of the vote, Massachusetts would prove to be John B. Anderson's strongest state in the nation, and more than double the 6.61% total he received nationwide. [5]

While Reagan nationally won a convincing victory in the electoral college, Massachusetts would be his narrowest win, with the state being about ten percent more Democratic than the national average. [6] As of 2024, this election marks only the third and last time (after 1852 and 1972) that Massachusetts has not voted for the same candidate as neighboring Rhode Island.

See also

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References

  1. "1980 President Democratic Primary". Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - Elections Division: Election Results Archive. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  2. "1980 President Republican Primary". Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - Elections Division: Election Results Archive. Retrieved July 24, 2024.
  3. "1980 Presidential General Election Results - Massachusetts". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
  4. "1980 President General Election". Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts - Elections Division: Election Results Archive. Retrieved July 8, 2024.
  5. "1980 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  6. Counting the Votes; Massachusetts

Notes