| Presidential election year | |
| Election day | November 2 |
|---|---|
| Incumbent president | Gerald Ford (Republican) |
| Next Congress | 95th |
| Presidential election | |
| Partisan control | Democratic Gain |
| Popular vote margin | Democratic +2.1% |
| Electoral vote | |
| Jimmy Carter (D) | 297 |
| Gerald Ford (R) | 240 |
  | |
| 1976 presidential election results. Red denotes states won by Ford, blue denotes states won by Carter. Numbers indicate the electoral votes won by each candidate. | |
| Senate elections | |
| Overall control | Democratic Hold |
| Seats contested | 34 of 100 seats |
| Net seat change | Republican +1 |
 | |
| 1976 Senate results Democratic gain Democratic hold | |
| House elections | |
| Overall control | Democratic Hold |
| Seats contested | All 435 voting members |
| Popular vote margin | Democratic +13.6% |
| Net seat change | Democratic +1 |
 | |
| 1976 House of Representatives results Democratic gain Democratic hold | |
| Gubernatorial elections | |
| Seats contested | 15 (14 states, 1 territories) |
| Net seat change | Democratic +1 |
 | |
| 1976 gubernatorial election results Territorial races not shown Democratic gain Democratic hold | |
The 1976 United States elections was held on November 2, and elected the members of the 95th United States Congress. The Democratic Party won the presidential election and retained control of Congress. [1]
The Ninety-fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from January 3, 1977, to January 3, 1979, during the final weeks of the administration of U.S. President Gerald Ford and the first two years of the administration of U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. Tracing its heritage back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Democratic-Republican Party, the modern-day Democratic Party was founded around 1828 by supporters of Andrew Jackson, making it the world's oldest active political party.
Democratic Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia defeated Republican incumbent President Gerald Ford. [2] Carter won the popular vote by two points and finished with 297 electoral votes, taking a mix of Southern and Northern states. Ford, who had taken office after the Watergate scandal led to the resignation of Republican President Richard Nixon in 1974, defeated California Governor Ronald Reagan to take the Republican nomination. The convention nominated Kansas Senator Bob Dole as Ford's running mate, instead of sitting Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. Carter defeated a slew of competitors in the 1976 Democratic primaries, including California Governor Jerry Brown, Alabama Governor George Wallace, Arizona Congressman Mo Udall, Washington Senator Henry M. Jackson, and Idaho Senator Frank Church.
James Earl Carter Jr. is an American politician and philanthropist who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A Democrat, he previously served as a Georgia State senator from 1963 to 1967 and as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Carter has remained active in public life during his post-presidency, and in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in co-founding the Carter Center.
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern United States. It began as a British colony in 1733, the last and southernmost of the original Thirteen Colonies to be established. Named after King George II of Great Britain, the Province of Georgia covered the area from South Carolina south to Spanish Florida and west to French Louisiana at the Mississippi River. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. In 1802–1804, western Georgia was split to the Mississippi Territory, which later split to form Alabama with part of former West Florida in 1819. Georgia declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta, the state's capital and most populous city, has been named a global city. Atlanta's metropolitan area contains about 55% of the population of the entire state.
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.
Neither the House nor Senate saw major changes in partisan composition, so the Democrats retained control of Congress.
In the gubernatorial elections, the Democratic Party picked up one seat.
