MAP 30.1 The Presidential Election of 1980
Ronald Reagan easily defeated Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter, taking 50.7 percent of the popular vote to Carter’s 41.0 percent and winning the electoral vote in all but six states and the District of Columbia. Reagan cut deeply into the traditional Democratic coalition by wooing many southern whites, urban ethnics, and blue-collar workers. More than five million Americans expressed their discontent with Carter’s ineffectiveness and Reagan’s conservatism by voting for Independent candidate John Anderson, a longtime Republican member of the House of Representatives.