The 1980 presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan was a successful election campaign for President of the United States in 1980 by former California governor Ronald Reagan, and former CIA director George H. W. Bush. Reagan and Bush, defeated incumbent President Jimmy Carter and incumbent Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan, a Republican who had also tried to seek the Republican nomination in 1976, launched his 1980 presidential bid on November 13, 1979, and secured nomination for his election on July 17, 1980. On November 4th, 1980, Reagan and Bush defeated Carter and Mondale in an electoral college landslide, winning 489 electoral votes compared to Carter and Mondale’s 49 electoral votes.
Reagan, a Republican and former governor of California, announced his third presidential bid in a nationally televised speech from New York City in 1979. He campaigned extensively for the primaries after losing the Iowa caucus to former congressman and director of the Central Intelligence Agency Bush. In the primaries, he won 44 states and 59.8 percent of the vote. He decided initially to nominate former president Gerald Ford as his running mate, but Ford wanted such extended powers as vice president, especially over foreign policy, that their ticket would effectively amount to a "co-presidency". As a result, negotiations to form a ReaganFord ticket ceased. Reagan then selected Bush as his vice-presidential running mate.
At the 1980 Republican National Convention, Reagan garnered the required delegates to be the official nominee. With Carter declining approval ratings and popularity, U.S. senator Ted Kennedy challenged him at the Democratic primaries, but Carter was re-nominated. John B. Anderson, who was a presidential candidate for the Republican Party, left the party and entered the race as an independent candidate. On July 19, Reagan opened his campaign with a tumultuous rally in Texas. There he proclaimed the campaign slogan, "We Can Make America Great Again." He called for a drastic cut in "big government" and pledged to deliver a balanced budget for the first time since 1969. At a rally in New York on August 5, Reagan proposed a youth differential in the minimum wage law, for encouraging businesses to hire unskilled and unemployed black youths. Appealing to black voters, he said, "What I want for America is ... pretty much what the overwhelming majority of black Americans also want."
Two presidential debates were conducted, but Carter refused to take part if Anderson was included; the first debate was between only Reagan and Anderson. A week before election day, another debate was organized between President Carter and Reagan; Anderson was not invited. On election day, Reagan won the election by a landslide winning 51 percent of the popular vote with 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49 electoral votes. At 69 years old, Reagan was then the oldest non-incumbent presidential candidate to win a presidential election. He was inaugurated on January 20, 1981.
Background
Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, in 1911. After graduating from Eureka College in 1932, he worked as a radio commentator and later became a Hollywood movie actor and union leader. Initially a Democrat, he became a Republican in 1962. While endorsing the Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, he gave his famous "A Time for Choosing" speech, which earned him national attention as a new conservative spokesman. In late 1965, he announced his campaign for governor of California in the 1966 gubernatorial election. He won the election, becoming the 33rd governor of California. He was a presidential candidate in the 1968 Republican presidential primaries, but lost to former vice president Richard Nixon in the delegate count, despite winning the popular vote. He was re-elected as governor in 1970 with almost 53 percent of the vote.
After leaving office in 1975, he began his 1976 presidential campaign against the incumbent President Gerald Ford. They were neck and neck in the primaries, but in the end, Ford won more primary delegates than Reagan, but he did not have enough (1,130) delegates to secure the nomination. Both campaigns relied on votes from un-pledged delegates to secure the nomination. Shortly before the 1976 Republican National Convention, Reagan announced Senator Richard Schweiker as his running mate, hoping to pry loose some delegates from Schweiker home state of Pennsylvania; Ford ultimately won the nomination with 1,187 delegates to Reagan's 1,070. He considered Reagan as his possible running mate, but after Reagan told a caucus of the Kansas delegation that he would not accept the vice-presidential nomination, Ford selected Bob Dole. Ford later lost the election to Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter. However, in Washington state, a faithless elector gave Reagan one electoral vote instead of Ford, believing that Ford's stance on abortion was unclear.
Gaining the nomination Preparing for a run On November 13, 1979, Reagan announced his third presidential bid in a nationally televised speech from New York City, the tenth Republican to do so. His campaign capitalized on his acting skills, showing Reagan speaking in a presidential-looking room. During the speech, he never directly mentioned President Carter but called the current administration's energy policies an "utter fiasco" and blamed government spending and deficits for high inflation. He borrowed the phrase "rendezvous with destiny" from Franklin D. Roosevelt 1936 acceptance speech. He said:
In a press conference the same day, Reagan named a young U.S. representative, Jack Kemp, as one of his chief campaign spokespersons. This likely helped him counteract the issue of his age. After the speech, Reagan went on a five-day campaign trip to visit 12 cities. He repeated his 1976 proposal to shift some functions of government away from Washington, but his press secretary, James Lake, said that, unlike the earlier version, the new proposal was general and did not spell out programs that would be transferred. He was the front-runner candidate when he announced his campaign.
Republican presidential primaries
The primary elections and caucuses were held for all 50 states and the Washington, D.C. from January 21 to June 3, 1980. In addition to Reagan, the major candidates were George H. W. Bush, John Anderson, Howard Baker, John Connally, and Bob Dole. There was speculation about the potential candidacy of former President Gerald Ford, but he declined to run against Reagan. In an upset defeat in the Iowa caucus held on January 21, Reagan narrowly lost to Bush. After the win, Bush said his campaign was full of momentum, or "the Big Mo", and they would perform even better in the New Hampshire primary.
Three days before the New Hampshire primary, the Reagan and Bush campaigns agreed to a one-on-one debate sponsored by The Telegraph at Nashua, New Hampshire, but hours before the debate, the Reagan campaign invited other candidates including Dole, Anderson, Baker and Phil Crane. Debate moderator Jon Breen denied seats to the other candidates, asserting that The Telegraph would violate federal campaign contribution laws if it sponsored the debate and changed the ground rules hours before the debate. As a result, the Reagan campaign agreed to pay for the debate. Reagan said that as he was funding the debate, he could decide who would debate. During the debate, when Breen was laying out the ground rules and attempting to ask the first question, Reagan interrupted in protest to make an introductory statement and wanted other candidates to be included before the debate began. The moderator asked Bob Malloy, the volume operator, to mute Reagan's microphone. After Malloy repeated his demand to Malloy, Reagan furiously replied, "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green! [sic]". This turned out to be the turning point of the debate and the primary race. Ultimately, the four additional candidates left, and the debate continued between Reagan and Bush. Reagan's polling numbers improved, and he won the New Hampshire primary by more than 39,000 votes.
Bush defeated Anderson and won the Massachusetts primary with a margin of 0.34 percent, although both received equal numbers of delegates. With the South Carolina primary approaching, political operative Lee Atwater leaked a story to Lee Bandy, a writer for The State newspaper that John Connally had tried to buy the black vote, which nearly destroyed Connally's campaign. Reagan swept to victory in South Carolina, defeating Connally by 14 percent. The next day, Connally formally withdrew from the campaign and endorsed Reagan. With the Illinois primary approaching, the League of Women Voters sponsored a debate between Reagan, Bush, Anderson, and Crane. The candidates criticized Anderson for signing a fund-raising letterseeking supports for liberal Democratic senators. Reagan questioned whether Anderson was really running as a Republican. Reagan won the Illinois primary with 48 percent of the votes to Anderson's 37 percent.
Reagan continued to win many other primaries and caucuses, although Bush won states like Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. After the Pennsylvania primary, Anderson withdrew from the Republican race and re-entered the race as an independent candidate. On May 20, 1980, after the Michigan and Oregon primaries, Reagan secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination for the Republican Party. Reagan said he would always be grateful to the people of Iowa for giving him "the kick in the pants" he needed. On May 26, Bush; Reagan's remaining opponent for the Republican nomination conceded defeat and urged his supporters to support Reagan. On June 3 (Super Tuesday), Reagan won all nine primaries. With the end of the primaries, Reagan had won 59.8 percent votes to Bush's 23.8 percent and Anderson's 12.2 percent.
Republican National Convention
With the Republican National Convention approaching, Reagan prepared to select his running mate. Columnist Jack Germond and Jules Witcover wrote in their book Blue Smoke & Mirrors that Reagan's vice-presidential selection began as early as May 1980. His choice for vice presidential running mate included former president Gerald Ford, who revealed it in a CBS interview with Walter Cronkite, saying he was seriously considering the vice presidency. In late May and early June, Dick Wirthlin conducted polls showing that in each category tested Ford rated ahead of all other Republicans being mentioned as possible running mates. Ford's representatives in these negotiations reportedly included Henry Kissinger, Alan Greenspan, and Dick Cheney, who had been Ford's White House chief of staff.
However, after Ford suggested the possibility of a "co-presidency" and also insisted that Kissinger be re-appointed as Secretary of State with Alan Greenspan to be appointed as Secretary of the Treasury, negotiations to form a Reagan-Ford ticket ceased. Reagan's other prospects were Bush, Howard Baker, William Simon, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Lugar, Jack Kemp, Guy Vander Jagt, and Paul Laxalt. Less than twenty-four hours before Reagan had formally accepted the Republican nomination, he telephoned Bush to inform him of his intention to nominate him. On the following day, July 17, the final day of the Republican National Convention, Reagan officially announced Bush as his running mate.
The 1980 Republican National Convention convened at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. Notable speakers included Guy Vander Jagt, former treasury secretary William E. Simon, former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and former president Gerald Ford. In the roll call vote, Reagan received 1,939 delegates to Anderson's 37 and Bush's 13. Anne Armstrong received one vote. Bush was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate. Reagan accepted the Republican nomination on the final day of the convention. He said:
Opponents