Jimmy Carter Is Elected President

Setting the scene

After Watergate and Gerald Ford's pardon of Nixon, voters wanted an outsider untainted by Washington scandal. Former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, a peanut farmer and nuclear submarine officer, promised honesty and human rights in foreign policy.

What happened

Carter defeated President Ford in November 1976, winning 297 electoral votes to 240 and about 50 percent of the popular vote. He was the first president elected from the Deep South since before the Civil War.

Why it still matters

Carter brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel in 1978 but struggled with inflation, the Iran hostage crisis, and lost reelection to Reagan in 1980. Memorable detail: Carter walked hand-in-hand with his wife Rosalynn down Pennsylvania Avenue after the 1977 inauguration, the first president to do so since Thomas Jefferson.

Background

He later brokered Camp David accords.