Carter Hartke '76

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Jimmy Carter was the Democratic nominee for the United States Presidency in 1976, and Democrat Vance Hartke from Indiana ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate in the same year.

Carter won the popular vote at 50.1 percent and took 297 electoral votes over Republican Gerald Ford. Carter served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981. He lost the 1980 race to President Ronald Reagan. Prior to his first run for president, Carter grew up in Plains, Georgia, where his family had a peanut farm. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1953. He was a Georgia State Senator from 1963 to 1967 and the Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. Following their time in the White House, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, returned to Plains. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

Hartke served as a U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1959 until 1977 and was known for his opposition to the Vietnam War. Richard Lugar defeated Hartke in the 1976 Senate race. Hartke also ran in the 1972 Democratic presidential primaries but withdrew.