Franklin County, Pennsylvania

Side by side photographs of Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale with illustration of a peanut and red outlined shape of Franklin County, Pennsylvania on a white background.

Voters elected Democrat Jimmy Carter as the 39th United States President in 1976. His Vice President was U.S. Senator Walter Mondale from Minnesota. While Carter won Pennsylvania state in the 1976 election, Republican candidate Gerald Ford won Franklin County on the state’s southern border with 56.5 percent of the vote compared to Carter’s 41.4 percent. Carter and Mondale remained in the White House until 1981 after losing the 1980 election to Republican Ronald Reagan and his running mate George H.W. Bush. In the 1980 election, Carter lost Pennsylvania with 42.48 percent of the vote where Reagan got 49.59 percent. Franklin County supported Reagan with 61.8 percent of the vote compared to Carter’s 32.8 percent. After losing the election, Carter returned to his hometown of Plains, Georgia, and his peanut farm.