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The 48th episode in a very long series about the American presidential elections from 1788 to the present. In 1976, the country celebrates its bicentennial by not trusting the government.
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The 48th Presidential election in American history took place on November 2, 1976. The country was now over 200 years old, but during this time an increasing number of Americans didn’t seem to trust their government. This guy might be the reason why. Remember how Richard Nixon won big in the 1972 election? Well, as it turns out, his campaign that year was up to some shady stuff. Some of his supporters broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. in order to spy on them. They were busted, and this was eventually known as the Watergate scandal.

As it turns out, the Nixon administration was involved and later tried to cover it up. Nixon was forced to give up audio recordings that proved this. Facing impeachment by the House of Representatives and likely getting fired by the Senate, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. Just like that...he gone.

Gerald Ford, the Vice President, was sworn in as the 38th President in American history. Hold up! What happened to Spiro Agnew? Spiro Agnew had actually resigned the year before. He had his own scandal involving him receiving illegal bribes back when he was the Governor of Maryland. So Nixon nominated Ford, a dude from Michigan who at the time was the House Minority Leader. Congress overwhelmingly approved the nomination. Good thing the fairly recently passed 25th Amendment to the Constitution said they could now do this.

Also because of the 25th Amendment, Nelson Rockefeller became the 41st Vice President in American history.

So what is one of the first things that Gerald Ford does? Well, he pardons Richard Nixon. All, that’s so sweet of him.

Ford was President during a tricky time- the Vietnam War was ending as the Americans left and let South Vietnam fall, which was a humbling defeat, and the economy wasn’t doing so well back at home. The U.S. dealt with stagflation, which is when things basically cost a lot while unemployment goes up and companies produce less.

In 1976, Ford tried to get the Republican nomination for President as the only sitting President who had never been elected to national office, and he had an impressive challenger. Ronald Reagan, the now former governor of California, nearly took the nomination. Going into the Republican Convention, the two were dead even. However, Ford won the nomination narrowly on the first ballot. The Republicans nominated Bob Dole, a Senator from my home state of Kansas, as his running mate.

Just like in 1972, many sought the Democratic Party nomination. Four stood out in the beginning. Henry Jackson, a Senator from Washington, Mo Udall, a U.S. Representative from Arizona, Jerry Brown, the Governor of California and son of former California Governor Pat Brown, and George Wallace, who, despite being shot and paralyzed during the last election effort, was still going strong. Well none of those four saw Jimmy Carter coming.
Carter, a former Governor of Georgia, took everyone by surprise by winning the early Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary. Henry Jackson didn’t even compete in those, and boy was that a big mistake- he never recovered. Ever since then, the media has spent extra special attention to Iowa and New Hampshire, you may have noticed. Check out Political Junkie and Step Back History explain this in more detail.

Anyway, Carter capitalized on the fact that he was a D.C. outsider and a centrist from the South to become a successful dark horse candidate. Despite an ABC movement, or Anybody But Carter movement, Carter got the nomination at the convention, with Walter Mondale, a Senator from Minnesota, as his running mate.

One third party candidate I will mention was Eugene McCarthy, our boy from the 1968 election, who had since split from the Democratic Party and now ran as an independent candidate.

But the Democrats and Republicans had the money. Carter generally led in the polls over Ford, and Ford said stupid things like “there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." But then again, Carter was talking about lusting for women other his wife to Playboy Magazine, so the race remained tight.

Bob Dole and Walter Mondale participated in the first-ever formal vice presidential candidate debate.

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