REAGANS VICTORY
American Presidential Elections
MICHAEL NELSON
JOHN M. MCCARDELL, JR.
REAGANS VICTORY
THE PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION OF 1980
AND THE RISE OF THE
RIGHT
ANDREW E. BUSCH
1980
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS
Published by the University Press of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas 66049), which was organized by the Kansas Board of Regents and is operated and funded by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University, the University of Kansas, and Wichita State University
Photographs on pages 7, 38, 63, 109, 118, and 123 courtesy of Jimmy Carter Library; on pages 51, 85, 110, 152, and 171 courtesy of Ronald Reagan Library; on page 42 courtesy of Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
2005 by the University Press of Kansas
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Busch, Andrew.
Reagans victory : the presidential election of 1980 and the rise of the right / Andrew E. Busch.
p. cm.(American presidential elections series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7006-1407-9 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 0-7006-1408-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)ISBN 978-0-7006-2595-6 (ebook) 1. Presidents
United StatesElection1980. 2. United StatesPolitics and
government19771981. 3. Reagan, Ronald. 4. Conservatism
United StatesHistory20th century. I. Title. II. Series.
JK5261980 .B87 2005
324.9730926dc22 2005020859
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of the American National Standard for
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials z39.48-1984.
CONTENTS
EDITORS FOREWORD
Every election is different, but some are less different than others. Obvious differences separate the 1980 election, which brought a conservative Republican, Ronald Reagan, to the White House for the first of his two terms as president, from the elections won by Woodrow Wilson in 1912, Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964liberals and Democrats all. But the similarities between what happened in 1980 and in these other landmark elections are no less strong. In each case, the winning candidate promised the voters dramatic changes in public policy rather than basic continuity. None did so with greater specificity than Reagan, who pledged to seek deep reductions in federal taxes, an easing of federal regulation of business, and steep increases in defense spending to fund a more assertive posture against the nations Cold War rival, the Soviet Union.
In addition, the winners of all four elections achieved a substantial popular vote plurality and an electoral college landslide. (Reagans 48949 electoral vote victory over Jimmy Carter broke FDRs 1932 record for the most massive defeat of an incumbent president in history.) And each victors landslide was accompanied by dramatic gains for his party in the accompanying congressional elections, sending the message to Republican and Democratic members alike that the new presidents change-oriented, landslide victory was more than merely personal. In 1980, Republicans gained thirty-three new seats in the House of Representatives and twelve in the Senate, enabling the GOP to take control of the upper house for the first time in a quarter century.
What makes the 1980 elections resemblance to the elections of 1912, 1932, and 1964 significant as well as strong is what happened after the new president and Congress took office: a dramatic burst of president-inspired legislative activity that altered the role of the federal government in American society. Following Reagan, as it had followed Wilson, Roosevelt, and Johnson, Congress quickly enacted his ambitious agenda of fiscal, defense, and deregulatory policies.
Andrew Busch is renowned among election scholars for the books he has coauthored every four years since 1992 in the immediate aftermath of each recent presidential election. In this book, he seizes the advantages of hindsight and the perspective it affords, fulfilling the aim of the American Presidential Elections series to reveal how important presidential elections illuminate the history of their times. With narrative drive and analytical depth, Busch chronicles the election of 1980: the candidates (both Reagan and Carter had to fight for their partys nomination, then contend not only with each other but also with a significant independent candidate, John Anderson), the fall campaign (closely fought until the end), and the surprisingly one-sided results. He extends the story and the analysis beyond the presidential contest, treating fully the congressional and state elections that accompanied it. More than that, Busch sets the election in history, limning both the context in which it occurred and the consequences it brought for politics and public policy. Readers of Reagans Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right can count on learning what occurred in 1980, how it happened, and why it matters.
Michael Nelson
John M. McCardell, Jr.
AUTHORS PREFACE
Every book has a story. In one sense, the story of this book started at a conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the George W. Bush presidency. By chance, Michael Nelson and I were both participants, and during our free time we meandered into a discussion about the planned University Press of Kansas series on key presidential elections that he was coediting. He invited me to submit a proposal for a book on the 1980 presidential election, in which Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Jimmy Carter.
In another sense, this book can be traced back to 1980 itself. That election was the first in which I took an active and sustained interest, and I vividly recall the sense at the time that it would be an election of great importance for the country. The 1979 summer of discontent, the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, President Carters 1980 State of the Union pronouncement that the United States was facing the gravest threat to world peace since World War II, and the moment in early 1980 when the annual inflation rate hit 18 percent came at a time when I was coming of age, and the memories remain fresh. Twenty-five years later, the 1980 election still reverberates for me in a variety of ways, as it does for the nation.
Consequently, it was a treat for me to be able to delve more deeply into the events and personalities of that election season with all the same fascination but aided by the cooler eye of distance. It was also a treat to learn many new things about events that I thought I knew well.
This book will address questions that dominate any attempt to provide a comprehensive examination of any presidential election: What was the setting of the election and what kind of world did Americans see when they looked outside the country? Who was drawn to pursue the White House, what kind of people were they, and what did they stand for? How did the parties choose their standard-bearers, and why did they choose the ones they did? How did the nation choose between the candidates? What strategies did the candidates pursue, and how much of the elections result can be explained by the circumstances of the time as opposed to the qualities and efforts of the candidates? How closely connected were the presidential and congressional campaigns and election results? And, in the end, what difference did it all make? Why should anyone care about the election of 1980?
