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The 1976 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 1976. Incumbent Republican President Ronald Reagan from California defeated Democratic Senator Henry M. Jackson from Washington by a victory of 300 electoral college votes to Jackson's 238.

Reagan promised to continue his political agenda and govern as a conservative Republican, causing considerable backlash from the moderate wing of his party. This spurred former governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller to mount a significant challenge against him in the Republican primaries, in which Reagan prevailed against at the convention. Jackson was well known at the start of the Democratic primaries, but, despite this, Jackson faced some pushback from within the Democratic Party. Facing challenges from the former 1972 VP candidate Shirley Chisholm on the left and governor of Alabama [[George Wallace on the right, the Senator of Washington was able to emerge as the front-runner after his victories in the first set of primaries. Campaigning as a political moderate and as a champion of American exceptionalism, Jackson was able to push off both Wallace, who he painted as a racist and used his Civil Rights record as a counterbalance to take away support from Wallace, whereas with Chisholm, Jackson played up his support for universal healthcare and other liberal policy points.

Reagan won the election, taking 52.4% of the popular vote and carrying over 32 states, though he did not sweep the Midwest like last time, losing Michigan and Wisconsin to Jackson. Jackson took just 48.4% of the popular vote, taking some parts of the South, his home state Washington and Florida. Reagan received almost 4 million more votes than Jackson and, once again, staved off a Republican challenge.