1976 United States presidential election (Agnew 76, idea by RouteVenus)

The 1976 United States presidential election was the 48th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 1976. Democrat Jimmy Carter of Georgia defeated incumbent Republican President Ted Agnew from Maryland in a landslide victory of 426 electoral votes to Agnew's 111. As of 2022, this is the earliest presidential election where at least one of the candidates is still living.

Agnew easily won the Republican primaries with little opposition and selected Ohio Representative John Ashbrook as his running mate. Agnew ran on continuing Richard Nixon's policies and governing as a conservative Republican. Carter was little-known at the start of the Democratic primaries, but the former governor of Georgia emerged as the front-runner after his victories in the first set of primaries. Campaigning as a political moderate in his own party, and as a Washington, D. C., outsider, Carter defeated opponents such as Mo Udall and liberal California governor Jerry Brown to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Agnew campaigned as a conservative and, due to Nixon's popularity, led in a majority of polls over Carter. Carter emphasized his status as a reformer who was "untainted" by Washington. Agnew's lead would soon diminish quickly after the Watergate break-in resurfaced after two of Nixon's staff members were arrested. Following their arrest, Nixon's popularity plummeted and the re-opening of the investigation into Watergate would lead to Nixon's resignation in September of 1976. Carter would continue to carry a narrow lead in the polls until released reports of Angew's acceptance of bribes as Governor of Maryland and Vice President would cause Carter's poll numbers to skyrocket.

Carter won a majority of the popular and electoral vote. He was able to carry several Midwestern and Northeastern swing states such as Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York, as well as every state in the Democratic-dominated region of the South, except for Virginia and Oklahoma. Carter was able to achieve victory largely off of the backlash of the Watergate scandal that still was deeply hurting Republican candidates. Jimmy Carter also remains the most recent Democratic candidate in presidential history to win a majority of the Southern states and to win a majority of counties nationwide.