1976 United States Presidential Election

The 1976 United States presidential election was the 48th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1976. Incumbent President Republican Nelson Rockefeller defeated Democratic nominee Jerry Brown and American Conservative nominee Jesse Helms.

Gerald Ford ascended to the presidency when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which badly damaged the Republican Party and its election prospects. Ford promised to continue Nixon's political agenda and govern as a moderate Republican, causing considerable backlash from the conservative wing of his party. However, after Fords assassination in Sacramento, his vice President Nelson Rockefeller, a liberal Republican, became President. He vowed to carry on Ford's legacy, and pledged to carry on a liberal Republican agenda as he sought reelection in 1976. This spurred former California governor Ronald Reagan to mount a significant challenge against him in the Republican primaries in which Rockefeller narrowly prevailed. Brown won the the Democratic primaries after the first round, campaigning as a political moderate in his own party.

In reaction to two liberal candidates, Jesse Helms of South Carolina formed the American Conservative Party, vowing to defeat both of them. He was endorsed by Strom Thurmond, Barry Goldwater, and Reagan, but he was accused of sexism, racism, homophobia, and red-baiting throughout the campaign. Additionally, far-right organizations such as the KKK and the John Birch Society pledged their support to him. His popularity was mainly only in the deep Southern States, and in northern states he had few supporters. By election day, after an argument between Reagan and Helms, Reagan switched his endorsement to Rockefeller, claiming that Helms was ¨unelectable¨.

Rockefeller continued Ford's policy and pursued a "Rose Garden strategy" in which he sought to portray himself as an experienced leader focused on fulfilling his role as chief executive. On the other hand, Brown emphasized his status as a reformer who was "untainted" by Washington. Saddled with a poor economy, Rockefeller trailed by a small margin in polls taken after Brown´s formal nomination in July 1976. Rockefeller´s polling rebounded after his famous 1976 speech, in which he pledged to lead a ¨new era¨ of America. Additionally, after Rockefeller´s strong performance in the first presidential debate, and the race was close on election day.

Rockefeller won a majority of the popular and electoral vote, sweeping even traditional Democratic states. He was able to carry several Midwestern and Northeastern swing states, as well as some states in the Democratic-dominated region of the South. Despite the American political climate being predominantly conservative-leaning in the years prior to the election, Rockefeller was able to achieve victory largely off of his policy of ¨moving forward¨ and his moderately liberal stances.