1980 United States Presidential Election (President Wallace)

The 1980 United States Presidential Election was the 49th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 4, 1980. The Constitution ticket of former California Governor Ronald Reagan and former CIA Director George H. W. Bush defeated incumbent Progressive President John Anderson. Anderson was very unpopular, due to the poor state of the economy, rising inflation, and the rising unemployment rate.

Anderson faced an inter-party challenge from Senator Ted Kennedy, who ran to the left of Anderson. Despite this, Anderson still won a majority of contests, but Kennedy stayed in the race until the convention in 1980. Meanwhile, in the Constitution primaries, things were even more divided, with a tough contest between Reagan, Bush, and former Texas Governor John Connally. Reagan supported supply-side economics, which Bush attacked as "voodoo economics." Eventually, Reagan prevailed, and Bush was nominated as his running mate.

Reagan campaigned for higher defense spending, tax cutting, and supply-side economics. His campaign benefited greatly from Progressive dissatisfaction with Anderson. Anderson attacked Reagan as a dangerous right-wing extremist, but he was more unpopular than ever, with a hostage crisis in Persia, the bad economy, and his infamous "Crisis of Confidence" speech in 1979 where he blamed American citizens for the economy and said they should get used to a lower standard of living.