1976 United States presidential election in Georgia
November 2, 1976
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County results
Carter 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90%
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| Elections in Georgia |
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The 1976 United States presidential election in Georgia was held on November 2, 1976. The Democratic candidate, former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter, overwhelmingly won his home state with 66.74% of the vote ahead of the Republican Party nominee, incumbent President Gerald Ford, giving him the state's 12 electoral votes. Carter carried all of Georgia's 159 counties (the last time any presidential candidate has won every single county in the state) and 10 congressional districts by wide margins.
This is the only presidential election in Georgia's history where the Democratic candidate carried all of Georgia's counties, despite the state's long Democratic streak, which had ended only in 1964. Even though Carter's percentage of the vote was lower than that of several previous Democratic victors in the state, such as Woodrow Wilson, James M. Cox, John W. Davis, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, none of these had carried every county in the state. In particular, Carter remains the only Democrat to carry historically pro-Union, East Tennessee-oriented Fannin County since 1912, and the only Democrat to obtain a majority of the vote there since William Jennings Bryan in 1900. There are a further seven counties, in addition to Fannin, that have never voted Democratic again since 1976: Dade, Walker, Catoosa, Fayette, Columbia, Lee and Lowndes. Douglas and Rockdale counties would not vote Democratic for president again until 2008, and Cobb and Gwinnett would not do so until 2016.
The election represented a complete flip from the previous election when President Richard Nixon also won Georgia with 75% of the vote and carried every county. Georgia swung 84 points Democratic, the largest partisan swing of any state in 1976.
Ford did carry one of Georgia's 161 historical counties, with the former Milton County backing the incumbent president 51.1%–48.9%. In fact, Ford carried many precincts in northern Fulton and DeKalb Counties, some by landslide margins. For example, one precinct in Dunwoody voted for Ford by a margin of 1245 to 500.
Among white voters, 58% supported Carter while 42% supported Ford.