1976 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania

Main article: 1976 United States presidential election
1976 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
← 1972 November 2, 1976 1980 →
 
Nominee Jimmy Carter Gerald Ford
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Georgia Michigan
Running mate Walter Mondale Bob Dole
Electoral vote 27 0
Popular vote 2,328,677 2,205,604
Percentage 50.40% 47.73%
County Results
President before election

Gerald Ford
Republican

Elected President

Jimmy Carter
Democratic

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The 1976 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 2, 1976, and was part of the 1976 United States presidential election. Voters chose 27 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Pennsylvania voted for the Democratic nominee, former Governor Jimmy Carter, over the Republican nominee, President Gerald Ford. Carter won Pennsylvania by a margin of 2.67%, which made Pennsylvania roughly 0.6% more Democratic than the nation at large.

While President Ford won more counties by running up victories in the central region of the state and the Philadelphia suburbs, Governor Carter swept Southwestern Pennsylvania where Pittsburgh is located, Erie County (Erie), Lackawanna County (Scranton), and Philadelphia.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last presidential election where the Democratic candidate won Pennsylvania without carrying any of Philadelphia's suburban counties. This is also the final occasion of only four where Pennsylvania and Michigan voted for different presidential candidates ever since the Democrats and Republicans became the two major parties in U.S. politics.[1][a]

Campaign

The first presidential debate for the general election was held in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre on September 23 with President Ford and Jimmy Carter attending the debate. The debate was moderated by Edwin Newman of NBC News and sponsored by the League of Women Voters with 69.7 million people watching[2]

Results

1976 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania[3]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Jimmy Carter 2,328,677 50.40% 27
Republican Gerald Ford (incumbent) 2,205,604 47.73% 0
McCarthy '76 Eugene McCarthy 50,584 1.09% 0
Constitutional Lester Maddox 25,344 0.55% 0
Socialist Workers Peter Camejo 3,009[b] 0.07% 0
Write-ins Write-ins 2,934[b] 0.06% 0
Labor Lyndon LaRouche 2,744[b] 0.06% 0
Communist Gus Hall 1,891[b] 0.04% 0
Totals 4,620,787 100.00% 27

Results by county

County[4] Jimmy Carter
Democratic 		Gerald Ford
Republican 		Eugene McCarthy
McCarthy ‘76 		Lester Maddox
Constitutional 		Various candidates
Other parties 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Adams 8,771 41.14% 12,133 56.90% 276 1.29% 73 0.34% 69 0.32% -3,362 -15.76% 21,322
Allegheny 328,343 50.68% 303,127 46.79% 8,625 1.33% 5,205 0.80% 2,557 0.39% 25,216 3.89% 647,857
Armstrong 15,179 52.25% 13,378 46.05% 290 1.00% 190 0.65% 13 0.04% 1,801 6.20% 29,050
Beaver 46,117 56.83% 33,593 41.40% 925 1.14% 291 0.36% 224 0.28% 12,524 15.43% 81,150
Bedford 6,652 41.22% 9,355 57.97% 78 0.48% 42 0.26% 11 0.07% -2,703 -16.75% 16,138
Berks 50,994 47.41% 54,452 50.63% 1,176 1.09% 771 0.72% 160 0.15% -3,458 -3.22% 107,553
Blair 18,397 38.84% 28,290 59.73% 395 0.83% 154 0.33% 130 0.27% -9,893 -20.89% 47,366
Bradford 7,913 37.62% 12,851 61.10% 186 0.88% 71 0.34% 13 0.06% -4,938 -23.48% 21,034
Bucks 79,838 47.26% 85,628 50.69% 2,125 1.26% 1,091 0.65% 241 0.14% -5,790 -3.43% 168,923
Butler 22,611 45.04% 26,366 52.52% 666 1.33% 421 0.84% 134 0.27% -3,755 -7.48% 50,198
Cambria 38,797 53.79% 32,469 45.02% 624 0.87% 133 0.18% 105 0.15% 6,328 8.77% 72,128
Cameron 1,319 44.31% 1,616 54.28% 25 0.84% 5 0.17% 12 0.40% -297 -9.97% 2,977
Carbon 10,791 54.03% 8,883 44.48% 160 0.80% 108 0.54% 31 0.16% 1,908 9.55% 19,973
Centre 17,867 44.18% 21,177 52.37% 1,158 2.86% 137 0.34% 98 0.24% -3,310 -8.19% 40,437
Chester 42,712 38.13% 67,686 60.42% 1,166 1.04% 317 0.28% 145 0.13% -24,974 -22.29% 112,026
Clarion 6,585 43.29% 8,360 54.96% 177 1.16% 53 0.35% 35 0.23% -1,775 -11.67% 15,210
Clearfield 13,714 49.54% 13,626 49.22% 190 0.69% 109 0.39% 46 0.17% 88 0.32% 27,685
Clinton 6,532 51.99% 5,858 46.63% 87 0.69% 69 0.55% 18 0.14% 674 5.36% 12,564
Columbia 12,051 50.37% 11,508 48.10% 196 0.82% 112 0.47% 58 0.24% 543 2.27% 23,925
Crawford 14,712 48.06% 15,301 49.99% 305 1.00% 232 0.76% 60 0.20% -589 -1.93% 30,610
Cumberland 23,008 35.80% 39,950 62.16% 793 1.23% 460 0.72% 59 0.09% -16,942 -26.36% 64,270
Dauphin 34,342 41.32% 46,819 56.33% 1,074 1.29% 785 0.94% 102 0.12% -12,477 -15.01% 83,122
Delaware 117,252 43.28% 148,679 54.88% 2,995 1.11% 1,581 0.58% 387 0.14% -31,427 -11.60% 270,894
Elk 6,713 51.21% 6,159 46.98% 178 1.36% 49 0.37% 10 0.08% 554 4.23% 13,109
Erie 55,385 51.55% 49,641 46.20% 1,303 1.21% 943 0.88% 167 0.16% 5,744 5.35% 107,439
Fayette 32,232 60.54% 20,021 37.60% 410 0.77% 523 0.98% 58 0.11% 12,211 22.94% 53,244
Forest 1,017 46.50% 1,135 51.90% 27 1.23% 5 0.23% 3 0.14% -118 -5.40% 2,187
Franklin 14,643 41.38% 20,009 56.54% 311 0.88% 406 1.15% 20 0.06% -5,366 -15.16% 35,389
Fulton 1,737 42.87% 2,219 54.76% 32 0.79% 36 0.89% 28 0.69% -482 -11.89% 4,052
Greene 8,769 61.67% 5,293 37.22% 118 0.83% 30 0.21% 9 0.06% 3,476 24.45% 14,219
Huntingdon 5,410 40.19% 7,843 58.26% 129 0.96% 70 0.52% 10 0.07% -2,433 -18.07% 13,462
Indiana 14,650 47.34% 15,786 51.01% 345 1.11% 74 0.24% 94 0.30% -1,136 -3.67% 30,949
Jefferson 7,456 43.53% 9,437 55.09% 165 0.96% 56 0.33% 16 0.09% -1,981 -11.56% 17,130
Juniata 3,105 43.09% 3,991 55.38% 55 0.76% 27 0.37% 28 0.39% -886 -12.29% 7,206
Lackawanna 57,685 56.12% 43,354 42.17% 821 0.80% 861 0.84% 76 0.07% 14,331 13.95% 102,797
Lancaster 35,533 32.40% 72,106 65.74% 1,055 0.96% 642 0.59% 340 0.31% -36,573 -33.34% 109,676
Lawrence 23,337 54.73% 18,546 43.49% 453 1.06% 172 0.40% 132 0.31% 4,791 11.24% 42,640
Lebanon 11,785 35.36% 20,880 62.65% 359 1.08% 237 0.71% 69 0.21% -9,095 -27.29% 33,330
Lehigh 46,620 48.92% 46,895 49.20% 1,066 1.12% 581 0.61% 146 0.15% -275 -0.28% 95,308
Luzerne 74,655 54.89% 60,058 44.16% 907 0.67% 251 0.18% 138 0.10% 14,597 10.73% 136,009
Lycoming 18,635 44.28% 22,648 53.82% 358 0.85% 351 0.83% 90 0.21% -4,013 -9.54% 42,082
McKean 6,424 37.95% 10,305 60.88% 110 0.65% 72 0.43% 15 0.09% -3,881 -22.93% 16,926
Mercer 25,041 51.91% 22,469 46.58% 413 0.86% 252 0.52% 60 0.12% 2,572 5.33% 48,235
Mifflin 6,210 44.01% 7,698 54.56% 102 0.72% 75 0.53% 24 0.17% -1,488 -10.55% 14,109
Monroe 9,544 47.33% 10,228 50.72% 221 1.10% 141 0.70% 31 0.15% -684 -3.39% 20,165
Montgomery 112,644 41.24% 155,480 56.92% 3,358 1.23% 1,233 0.45% 454 0.17% -42,836 -15.68% 273,169
Montour 2,727 44.89% 3,259 53.65% 59 0.97% 26 0.43% 4 0.07% -532 -8.76% 6,075
Northampton 42,514 55.24% 32,926 42.78% 751 0.98% 669 0.87% 101 0.13% 9,588 12.46% 76,961
Northumberland 18,939 48.72% 19,283 49.60% 306 0.79% 297 0.76% 51 0.13% -344 -0.88% 38,876
Perry 4,605 37.38% 7,454 60.50% 156 1.27% 90 0.73% 15 0.12% -2,849 -23.12% 12,320
Philadelphia 494,579 66.28% 239,000 32.03% 7,864 1.05% 2,178 0.29% 2,576 0.35% 255,579 34.25% 746,197
Pike 2,775 38.83% 4,241 59.35% 74 1.04% 48 0.67% 8 0.11% -1,466 -20.52% 7,146
Potter 2,983 43.29% 3,828 55.55% 61 0.89% 11 0.16% 8 0.12% -845 -12.26% 6,891
Schuylkill 33,905 50.64% 31,944 47.71% 678 1.01% 319 0.48% 102 0.15% 1,961 2.93% 66,948
Snyder 3,097 31.19% 6,557 66.04% 134 1.35% 67 0.67% 74 0.75% -3,460 -34.85% 9,929
Somerset 13,452 45.32% 15,960 53.76% 180 0.61% 68 0.23% 25 0.08% -2,508 -8.44% 29,685
Sullivan 1,347 45.65% 1,584 53.68% 18 0.61% 2 0.07% 0 0.00% -237 -8.03% 2,951
Susquehanna 6,075 41.38% 8,331 56.74% 116 0.79% 127 0.87% 33 0.22% -2,256 -15.36% 14,682
Tioga 5,795 40.23% 8,417 58.43% 142 0.99% 30 0.21% 21 0.15% -2,622 -18.20% 14,405
Union 3,405 34.39% 6,309 63.71% 136 1.37% 41 0.41% 11 0.11% -2,904 -29.32% 9,902
Venango 8,653 40.60% 12,270 57.58% 238 1.12% 76 0.36% 74 0.35% -3,617 -16.98% 21,311
Warren 7,412 45.84% 8,508 52.62% 157 0.97% 82 0.51% 11 0.07% -1,096 -6.78% 16,170
Washington 49,317 59.24% 32,827 39.43% 780 0.94% 235 0.28% 92 0.11% 16,490 19.81% 83,251
Wayne 4,244 34.48% 7,811 63.45% 121 0.98% 120 0.97% 14 0.11% -3,567 -28.97% 12,310
Westmoreland 74,217 54.52% 59,172 43.47% 1,661 1.22% 743 0.55% 341 0.25% 15,045 11.05% 136,134
Wyoming 3,628 38.37% 5,705 60.34% 83 0.88% 34 0.36% 5 0.05% -2,077 -21.97% 9,455
York 41,281 41.30% 56,912 56.94% 881 0.86% 665 0.65% 205 0.20% -15,631 -15.64% 99,944
Totals 2,328,677 50.40% 2,205,604 47.73% 50,584 1.09% 25,344 0.55% 10,578 0.23% 123,073 2.67% 4,620,787

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The other times were in 1856, 1932, and 1940.
  2. ^ a b c d Although these candidates are included in the “other” total from Dave Leip’s Atlas, they are not separated by county in any available data set.[4]

References

  1. ^ Brownstein, Ronald (September 16, 2024). "Why these three states are the most consistent tipping point in American politics". CNN. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  2. ^ "1976 Debates". The Commission on Presidential Debates.
  3. ^ David Leip. "1976 Presidential General Election Results – Pennsylvania". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  4. ^ a b "PA US President Race, November 02, 1976". Our Campaigns.