1976 United States presidential election in New Hampshire

The 1976 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on November 2, 1976, as part of the 1976 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1976 United States presidential election in New Hampshire

← 1972 November 2, 1976 1980 →
 
Nominee Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Michigan Georgia
Running mate Bob Dole Walter Mondale
Electoral vote 4 0
Popular vote 185,935 147,635
Percentage 54.75% 43.47%


President before election

Gerald Ford
Republican

Elected President

Jimmy Carter
Democratic

New Hampshire was won by the Republican nominees, incumbent President Gerald Ford of Michigan and his running mate Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Ford and Dole defeated the Democratic nominees, Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia and his running mate Senator Walter Mondale of Minnesota.

Ford took 54.75% of the vote to Carter's 43.47%, a margin of 11.28%. Anti-war former Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, running as an Independent presidential candidate, came in a distant third, with 1.21%. New Hampshire in this era normally leaned Republican, having not gone Democratic since the nationwide Democratic landslide of 1964. The Northern moderate Republican Ford easily triumphed in New Hampshire over the Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter.

On the county map, Ford won nine of New Hampshire's ten counties, with only rural Coos County in the far north of the state giving a 51-49 majority to Carter. In a sign of the state's Republican trend that would occur in the 1970s and 1980s, even while narrowly losing the national race, Ford won two of the state's traditional New Deal Democratic counties, with a majority win in Hillsborough County and a plurality win in Strafford County. Since 1932, both of these counties, along with Coos County, had gone Democratic in every close presidential election or Democratic victory, voting every time for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Hubert H. Humphrey. Carter became the first Democrat to win the White House without carrying Hillsborough County and Strafford County since Grover Cleveland in 1892.

Ford's decisive victory in New Hampshire, while narrowly losing the national race, would make the state over 13% more Republican than the national average in the 1976 election. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the most last presidential election that a Democrat would win a presidential election without carrying New Hampshire, and the last presidential election until 2016 when the winner of Coös County did not also carry the state as well. The state would not vote for a losing candidate again until 2004.

Results

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1976 United States presidential election in New Hampshire[1]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Gerald Ford (incumbent) 185,935 54.75% 4
Democratic Jimmy Carter 147,635 43.47% 0
McCarthy '76 Eugene McCarthy 4,095 1.21% 0
Libertarian Roger MacBride 936 0.28% 0
Write-ins Write-ins 604 0.18% 0
U.S. Labor Lyndon LaRouche 186 0.05% 0
Socialist Workers Peter Camejo 161 0.05% 0
Socialist Labor Julius Levin 66 0.02% 0
Totals 339,618 100.00% 4
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) 57%/71%

Results by county

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County[2] Gerald Ford
Republican
Jimmy Carter
Democratic
Eugene McCarthy
McCarthy ‘76
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Belknap 9,876 60.78% 6,143 37.81% 120 0.74% 110 0.68% 3,733 22.97% 16,249
Carroll 8,561 70.18% 3,374 27.66% 169 1.39% 94 0.77% 5,187 42.52% 12,198
Cheshire 12,554 53.87% 10,388 44.57% 260 1.12% 103 0.44% 2,166 9.30% 23,305
Coös 7,094 48.46% 7,385 50.45% 92 0.63% 67 0.46% -291 -1.99% 14,638
Grafton 14,430 60.34% 8,996 37.62% 369 1.54% 119 0.50% 5,434 22.72% 23,914
Hillsborough 53,581 53.11% 45,544 45.15% 1,168 1.16% 587 0.58% 8,037 7.96% 100,880
Merrimack 21,853 58.62% 14,865 39.87% 377 1.01% 187 0.50% 6,988 18.75% 37,282
Rockingham 36,738 53.92% 30,051 44.11% 903 1.33% 438 0.64% 6,687 9.81% 68,130
Strafford 14,569 49.61% 14,566 49.60% 50 0.17% 180 0.61% 3 0.01% 29,365
Sullivan 6,679 50.57% 6,323 47.88% 137 1.04% 68 0.51% 356 2.69% 13,207
Total 185,935 54.75% 147,635 43.47% 4,095 1.21% 1,953 0.58% 38,300 11.28% 339,618

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "1976 Presidential General Election Results - New Hampshire". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  2. ^ Our Campaigns; NH US President Race, November 02, 1976