November 4, 1980

1980 United States presidential election

Ronald Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election

Carter conceded publicly while polls were still open in parts of the western United States.

Election night, 4 November 1980

Americans voted on 4 November 1980 for presidential electors pledged principally to Republican Ronald Reagan, Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter or independent John Anderson. Returns made Reagan the clear winner of the popular vote and of the projected Electoral College majority.

The Federal Election Commission’s compilation from official state sources gives Reagan 43,899,248 votes (50.75 percent), Carter 35,481,435 (41.02 percent) and Anderson 5,719,437 (6.61 percent) — more than 5.7 million votes and no electoral votes at all.

The concession came early

Carter telephoned Reagan to congratulate him and conceded publicly that night, saying the call had taken place about an hour earlier. Voting had not finished in parts of the West, a circumstance that later fed congressional scrutiny of early network projections and concessions.

Reagan gave his victory speech in Los Angeles alongside running mate George Bush.

What the night did not settle

The 489–49 electoral tally was the later certified result, not a vote cast by electors on 4 November; the enormous margin rests on just over half the popular vote.

Carter also remained president and continued governing until Reagan’s inauguration on 20 January 1981.

And whether 1980 amounted to a conservative realignment is disputed: contemporary scholarship described the result as dealignment, or a repudiation of Carter without a broad ideological mandate.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

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What the sources leave uncertain

Historical popular-vote compilations differ by several thousand votes because states used differing definitions and later tabulators handled minor candidates and amended returns differently. The figures here use the Federal Election Commission’s December 1980 compilation from official state sources.
Election Day determined the winning slates of electors. The electors formally voted later, and Congress counted those votes in January; calling Reagan “elected” on November 4 is conventional shorthand.