1980 United States presidential election in New York

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1980 United States presidential election in New York

← 1976 November 4, 1980 1984 →
 
Nominee Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter John B. Anderson
Party Republican Democratic
Independent
Alliance Conservative Liberal
Home state California Georgia Illinois
Running mate George H. W. Bush Walter Mondale Patrick Lucey
Electoral vote 41 0 0
Popular vote 2,893,831 2,728,372 467,801
Percentage 46.66% 43.99% 7.54%

County Results

President before election

Jimmy Carter
Democratic

Elected President

Ronald Reagan
Republican

The 1980 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 4, 1980. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. Voters chose 41 electors to the Electoral College, which voted for President and Vice President.

New York was won by former California Governor Ronald Reagan, in a narrow victory against President of the United States Jimmy Carter, who failed to gain reelection against Reagan.[1] Also in the running was Independent candidate Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, who ran in New York as the Liberal Party candidate.

Reagan won the state with a plurality of 46.66% of the vote to Carter's 43.99%, a margin of 2.67%. Anderson finished in third, with 7.54%. New York's election results reflect the Republican Party's re-consolidation of base under what is popularly called the "Reagan Revolution,"[2] which sounded various overwhelming conservative electoral victories across the United States throughout the 1980s – and most evidently against the relatively unpopular President Carter during the 1980 presidential election. New York weighed in for this election as more Democratic than the national average by about 7%.

This election is notable in that while the highly populated regions of New York City, Buffalo and Albany turned out for Carter, and the sparsely populated upstate counties turned out for Reagan, the election in the state was tipped by the downstate suburban counties around NYC, which were won by Reagan. Most notably, Reagan won in the Long Island suburban counties of Nassau and Suffolk by bigger vote number margins than in all of the counties that Carter won in the state except Manhattan. Carter actually picked up plurality wins in two counties where he had lost in 1976 to Gerald Ford: namely Monroe County, home to the city of Rochester (thereby making Reagan the first-ever Republican to win the White House without carrying this county), and Niagara County. Despite these two county gains by Carter, it wasn't enough for him to retain the state that he had won four years earlier, as Carter's winning margin in New York City was considerably lower than what it had been in 1976. This fact, combined with the big vote number margins that Reagan won by in the densely populated downstate counties outside New York City, enabled Reagan to overtake Carter in the popular vote statewide.

Another major contributing factor to Reagan's victory over Carter was the relatively strong

third party showing by independent candidate John B. Anderson, a former liberal Republican congressman who garnered 7.54% of the vote in the State – nearly twice the 4% margin by which Carter had won New York in 1976. Running on the ballot line of New York's Liberal Party, Anderson attracted the votes of many liberals and moderates who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration, and with Rockefeller Republicans
who viewed Reagan as too far to the right, thus splitting the left-leaning vote in New York State.

Primaries

1980 Democratic Primary
Candidate Votes Delegates
Ted Kennedy 582,757 176
Jimmy Carter (Incumbent) 406,305 123
Totals 989,062 299
1980 Republican Primary*
Candidate Delegates
Ronald Reagan 73
George H.W. Bush 6
John Anderson 1
Uncommitted 47
Totals 127
  • Note: The Republican Primary was not decided by votes for each candidate, but for their delegate slates in each and every congressional district.

Results

1980 United States presidential election in New York
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Ronald Reagan 2,637,700 42.53%
Conservative Ronald Reagan 256,131 4.13%
Total Ronald Reagan 2,893,831 46.66% 41
Democratic Jimmy Carter (Incumbent) 2,728,372 43.99% 0
Liberal John B. Anderson 467,801 7.54% 0
Free Libertarian Ed Clark 52,648 0.85% 0
Right to Life Ellen McCormack 24,159 0.39% 0
Citizens Party Barry Commoner 23,186 0.37% 0
Communist Gus Hall 7,414 0.12% 0
Socialist Workers Clifton DeBerry 2,068 0.03% 0
Workers’ World Deirdre Griswold 1,416 0.02% 0
Write-ins 1,064 0.02% 0
Totals 6,201,959 100.0% 41

New York City results

1980 Presidential Election in New York City Manhattan The Bronx Brooklyn Queens Staten Island Total
Democratic Jimmy Carter 275,742 181,090 288,893 269,147 37,306 1,052,178 54.87%
62.40% 64.02% 55.44% 47.98% 33.72%
Conservative
Ronald Reagan 115,911 86,843 200,306 251,333 64,885 719,278 37.51%
26.23% 30.70% 38.43% 44.81% 58.64%
Liberal John B. Anderson 38,597 11,286 24,341 32,566 7,055 113,845 5.94%
8.73% 3.99% 4.67% 5.81% 6.38%
Citizens Party Barry Commoner 5,361 685 2,266 1,889 225 10,426 0.54%
1.21% 0.24% 0.43% 0.34% 0.20%
Free Libertarian Roger MacBride 2,718 991 2,039 2,482 561 8,791 0.46%
0.62% 0.35% 0.39% 0.44% 0.51%
Right to Life Ellen McCormack 862 995 1,615 2,227 518 6,217 0.32%
0.20% 0.35% 0.31% 0.40% 0.47%
Communist Gus Hall 1,997 669 1,222 945 59 4,892 0.26%
0.45% 0.24% 0.23% 0.17% 0.05%
Socialist Workers
Clifton DeBerry 451 204 279 258 32 1,224 0.06%
0.10% 0.07% 0.05% 0.05% 0.03%
Workers’ World Deirdre Griswold 259 84 131 76 6 556 0.03%
0.06% 0.03% 0.03% 0.01% 0.01%
TOTAL 441,901 282,847 521,109 560,923 110,651 1,917,431 100.00%

Results by county

County Ronald Wilson Reagan
Republican
James Earl Carter
Democratic
John Bayard Anderson
Liberal
Edward E. Clark[3]
Free Libertarian
Ellen McCormack[3]
Right to Life
Barry Commoner[3]
Citizens
Various candidates[3]
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # % # % # %
Albany 52,354 36.27% 74,429 51.56% 14,563 10.09% 1,723 1.19% 642 0.44% 502 0.35% 151 0.10% -22,075 -15.29% 144,364
Allegany 10,423 59.09% 5,879 33.33% 973 5.52% 275 1.56% 44 0.25% 25 0.14% 21 0.12% 4,544 25.76% 17,640
Bronx
86,843 30.70% 181,090 64.02% 11,286 3.99% 991 0.35% 995 0.35% 685 0.24% 957 0.34% -94,247 -33.32% 282,847
Broome 39,275 43.99% 37,013 41.46% 11,388 12.76% 969 1.09% 323 0.36% 206 0.23% 106 0.12% 2,262 2.53% 89,280
Cattaraugus 17,222 52.65% 12,917 39.49% 1,848 5.65% 477 1.46% 149 0.46% 42 0.13% 54 0.17% 4,305 13.16% 32,709
Cayuga 17,945 54.78% 11,708 35.74% 2,539 7.75% 360 1.10% 111 0.34% 47 0.14% 46 0.14% 6,237 19.04% 32,756
Chautauqua 30,081 51.20% 22,871 38.93% 4,699 8.00% 815 1.39% 142 0.24% 72 0.12% 76 0.13% 7,210 12.27% 58,756
Chemung 19,674 52.87% 14,565 39.14% 2,465 6.62% 327 0.88% 121 0.33% 38 0.10% 19 0.05% 5,109 13.73% 37,209
Chenango 10,400 53.08% 6,917 35.31% 1,908 9.74% 261 1.33% 57 0.29% 37 0.19% 12 0.06% 3,483 17.78% 19,592
Clinton 13,120 48.79% 11,498 42.76% 1,904 7.08% 193 0.72% 95 0.35% 60 0.22% 20 0.07% 1,622 6.03% 26,890
Columbia 13,946 53.08% 9,500 36.16% 2,204 8.39% 378 1.44% 125 0.48% 86 0.33% 35 0.13% 4,446 16.92% 26,274
Cortland 9,885 54.77% 6,176 34.22% 1,603 8.88% 249 1.38% 49 0.27% 55 0.30% 31 0.17% 3,709 20.55% 18,048
Delaware 10,609 55.36% 6,333 33.05% 1,865 9.73% 252 1.31% 35 0.18% 52 0.27% 18 0.09% 4,276 22.31% 19,164
Dutchess 53,616 57.65% 28,616 30.77% 8,824 9.49% 1,129 1.21% 388 0.42% 275 0.30% 159 0.17% 25,000 26.88% 93,007
Erie 169,209 40.24% 215,283 51.20% 29,580 7.03% 3,853 0.92% 1,381 0.33% 767 0.18% 400 0.10% -46,074 -10.96% 420,473
Essex 9,025 53.16% 6,443 37.95% 1,213 7.14% 204 1.20% 45 0.27% 31 0.18% 17 0.10% 2,582 15.21% 16,978
Franklin 7,620 46.77% 7,281 44.69% 1,182 7.26% 88 0.54% 80 0.49% 30 0.18% 11 0.07% 339 2.08% 16,292
Fulton 11,448 53.19% 8,105 37.66% 1,566 7.28% 280 1.30% 72 0.33% 30 0.14% 21 0.10% 3,343 15.53% 21,522
Genesee 11,650 47.57% 10,677 43.60% 1,651 6.74% 346 1.41% 97 0.40% 29 0.12% 39 0.16% 973 3.97% 24,489
Greene 11,286 57.88% 6,488 33.28% 1,338 6.86% 220 1.13% 115 0.59% 29 0.15% 22 0.11% 4,798 24.61% 19,498
Hamilton 2,038 63.10% 925 28.64% 176 5.45% 52 1.61% 16 0.50% 20 0.62% 3 0.09% 1,113 34.46% 3,230
Herkimer 14,105 50.58% 11,497 41.23% 1,830 6.56% 321 1.15% 73 0.26% 40 0.14% 22 0.08% 2,608 9.35% 27,888
Jefferson 16,455 49.67% 13,271 40.06% 2,834 8.55% 387 1.17% 85 0.26% 71 0.21% 25 0.08% 3,184 9.61% 33,128
Kings 200,306 38.43% 288,893 55.44% 24,341 4.67% 2,039 0.39% 1,615 0.31% 2,266 0.43% 1,649 0.32% -88,587 -17.00% 521,109
Lewis 4,937 50.26% 3,973 40.45% 716 7.29% 150 1.53% 32 0.33% 4 0.04% 10 0.10% 964 9.81% 9,822
Livingston 11,193 49.85% 9,030 40.22% 1,694 7.54% 400 1.78% 63 0.28% 47 0.21% 27 0.12% 2,163 9.63% 22,454
Madison 13,369 55.85% 7,843 32.77% 2,122 8.86% 444 1.85% 77 0.32% 53 0.22% 29 0.12% 5,526 23.09% 23,937
Monroe 128,615 41.93% 142,423 46.43% 29,118 9.49% 4,335 1.41% 980 0.32% 846 0.28% 416 0.14% -13,808 -4.50% 306,733
Montgomery 11,917 49.48% 9,645 40.04% 2,080 8.64% 309 1.28% 72 0.30% 38 0.16% 27 0.11% 2,272 9.43% 24,088
Nassau 333,567 55.95% 207,602 34.81% 44,758 7.51% 3,463 0.58% 3,795 0.64% 2,257 0.38% 712 0.12% 125,965 21.13% 596,154
New York 115,911 26.23% 275,742 62.40% 38,597 8.73% 2,718 0.62% 862 0.20% 5,361 1.21% 2,710 0.61% -159,831 -36.17% 441,901
Niagara 38,760 44.86% 40,405 46.77% 6,014 6.96% 816 0.94% 285 0.33% 72 0.08% 56 0.06% -1,645 -1.90% 86,409
Oneida 51,968 49.59% 44,292 42.26% 6,929 6.61% 1,107 1.06% 308 0.29% 98 0.09% 97 0.09% 7,676 7.32% 104,799
Onondaga 97,887 50.62% 73,453 37.99% 18,805 9.72% 1,908 0.99% 695 0.36% 352 0.18% 272 0.14% 24,434 12.64% 193,372
Ontario 17,036 47.98% 14,477 40.77% 3,147 8.86% 606 1.71% 133 0.37% 66 0.19% 41 0.12% 2,559 7.21% 35,506
Orange 51,268 56.67% 30,022 33.18% 7,656 8.46% 948 1.05% 302 0.33% 151 0.17% 123 0.14% 21,246 23.48% 90,470
Orleans 7,536 51.58% 5,767 39.47% 977 6.69% 252 1.72% 41 0.28% 20 0.14% 18 0.12% 1,769 12.11% 14,611
Oswego 22,816 53.63% 15,343 36.07% 3,333 7.83% 810 1.90% 118 0.28% 65 0.15% 56 0.13% 7,473 17.57% 42,541
Otsego 11,814 49.42% 8,795 36.79% 2,874 12.02% 299 1.25% 47 0.20% 51 0.21% 27 0.11% 3,019 12.63% 23,907
Putnam 20,193 63.46% 8,691 27.31% 2,340 7.35% 294 0.92% 146 0.46% 112 0.35% 43 0.14% 11,502 36.15% 31,819
Queens
251,333 44.81% 269,147 47.98% 32,566 5.81% 2,482 0.44% 2,227 0.40% 1,889 0.34% 1,279 0.23% -17,814 -3.18% 560,923
Rensselaer 32,005 45.89% 29,880 42.84% 6,443 9.24% 955 1.37% 270 0.39% 130 0.19% 64 0.09% 2,125 3.05% 69,747
Richmond 64,885 58.64% 37,306 33.72% 7,055 6.38% 561 0.51% 518 0.47% 225 0.20% 101 0.09% 27,579 24.93% 110,651
Rockland 59,068 56.26% 35,277 33.60% 8,709 8.29% 879 0.84% 484 0.46% 427 0.41% 151 0.14% 23,791 22.66% 104,993
Saratoga 34,184 52.30% 23,641 36.17% 6,201 9.49% 957 1.46% 194 0.30% 128 0.20% 57 0.09% 10,543 16.13% 65,362
Schenectady 32,003 45.37% 29,932 42.44% 7,146 10.13% 947 1.34% 206 0.29% 202 0.29% 98 0.14% 2,071 2.94% 70,534
Schoharie 6,382 52.05% 4,715 38.45% 940 7.67% 165 1.35% 30 0.24% 17 0.14% 13 0.11% 1,667 13.59% 12,262
Schuyler 3,838 55.17% 2,514 36.14% 476 6.84% 79 1.14% 14 0.20% 26 0.37% 10 0.14% 1,324 19.03% 6,957
Seneca 7,174 52.40% 5,010 36.60% 1,205 8.80% 199 1.45% 53 0.39% 34 0.25% 15 0.11% 2,164 15.81% 13,690
St. Lawrence 18,437 46.53% 17,006 42.92% 3,544 8.94% 319 0.81% 164 0.41% 115 0.29% 39 0.10% 1,431 3.61% 39,624
Steuben 22,418 58.73% 12,826 33.60% 2,257 5.91% 467 1.22% 121 0.32% 54 0.14% 27 0.07% 9,592 25.13% 38,170
Suffolk 256,294 57.00% 149,945 33.35% 34,743 7.73% 3,598 0.80% 2,827 0.63% 1,676 0.37% 573 0.13% 106,349 23.65% 449,655
Sullivan 15,089 55.44% 9,553 35.10% 2,095 7.70% 297 1.09% 104 0.38% 19 0.07% 61 0.22% 5,536 20.34% 27,218
Tioga 10,291 53.56% 6,690 34.82% 1,851 9.63% 261 1.36% 52 0.27% 33 0.17% 36 0.19% 3,601 18.74% 19,214
Tompkins 12,448 41.96% 11,970 40.35% 4,081 13.76% 305 1.03% 49 0.17% 764 2.58% 51 0.17% 478 1.61% 29,668
Ulster 36,709 55.01% 22,179 33.24% 5,995 8.98% 868 1.30% 184 0.28% 640 0.96% 151 0.23% 14,530 21.78% 66,726
Warren 13,264 59.28% 6,971 31.15% 1,766 7.89% 266 1.19% 59 0.26% 35 0.16% 16 0.07% 6,293 28.12% 22,377
Washington 12,835 58.59% 7,144 32.61% 1,501 6.85% 337 1.54% 48 0.22% 29 0.13% 12 0.05% 5,691 25.98% 21,906
Wayne 16,498 50.74% 12,590 38.72% 2,623 8.07% 628 1.93% 85 0.26% 55 0.17% 33 0.10% 3,908 12.02% 32,512
Westchester 198,552 54.37% 130,136 35.64% 30,119 8.25% 2,639 0.72% 1,587 0.43% 1,555 0.43% 578 0.16% 68,416 18.74% 365,166
Wyoming 8,108 55.72% 5,234 35.97% 855 5.88% 266 1.83% 58 0.40% 17 0.12% 14 0.10% 2,874 19.75% 14,552
Yates 4,694 55.99% 2,828 33.73% 690 8.23% 125 1.49% 14 0.17% 28 0.33% 5 0.06% 1,866 22.26% 8,384
Totals 2,893,831 46.66% 2,728,372 43.99% 467,801 7.54% 52,648 0.85% 24,159 0.39% 23,186 0.37% 11,962 0.19% 165,459 2.67% 6,201,959

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Analysis

In the heavily populated, and very liberal, five boroughs of New York City, Carter still won overall, and Reagan made only modest gains in vote share over Gerald Ford's 1976 showing of 33%, with Reagan taking 37.5% in NYC in 1980. While Carter still won in 4 of the 5 boroughs, Carter bled considerable support in New York City to Anderson, with Carter's NYC vote percentage dropping from 66% in 1976 to only 55% in 1980. Since Democratic victories in New York State in that era depended on running up massive margins in New York City to overcome the rest of the state's Republican lean, the reduced vote number margin in New York City from vote-splitting would prove fatal to Carter's chances in 1980. While Reagan only bled about 1% off Republican base support in the state (winning a plurality in a 3-way-race with 46.66% while Gerald Ford had lost the state in a two-man race with 47.52% in 1976), Carter bled 8% off his 1976 support, falling from a 51.95% majority win in 1976 to a losing 43.99% in 1980, with most of these lost Democratic base votes going to Anderson instead.

1980 remains the last election in which a Republican presidential nominee has won traditionally rock-ribbed GOP Tompkins County in upstate New York, home to the college town of Ithaca, where Cornell University and Ithaca College are located.[4] From the Republican Party's founding in 1854 all the way up to 1976, Tompkins County had been a Republican stronghold in presidential elections and had only gone Democratic in the landslides of 1912 and 1964,[5] with Franklin D. Roosevelt never topping 40% in the county in a presidential election. With the Republican Party nationally being increasingly taken over by its conservative wing, the GOP's fortunes quickly began to fade in the county in the 1980s. Reagan narrowly won Tompkins County in 1980 with a plurality of 42% to Carter's 40%, while Anderson took nearly 14%, making it Anderson's strongest county in the state. Four years later in 1984, Tompkins County would vote against Reagan, and by 2004 had become the most Democratic county in all of upstate New York in giving 64.19% of the vote to John Kerry. Tompkins County later gave Barack Obama 70.09% of the vote in 2008, and Joe Biden 73.51% of the vote in 2020.

1980 remains the last election where any presidential candidate would get at least 40 electoral votes from New York. After the 1980 Census, the state's electoral votes would drop from 41 electoral votes to 36 votes.

Along with Maine, Michigan, Mississippi and Vermont, New York was one of the few states in which President Carter won counties that had gone to Ford in the previous presidential election, as Carter flipped both Monroe and Niagara counties.

See also

References

  1. ^ "1980 Presidential General Election Results – New York". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  2. ^ Jerry Lanson (November 6, 2008). "A historic victory. A changed nation. Now, can Obama deliver?". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d "NY US President Race, November 04, 1980". Our Campaigns.
  4. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016