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 County results Municipality results
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The1976 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on November 2, 1976, as part of the1976 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states andD.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
New Hampshire was won by theRepublican nominees, incumbentPresidentGerald Ford ofMichigan and his running mateSenatorBob Dole ofKansas. Ford and Dole defeated theDemocratic nominees,GovernorJimmy Carter ofGeorgia and his running mateSenatorWalter Mondale ofMinnesota.
Ford took 54.75% of the vote to Carter's 43.47%, a margin of 11.28%. Anti-war former Democratic SenatorEugene McCarthy ofMinnesota, running as anIndependent 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 of1964. TheNorthern moderate Republican Ford easily triumphed in New Hampshire over theSouthern Democrat Jimmy Carter.
On the county map, Ford won nine of New Hampshire's ten counties, with only ruralCoos 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 traditionalNew Deal Democratic counties, with a majority win inHillsborough County and a plurality win inStrafford County. Since1932, both of these counties, along with Coos County, had gone Democratic in every close presidential election or Democratic victory, voting every time forFranklin D. Roosevelt,Harry S. Truman,John F. Kennedy,Lyndon B. Johnson, andHubert H. Humphrey. Carter became the first Democrat to win the White House without carryingHillsborough County andStrafford County sinceGrover Cleveland in1892.
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 the2024 presidential election, this is the last time that a Democrat would win a presidential election without carrying New Hampshire, and the last presidential election until2016 when the winner ofCoös County did not also carry the state as well. The state would not vote for a losing candidate again until 2004.
| 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% | ||||
| 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 |
| Presidential elections | |||||
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State and district results of the1976 United States presidential election | ||
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