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| Turnout | 81.31%[1] ( 1.16%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Municipality results
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The1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 4, 1980, as part of the1980 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states andD.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president. By an exceptionally narrow margin,Massachusetts was carried by theRepublican nominee, formerGovernorRonald Reagan ofCalifornia, over incumbentDemocraticPresidentJimmy Carter ofGeorgia. Also contesting the state wasindependent candidateCongressmanJohn B. Anderson ofIllinois, who won an unexpectedly solid 15.15%, mostly from disaffected Democratic voters.
On election day, Reagan won a plurality of 41.90% of the vote in the state to Carter's 41.75%, with Anderson in third at 15.15%, giving Reagan a razor-thin margin of 0.1517%. This constitutes the fifteenth-smallest percentage margin in any statewide presidential election sincethe Civil War, (twentieth overall) and the smallest sinceJohn F. Kennedy wonHawaii by 115 votes in that state'sinaugural presidential election two decades previously. The only smaller percentage margins since have beenFlorida (537 votes or 0.009%) andNew Mexico (361 votes or 0.061%) in the controversial2000 election, andMissouri in 2008, whichJohn McCain won by 3,903 votes or 0.1343%.
To date, this is the last time that the towns ofBelmont,Fairhaven,Heath,Hull,Lexington,Lincoln,Swampscott,Truro,Warwick, andWellfleet have voted Republican.
| Candidate | Votes | Delegates[citation needed] |
|---|---|---|
| Ted Kennedy | 590,393 | 81 |
| Jimmy Carter (incumbent) | 260,401 | 36 |
| Jerry Brown | 31,498 | 0 |
| No preference | 19,663 | 0 |
| Blank votes | 16,771 | 0 |
| Others | 5,368 | 0 |
| Totals | 907,314 | 117 |
| Candidate | Votes | Delegates[citation needed] |
|---|---|---|
| George H.W. Bush | 124,365 | 16 |
| John Anderson | 122,987 | 16 |
| Ronald Reagan | 115,334 | 14 |
| Howard Baker | 19,366 | 0 |
| John B. Connally | 4,714 | 0 |
| Philip M. Crane | 4,669 | 0 |
| Robert J. Dole | 557 | 0 |
| Benjamin Fernandez | 374 | 0 |
| Harold Stassen | 218 | 0 |
| No preference | 2,243 | 0 |
| Blank votes | 5,807 | 0 |
| Others | 5,979 | 0 |
| Totals | 406,633 | 46 |
| 1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts[4] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Ronald Reagan | 1,057,631 | 41.90% | 14 | |
| Democratic | Jimmy Carter (incumbent) | 1,053,802 | 41.75% | 0 | |
| Anderson Coalition | John B. Anderson | 382,539 | 15.15% | 0 | |
| Libertarian | Ed Clark | 22,038 | 0.87% | 0 | |
| Socialist Workers | Clifton DeBerry | 3,735 | 0.15% | 0 | |
| Citizens (Write-in) | Barry Commoner (Write-in) | 2,056 | 0.08% | 0 | |
| Write-ins | Write-ins | 2,497 | 0.09% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,524,298 | 100.00% | 14 | ||
| Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) | 59%/80% | ||||
| County[5] | Ronald Reagan Republican | Jimmy Carter Democratic | John B. Anderson Anderson Coalition | Ed Clark Libertarian | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Barnstable | 41,493 | 50.43% | 23,952 | 29.11% | 15,951 | 19.39% | 567 | 0.69% | 310 | 0.38% | 17,541 | 21.32% | 82,273 |
| Berkshire | 27,063 | 39.78% | 29,458 | 43.30% | 10,575 | 15.54% | 740 | 1.09% | 195 | 0.29% | -2,395 | -3.52% | 68,031 |
| Bristol | 77,545 | 41.12% | 83,460 | 44.25% | 25,423 | 13.48% | 1,695 | 0.90% | 482 | 0.26% | -5,915 | -3.13% | 188,605 |
| Dukes | 1,809 | 33.52% | 2,370 | 43.91% | 1,127 | 20.88% | 58 | 1.07% | 33 | 0.61% | -561 | -10.39% | 5,397 |
| Essex | 130,252 | 43.78% | 116,173 | 39.05% | 47,670 | 16.02% | 2,654 | 0.89% | 784 | 0.26% | 14,079 | 4.73% | 297,533 |
| Franklin | 12,528 | 41.59% | 11,830 | 39.27% | 5,162 | 17.14% | 336 | 1.12% | 266 | 0.88% | 698 | 2.32% | 30,122 |
| Hampden | 72,528 | 40.36% | 80,369 | 44.72% | 24,765 | 13.78% | 1,676 | 0.93% | 382 | 0.21% | -7,841 | -4.36% | 179,720 |
| Hampshire | 21,117 | 34.99% | 27,611 | 45.75% | 10,119 | 16.77% | 656 | 1.09% | 852 | 1.41% | -6,494 | -10.76% | 60,355 |
| Middlesex | 256,999 | 40.30% | 270,751 | 42.46% | 102,180 | 16.02% | 5,200 | 0.82% | 2,549 | 0.40% | -13,752 | -2.16% | 637,679 |
| Nantucket | 1,149 | 40.49% | 1,040 | 36.65% | 614 | 21.63% | 22 | 0.78% | 12 | 0.46% | 109 | 3.84% | 2,838 |
| Norfolk | 136,184 | 44.84% | 117,274 | 38.61% | 47,076 | 15.50% | 2,448 | 0.81% | 747 | 0.25% | 18,910 | 6.23% | 303,729 |
| Plymouth | 85,593 | 49.40% | 58,772 | 33.92% | 26,510 | 15.30% | 1,952 | 1.13% | 421 | 0.24% | 26,821 | 15.48% | 173,248 |
| Suffolk | 73,271 | 33.89% | 113,416 | 52.46% | 26,988 | 12.48% | 1,861 | 0.86% | 671 | 0.31% | -40,145 | -18.57% | 216,207 |
| Worcester | 120,100 | 43.11% | 117,326 | 42.12% | 38,379 | 13.78% | 2,173 | 0.78% | 583 | 0.21% | 2,774 | 0.99% | 278,561 |
| Totals | 1,057,631 | 41.90% | 1,053,802 | 41.75% | 382,539 | 15.15% | 22,038 | 0.87% | 8,288 | 0.33% | 3,829 | 0.15% | 2,524,298 |
With President Carter a greatly weakened incumbent by 1980, Reagan won a comfortable election victory nationwide. Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since1928, and a Democratic stronghold since1960. In1972, Massachusetts was the only state in the nation to vote for DemocratGeorge McGovern over RepublicanRichard Nixon in his 49-state landslide. However, in 1980 the Democratic Party in Massachusetts was divided and weakened after Carter had been unsuccessfully challenged by Massachusetts SenatorTed Kennedy (brother of the late PresidentJohn F. Kennedy) in a bitter primary race which left many liberal voters in the state estranged from the incumbent, thus allowing Reagan to become the first Republican to win Massachusetts’ electoral votes since the landslide re-election ofDwight Eisenhower in1956.
Another major contributing factor to Reagan's win in Massachusetts was the strong independent candidacy of John Anderson, aliberal Republican Congressman who ran in 1980 as an independent after failing to win the Republican Party's own presidential nomination. Anderson proved very popular with liberal and moderate voters inNew England who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration and viewed Reagan as too far to the right. In1976, Carter had won Massachusetts with 56% of the vote, however, in 1980 he bled a substantial amount of this support to Anderson, allowing Reagan to eke out a narrow win with only 41.90% of the vote. Nevertheless, Reagan became the first Republican ever to win the White House without carryingDukes County, which cast only its third-ever Democratic vote in 1980, after1964 and1976. With 15.15% of the vote, Massachusetts would prove to be John B. Anderson's strongest state in the nation, and more than double the 6.61% total he received nationwide.[6]
While Reagan nationally won a convincing victory in theelectoral college, Massachusetts would be his narrowest win, with the state being about ten percent more Democratic than the national average.[7] As of2024, this election marks only the third and last time (after 1852 and 1972) that Massachusetts has not voted for the same candidate as neighboringRhode Island.
State and district results of the1980 United States presidential election | ||
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