After Jimmy Carter Won the Presidency, Democrats Lost the South

On the day Jimmy Carter was sworn in as Georgia’s governor, this ambitious white peanut farmer from rural Sumter County made a bold statement: “The time for racial discrimination is over.” The announcement was calculated to make waves in the South of 1971, and it did, earning Carter a spot on the cover of Time magazine with the headline, “Dixie whistles a different tune.”https://wordpress.com/

However, in the decades that followed, Carter, the one-term Democratic president who passed away at the age of 100, found himself largely sidelined as Republicans took center stage in his native South. Many white voters, uncomfortable with the Democrats’ increasing focus on racial inclusion and abortion rights, were drawn to the Republican Party’s promises of smaller government and lower taxes, ideas championed by figures like Ronald Reagan.

After Carter’s time in the White House, the former Confederate states largely became, with a few exceptions, key strongholds for Republican presidential candidates. Much of this support came from Southern evangelicals, who, disillusioned with Carter and the Democrats, became one of the most reliable voting blocs for the Republican Party.

This shift had been underway since the early 1960s, as Republicans successfully began to break down the solid Democratic stronghold in the South, a region that had long supported the party due to its alignment with Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and resentment over the Reconstruction-era Republican push to dismantle the South’s racial hierarchies.

Despite this, Carter left a legacy that offered a blueprint for Democratic success in a South that was becoming increasingly Republican. His 1976 presidential campaign demonstrated how a Democratic candidate could balance rhetoric and policy in a way that united white Southern progressives and moderates with Black and other minority voters.

Recent examples, including President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in 2020 and the elections of Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, illustrate that Carter’s approach to the South still holds relevance today. But it hasn’t always been easy to replicate. For years, Carter’s legacy—especially the way it was framed by his opponents—did little to help. Republicans frequently used his presidency, marked by an energy crisis and economic recession, as a warning that future Democratic candidates might repeat his failures.

In many parts of the South, the Democratic Party’s brand has become so toxic that even Southern Democratic candidates have distanced themselves from the national party. Bill Clinton, the only other Southerner elected president since the Voting Rights Act of 1965, often downplayed his connection to Carter, despite the fact that Carter had paved the way for him.

Yet, Carter’s career also helped shape a model for state-level Democratic success, marked by a centrist approach and inclusive rhetoric. This formula has been successfully adopted by numerous Southern Democrats since the 1970s and is still seen as the most viable strategy for winning in certain Southern states.

Throughout it all, Carter remained a moral figure for Southern progressives, dedicating much of his post-presidency to faith-driven humanitarian efforts.

Political scientist Thomas F. Schaller suggests that Carter’s 1980 defeat to Ronald Reagan highlighted how Carter was out of step with broader political trends in the country, particularly the disintegration of the New Deal coalition that had once united white Southerners with liberal and progressive voters nationwide. Schaller notes, “This is a guy who is showing up as the train has sort of already left the station,” acknowledging that it wasn’t necessarily Carter’s fault, but rather a reflection of shifting national dynamics.

Carter’s early life in South Georgia shaped his progressive stance on race. Upon returning to Plains after his naval service and running the family peanut farm, he refused to join the local White Citizens Council, a racist group, and faced a boycott of his business as a result.

However, during his 1970 gubernatorial campaign, he made strategic moves to appeal to more conservative Georgia voters. He adopted the campaign slogan of segregationist George Wallace, praised his segregationist predecessor Lester Maddox, and courted the support of Roy V. Harris, former head of the Citizens’ Councils of America.

Carter later admitted that these tactics were “tawdry means to an end.” He had told Vernon Jordan, president of the National Urban League, “You won’t like my campaign, but you will like my administration.”

His term as governor was marked by innovative policies, including zero-based budgeting and the appointment of Black Georgians to key government positions. These accomplishments helped him secure a victory over incumbent Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election, with a campaign promising a fresh start after the Watergate scandal. Carter’s image as an unapologetic born-again Christian helped him win widespread support in the South, particularly among evangelical Christians.

Carter’s brand of religiosity, combined with his emphasis on his rural roots, made him stand out from many other Southern politicians. He was also known for his intellectualism, quoting theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and citing Bob Dylan lyrics. Carter’s alignment with the Southern rock music scene, such as his relationships with bands like the Allman Brothers, further cemented his unique political persona.

While his evangelical faith won him the backing of millions of white Southern Baptists, the alliance would not last. Carter’s commitment to the separation of church and state, as well as his positions on issues like abortion and foreign policy, put him at odds with the growing religious right. Influential televangelists like Jerry Falwell and the rise of the modern Republican Party led to a fracture between Carter and the religious conservatives.

Carter’s presidency also coincided with the Republican Party’s “Southern strategy,” which used race as a wedge issue to attract white voters who were uneasy with desegregation. In the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan capitalized on this by speaking at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, near where three civil rights workers had been murdered in 1964, and advocating for states’ rights. Reagan’s “Southern strategy” paid off, and he swept the South in the Electoral College, with the notable exception of Georgia.

After leaving office, Carter continued to wield influence within the Democratic Party, especially in Georgia. Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who served from 1999 to 2003, followed Carter’s example by appointing diverse individuals to state positions and consulting Carter on key issues like changing the state flag, which still contained the Confederate emblem.

Barnes, who considered Carter a guiding figure, noted, “We don’t think of ourselves as liberals, we think of ourselves as moderates, fiscally. It’s just that we have different views on race and what we’re required to do by our moral convictions. Jimmy Carter gave us that.”

While fiscal moderation was a key component of Carter’s approach, his model also demonstrated that an unwavering Christian faith could help build a winning coalition in the deeply religious South. This was exemplified by Reverend Raphael Warnock, who won a special election for Georgia’s Senate seat in 2021, with full endorsement from Carter, and then successfully secured re-election in 2022.