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1976 United States presidential election in Colorado

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1976 United States presidential election in Colorado

← 1972 November 2, 1976 1980 →
 
Nominee Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Michigan Georgia
Running mate Bob Dole Walter Mondale
Electoral vote 7 0
Popular vote 584,367 460,353
Percentage 54.05% 42.58%

County Results

President before election

Gerald Ford
Republican

Elected President

Jimmy Carter
Democratic

The 1976 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 2, 1976, as part of the 1976 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Colorado was won by incumbent President Gerald Ford (RMichigan) with 54.05% of the popular vote, against Jimmy Carter (DGeorgia), with 42.58% of the popular vote. Like most of the Mountain West, Colorado was comfortably in Ford's column; Colorado was Ford's ninth-best state overall (and one of only nine which he won by double digits). Ford held Carter's margin in the city of Denver to 2.8%, and rolled up large margins in the reliably Republican suburban Denver-area counties of Jefferson and Arapahoe. He also ran well in Boulder County, at the time a traditionally Republican county; he would be the last Republican apart from Reagan in his 1984 landslide to win a majority in the county. Despite the large national swing in favor of the Democrats, Ford even took back Pitkin County, which had supported McGovern in 1972.

Nevertheless, Carter showed some strength in some rural parts of Colorado that later Democrats would fail to replicate. As of the 2020 presidential election, this was the last occasion on which Dolores County, Prowers County, Phillips County, and Cheyenne County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[1][2]

None of the third-party candidates amounted to a significant portion of the vote, but Eugene McCarthy (IMinnesota) won 2.41% of the popular vote, proportionally significantly ahead of his national 0.91%. This was the first presidential election in which Colorado recorded one million votes.

Despite losing in Colorado, Carter went on to win the national election and became the 39th president of the United States. Colorado had previously voted Republican fifteen times, Democratic nine times, and Populist once (for James B. Weaver in 1892).[3]

Lucretia Potts, Jeanne Meyer, Kay Johnson, Sheldon Sheperd, Fern Wolaver, Martyn Butler, and Clyde Kissinger served as Republican presidential electors.[4]

Results

[edit]
1976 United States presidential election in Colorado
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Gerald Ford (inc.) 584,367 54.05%
Democratic Jimmy Carter 460,353 42.58%
Independent Eugene McCarthy 26,107 2.41%
Libertarian Roger MacBride 5,330 0.49%
Colorado Prohibition Benjamin Bubar 2,882 0.27%
Socialist Labor Peter Camejo 1,126 0.10%
U.S. Labor Lyndon LaRouche 567 0.05%
Communist Gus Hall 403 0.04%
Total votes 1,081,135 100%

Results by county

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County[5] Gerald Ford
Republican
Jimmy Carter
Democratic
Eugene McCarthy
Independent
Roger MacBride
Libertarian
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # % # %
Adams 35,392 45.30% 40,551 51.90% 1,618 2.07% 416 0.53% 150 0.19% -5,159 -6.60% 78,127
Alamosa 2,599 53.51% 2,052 42.25% 179 3.69% 15 0.31% 12 0.25% 547 11.26% 4,857
Arapahoe 63,154 63.45% 33,685 33.85% 1,748 1.76% 449 0.45% 490 0.49% 29,469 29.60% 99,526
Archuleta 768 53.63% 632 44.13% 29 2.03% 1 0.07% 2 0.14% 136 9.50% 1,432
Baca 1,303 51.97% 1,164 46.43% 28 1.12% 10 0.40% 2 0.08% 139 5.54% 2,507
Bent 1,156 46.61% 1,268 51.13% 39 1.57% 4 0.16% 13 0.52% -112 -4.52% 2,480
Boulder 42,830 52.71% 33,284 40.96% 4,252 5.23% 558 0.69% 329 0.40% 9,546 11.75% 81,253
Chaffee 2,925 56.66% 2,064 39.98% 118 2.29% 18 0.35% 37 0.72% 861 16.68% 5,162
Cheyenne 610 48.15% 625 49.33% 22 1.74% 8 0.63% 2 0.16% -15 -1.18% 1,267
Clear Creek 1,477 55.36% 1,069 40.07% 80 3.00% 9 0.34% 33 1.24% 408 15.29% 2,668
Conejos 1,426 44.65% 1,698 53.16% 45 1.41% 7 0.22% 18 0.56% -272 -8.51% 3,194
Costilla 392 26.96% 1,033 71.05% 16 1.10% 2 0.14% 11 0.76% -641 -44.09% 1,454
Crowley 834 54.90% 667 43.91% 14 0.92% 2 0.13% 2 0.13% 167 10.99% 1,519
Custer 491 62.39% 259 32.91% 27 3.43% 7 0.89% 3 0.38% 232 29.48% 787
Delta 4,980 58.82% 3,232 38.17% 194 2.29% 35 0.41% 26 0.31% 1,748 20.65% 8,467
Denver 105,960 46.73% 112,229 49.50% 5,386 2.38% 1,105 0.49% 2,058 0.91% -6,269 -2.77% 226,738
Dolores 343 45.61% 374 49.73% 26 3.46% 6 0.80% 3 0.40% -31 -4.12% 752
Douglas 5,078 65.54% 2,459 31.74% 162 2.09% 38 0.49% 11 0.14% 2,619 33.80% 7,748
Eagle 2,963 64.18% 1,502 32.53% 111 2.40% 34 0.74% 7 0.15% 1,461 31.65% 4,617
El Paso 50,929 59.13% 32,911 38.21% 1,574 1.83% 530 0.62% 186 0.22% 18,018 20.92% 86,130
Elbert 1,279 52.72% 1,068 44.02% 64 2.64% 13 0.54% 2 0.08% 211 8.70% 2,426
Fremont 5,647 52.44% 4,886 45.38% 174 1.62% 29 0.27% 32 0.30% 761 7.06% 10,768
Garfield 4,699 59.74% 2,852 36.26% 223 2.83% 41 0.52% 51 0.65% 1,847 23.48% 7,866
Gilpin 451 41.19% 563 51.42% 59 5.39% 14 1.28% 8 0.73% -112 -10.23% 1,095
Grand 1,703 61.77% 910 33.01% 113 4.10% 22 0.80% 9 0.33% 793 28.76% 2,757
Gunnison 2,568 61.88% 1,250 30.12% 260 6.27% 30 0.72% 42 1.01% 1,318 31.76% 4,150
Hinsdale 189 66.55% 83 29.23% 11 3.87% 1 0.35% 0 0.00% 106 37.32% 284
Huerfano 1,182 37.35% 1,932 61.04% 38 1.20% 7 0.22% 6 0.19% -750 -23.69% 3,165
Jackson 455 60.83% 279 37.30% 14 1.87% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 176 23.53% 748
Jefferson 87,080 60.44% 52,782 36.64% 3,141 2.18% 770 0.53% 300 0.21% 34,298 23.80% 144,073
Kiowa 598 52.59% 529 46.53% 8 0.70% 1 0.09% 1 0.09% 69 6.06% 1,137
Kit Carson 1,888 52.28% 1,647 45.61% 59 1.63% 10 0.28% 7 0.19% 241 6.67% 3,611
La Plata 6,228 59.05% 3,843 36.44% 312 2.96% 65 0.62% 99 0.94% 2,385 22.61% 10,547
Lake 1,575 48.03% 1,549 47.24% 89 2.71% 26 0.79% 40 1.22% 26 0.79% 3,279
Larimer 32,169 60.72% 19,005 35.87% 1,356 2.56% 297 0.56% 156 0.29% 13,164 24.85% 52,983
Las Animas 2,615 36.45% 4,459 62.15% 82 1.14% 8 0.11% 11 0.15% -1,844 -25.70% 7,175
Lincoln 1,276 53.46% 1,059 44.37% 47 1.97% 4 0.17% 1 0.04% 217 9.09% 2,387
Logan 4,256 53.32% 3,543 44.39% 140 1.75% 22 0.28% 21 0.26% 713 8.93% 7,982
Mesa 17,924 65.44% 8,807 32.15% 541 1.98% 74 0.27% 44 0.16% 9,117 33.29% 27,390
Mineral 235 55.56% 167 39.48% 20 4.73% 1 0.24% 0 0.00% 68 16.08% 423
Moffat 2,099 55.68% 1,451 38.49% 120 3.18% 30 0.80% 70 1.86% 648 17.19% 3,770
Montezuma 3,002 57.99% 1,993 38.50% 152 2.94% 20 0.39% 10 0.19% 1,009 19.49% 5,177
Montrose 4,838 58.42% 3,164 38.20% 220 2.66% 19 0.23% 41 0.50% 1,674 20.22% 8,282
Morgan 4,603 53.34% 3,798 44.01% 136 1.58% 20 0.23% 72 0.83% 805 9.33% 8,629
Otero 4,597 51.54% 4,118 46.17% 72 0.81% 19 0.21% 114 1.28% 479 5.37% 8,920
Ouray 645 62.50% 333 32.27% 49 4.75% 4 0.39% 1 0.10% 312 30.23% 1,032
Park 1,034 55.24% 741 39.58% 67 3.58% 13 0.69% 17 0.91% 293 15.66% 1,872
Phillips 1,142 48.12% 1,173 49.43% 48 2.02% 7 0.29% 3 0.13% -31 -1.31% 2,373
Pitkin 2,955 53.61% 2,194 39.80% 304 5.52% 46 0.83% 13 0.24% 761 13.81% 5,512
Prowers 2,578 46.13% 2,861 51.20% 57 1.02% 9 0.16% 83 1.49% -283 -5.07% 5,588
Pueblo 18,518 41.06% 25,841 57.29% 568 1.26% 120 0.27% 56 0.12% -7,323 -16.23% 45,103
Rio Blanco 1,439 67.24% 627 29.30% 57 2.66% 13 0.61% 4 0.19% 812 37.94% 2,140
Rio Grande 2,627 62.37% 1,475 35.02% 88 2.09% 14 0.33% 8 0.19% 1,152 27.35% 4,212
Routt 2,822 54.13% 2,130 40.86% 213 4.09% 39 0.75% 9 0.17% 692 13.27% 5,213
Saguache 1,094 49.50% 1,059 47.92% 51 2.31% 1 0.05% 5 0.23% 35 1.58% 2,210
San Juan 221 53.77% 167 40.63% 21 5.11% 1 0.24% 1 0.24% 54 13.14% 411
San Miguel 622 43.83% 674 47.50% 106 7.47% 14 0.99% 3 0.21% -52 -3.67% 1,419
Sedgwick 902 53.06% 773 45.47% 21 1.24% 3 0.18% 1 0.06% 129 7.59% 1,700
Summit 1,826 58.15% 1,087 34.62% 166 5.29% 36 1.15% 25 0.80% 739 23.53% 3,140
Teller 1,410 55.93% 986 39.11% 94 3.73% 24 0.95% 7 0.28% 424 16.82% 2,521
Washington 1,440 52.63% 1,211 44.26% 61 2.23% 16 0.58% 8 0.29% 229 8.37% 2,736
Weld 21,976 55.35% 16,501 41.56% 922 2.32% 153 0.39% 150 0.38% 5,475 13.79% 39,702
Yuma 2,350 52.20% 2,025 44.98% 95 2.11% 23 0.51% 9 0.20% 325 7.22% 4,502
Total 584,367 54.05% 460,353 42.58% 26,107 2.41% 5,330 0.49% 4,978 0.46% 124,014 11.47% 1,081,135

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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References

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  1. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 159-161 ISBN 0786422173
  2. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  3. ^ Leip, David. "1976 Presidential General Election Results – Colorado". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  4. ^ "Springs Woman Voting For Defeated President". The Gazette. December 13, 1976. p. 1A. Archived from the original on February 6, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 02, 1976