See main article: 1980 United States presidential election.
| Election Name: | 1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts |
| Country: | Massachusetts |
| Type: | presidential |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1976 United States presidential election in Massachusetts |
| Previous Year: | 1976 |
| Next Election: | 1984 United States presidential election in Massachusetts |
| Next Year: | 1984 |
| Election Date: | November 4, 1980 |
| Image1: | Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981-cropped.jpg |
| Nominee1: | Ronald Reagan |
| Party1: | Republican Party (United States) |
| Home State1: | California |
| Running Mate1: | George H. W. Bush |
| Electoral Vote1: | 14 |
| Popular Vote1: | 1,057,631 |
| Percentage1: | 41.90% |
| Nominee2: | Jimmy Carter |
| Party2: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| Home State2: | Georgia |
| Running Mate2: | Walter Mondale |
| Electoral Vote2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 1,053,802 |
| Percentage2: | 41.75% |
| Image3: | John B. Anderson in New Jersey (cropped).jpg |
| Nominee3: | John B. Anderson |
| Party3: | Anderson Coalition |
| Colour3: | DDDDBB |
| Home State3: | Illinois |
| Running Mate3: | Patrick Lucey |
| Electoral Vote3: | 0 |
| Popular Vote3: | 382,539 |
| Percentage3: | 15.15% |
| Map Size: | 401px |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Jimmy Carter |
| Before Party: | Democratic Party (United States) |
| After Election: | Ronald Reagan |
| After Party: | Republican Party (United States) |
The 1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 4, 1980, as part of the 1980 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. By an exceptionally narrow margin, Massachusetts was carried by the Republican nominee, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, over incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter of Georgia. Also contesting the state was independent candidate Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, 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 since the Civil War, and the smallest since Kennedy won Hawaii by 115 votes in that state's inaugural presidential election two decades previously. The only smaller percentage margins since have been Florida (537 votes or 0.009%) and New Mexico (361 votes or 0.061%) in the controversial 2000 election, and Missouri in 2008, which John McCain won by 3,903 votes or 0.1343%.
To date, this is the last time that the towns of Belmont, Heath, Hull, Lexington, Lincoln, Swampscott, Truro, Warwick, and Wellfleet have voted Republican.
| 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 |
| 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[3] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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[4] | Ronald Reagan Republican | Jimmy Carter Democratic | John B. Anderson Anderson Coalition | Ed Clark Libertarian | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| data-sort-type="number" | data-sort-type="number" | % | data-sort-type="number" | data-sort-type="number" | % | data-sort-type="number" | data-sort-type="number" | % | data-sort-type="number" | data-sort-type="number" | % | data-sort-type="number" | data-sort-type="number" | % | data-sort-type="number" | data-sort-type="number" | % | ||||||||||
| 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 since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960. In 1972, Massachusetts was the only state in the nation to vote for Democrat George McGovern over Republican Richard 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 Senator Ted Kennedy (brother of the late President John 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 of Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.
Another major contributing factor to Reagan's win in Massachusetts was the strong independent candidacy of John Anderson, a liberal 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 in New England who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration and viewed Reagan as too far to the right. In 1976, 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 carrying Dukes County, which cast only its third-ever Democratic vote in 1980, after 1964 and 1976. 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.[5]
While Reagan nationally won a convincing victory in the electoral college, Massachusetts would be his narrowest win, with the state being about ten percent more Democratic than the national average.[6] As of 2023, this election marks only the third and last time (after 1852 and 1972) that Massachusetts has not voted for the same candidate as neighboring Rhode Island.