Gerald Ford Ronald Reagan From January 21 to June 28, 1980, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 1980 United States presidential election.

Retired Hollywood actor and two-term California governor Ronald Reagan was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the Republican National Convention held from July 14 to 17, 1980, in Detroit, Michigan.

High gas prices, economic stagflation, a renewed Cold War with the Soviet Union following the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iran hostage crisis that developed when Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran all contributed to a general dissatisfaction with Carter's presidency; his job approval rating sank to below 20 percent in late-1979 as a result.

Consequently, the president faced stiff Democratic primary challenges from Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and California Governor Jerry Brown.

George H. W. Bush, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and chairman of the Republican National Committee, did go to all the "cattle calls", and began to come in first at a number of these events.

Worried that a newspaper-sponsored debate might violate electoral regulations, Reagan subsequently arranged to fund the event with his own campaign money, inviting the other candidates to participate at short notice.

Reagan also called for a drastic cut in "big government" and pledged to deliver a balanced budget for the first time since 1969.