Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide.

Republicans picked up seats in both chambers of Congress and won control of the Senate, though Democrats retained a majority in the House of Representatives.

This marks the most recent of four occasions where a newly elected president entered office with a divided legislature, which also occurred in 1860, 1876, and 1884.

[3] Events such as the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan played a large role in the 1980 elections.

Reagan received the highest number of electoral votes ever won by a non-incumbent presidential candidate.

Though Democrats won the nationwide popular vote by 2.6 percentage points, Republicans gained 34 seats.