Jimmy Carter Democratic Ronald Reagan Republican The 1980 United States presidential election in Ohio took place on November 4, 1980.

Because of Ohio's long-time bellwether status, Carter and Reagan campaigned heavily in the state from the start of the presidential primaries.

[3] Despite the coldness with which the incumbent President was received on his first visit to Columbus, Carter did gain a critical victory over challenger Ted Kennedy in Ohio's presidential primary on June 4, owing to his dominance of Ohio's heavily Appalachian rural counties[4] plus the endorsement of both Buckeye State Senator John Glenn[5] and Cleveland's Plain Dealer newspaper.

[6] In the earliest polls after the nominations were settled, Reagan was slightly ahead of Carter,[7] and from midsummer the GOP nominee targeted Ohio as part of his strategy of appealing to industrial workers in the Northeast and Great Lakes region.

[10] However, after the challenger being ahead for the first half of the fall – although never by an irreversible margin – by mid-October Ohio was seen as close because Reagan was not gaining so much support from industrial workers as he had hoped in August,[11] with voters simply debating “which candidate they liked least”.