[2] In the wake of the Watergate scandal, the declining popularity of President Ford due to his pardon of Nixon, and the severe 1973–1975 recession, many Democrats were sure of victory in the 1976 presidential election.

[7] Carter, after getting a sufficient number of delegates to be the nominee, shortlisted six possible vice presidential candidates and finally selected Mondale of Minnesota.

[10] The Carter campaign used various television advertisements that promised to bring back integrity and trust in the government after the Watergate scandal.

The League of Women Voters decided to conduct debates between the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, to which both the campaigns agreed.

He contested the Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1966 but lost the race to Ellis Arnall, coming in third place.

Carter had the support of many regular Democrats, such as former representative Carl Vinson, Senator Richard B. Russell, and Governor Maddox.

[22] Carter called for an end to busing as a means to control racial segregation in public and private schools, believing that to win the election he would have to get the votes of whites who were uneasy about integration.

[27] Although he achieved success in protecting the environment and in getting increased funding for schools, his ability to cooperate with Democratic politicians in the legislature is often regarded as wanting, and gained him a reputation as an arrogant governor with a "holier than thou" attitude.

[32] As the Georgia state constitution barred him from running for a second term as governor, Carter announced his candidacy for president on December 12, 1974.

As a planner and a businessman, and a chief executive, I know from experience that uncertainty is also a devastating affliction in private life and in government.

[35]Initially, many political experts gave Carter little chance of winning the Democratic nomination, because he was little-known outside Georgia,[34] His opponents mocked his candidacy by saying, "Jimmy, who?".

[37] In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, the declining popularity of President Ford due to his pardon of Nixon, and the severe recession of 1974–75, many Democrats were sure of victory in the presidential election.

Apart from Carter, early candidates included Mo Udall, George Wallace, Jerry Brown, Frank Church, Henry M. Jackson, and Sargent Shriver.

[38] There was speculation about the potential candidacy of former vice president and presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey[39] and Senator Ted Kennedy.

[43] After that, Carter won most of the caucuses and primaries, with an exception being Jerry Brown winning 204 delegates from his home state of California.

The early count in the Wisconsin primary showed Udall leading, but eventually Carter won that state.

[47] Southern rock groups like The Allman Brothers Band, with whom Carter had a personal relationship, hosted campaign fundraisers during the primaries.

[49] By the end of primaries, Carter had received 39.19% of the popular vote, Brown 15.39%, Wallace 12.29%, Udall 10.13%, Jackson 7.13%, Church 5.22%, and the rest under 5%.

[7] Notably, Barbara Jordan became the first African-American woman to deliver the keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.

[51] In his acceptance speech, Carter referred to the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal and said: Each time our nation has made a serious mistake the American people have been excluded from the process.

The tragedy of Vietnam and Cambodia, the disgrace of Watergate, and the embarrassment of the CIA revelations could have been avoided if our government had simply reflected the sound judgement and good common sense and the high moral character of the American people.

It is time for us to take a new look at our own government, to strip away the secrecy, to expose the unwarranted pressure of lobbyists, to eliminate waste, to release our civil servants from bureaucratic chaos, to provide tough management, and always to remember that in any town or city the mayor, the governor, and the.

[52]Carter, after getting a sufficient number of delegates to be the nominee, shortlisted six possible vice presidential candidates, which included senators Walter Mondale, Edmund Muskie, John Glenn, Frank Church, Adlai Stevenson III, and Henry "Scoop" Jackson.

[8] Carter said that his ticket could bring "the national vigor, vision, aggressive leadership, and a president who feels your pain, shares your dream and takes his strength, wisdom, and courage from citizens".

[53] The convention energized the Democratic base and gave the Carter-Mondale ticket a bounce in the polls, from 53% to 62% preference among registered voters.

[65] Reagan said that "We [Republicans] must go forth from here united, determined, that what a great general said a few years ago is true: There is no substitute for victory."

"[67] In some of his commercials, Carter campaigned for reforming the welfare system and to stop giving benefits to those who refuse jobs when they're offered to them.

[69] National Education Association chief John Ryor said that about 7,000 representatives from his 1.8 million-member organization voted more than 4-to-1 to endorse the Carter-Mondale ticket over Ford-Dole.

[71] During a rally, Rosalynn Carter criticized President Ford for building a wall around himself by not answering questions in public.

[78] Carter was interviewed by Robert Scheer of Playboy for the November 1976 issue, which hit the newsstands a couple of weeks before the election.