Republican nominee, former California governor Ronald Reagan, defeated incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory.

Meanwhile, the Republican primaries were contested between Reagan, former Central Intelligence Agency director George H. W. Bush, Illinois Representative John B. Anderson, and several other candidates.

Due to the rise of conservatism following Reagan's victory, historians have considered the election a political realignment that began with Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign in 1964.

This election began an ongoing pattern in which Rust Belt states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin voted for the same presidential candidate, with the sole exception of 1988.

[3] Throughout the 1970s, the United States underwent a wrenching period of stagflation (low economic growth, high inflation, and interest rates), and intermittent energy crises.

Dozens of prominent Democratic Party leaders—members of Congress, governors, labor leaders, academics and clergy—were summoned to the mountaintop retreat to confer with the beleaguered president."

Kennedy gave an "incoherent and repetitive"[9] answer to the question of why he was running, and the polls, which showed him leading Carter by 58–25 in August now had him ahead 49–39.

[12] Meanwhile, Carter was given an opportunity for political redemption when the Khomeini regime again gained public attention and allowed the taking of 52 American hostages by a group of Islamist students and militants at the U.S. embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979.

Carter's calm approach towards the handling of this crisis resulted in his approval ratings jump in the 60-percent range in some polls, due to a "rally round the flag" effect.

Reagan dominated the primaries early, driving from the field Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker from Tennessee, former governor John Connally of Texas, Senator Robert Dole from Kansas, Representative Phil Crane from Illinois, and Representative John Anderson from Illinois, who dropped out of the race to run as an Independent.

Reagan won the nomination on the first round at the 1980 Republican National Convention in Detroit, Michigan, in July, then chose Bush (his top rival) as his running mate.

The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks, were listed in published national polls, or had held public office.

The three major Democratic candidates in early 1980 were incumbent President Jimmy Carter, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Governor Jerry Brown of California.

In his acceptance speech, Carter warned that Reagan's conservatism posed a threat to world peace and progressive social welfare programs from the New Deal to the Great Society.

"[79] Carter emphasized his record as a peacemaker, and said Reagan's election would threaten civil rights and social programs that stretched back to the New Deal.

[78] Immediately after the conclusion of the primaries,[date missing] a Gallup poll held that Reagan was ahead, with 58% of voters upset by Carter's handling of the presidency.

[78] However, in the end, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority lobbying group is credited with giving Reagan two-thirds of the white evangelical vote.

[81] According to Carter: "that autumn [1980] a group headed by Jerry Falwell purchased $10 million in commercials on southern radio and TV to brand me as a traitor to the South and no longer a Christian.

[83] Reagan promised a restoration of the nation's military strength, at the same time 60% of Americans polled felt defense spending was too low.

"[78] Reagan also criticized the "windfall profit tax" that Carter and Congress enacted that year in regards to domestic oil production and promised to attempt to repeal it as president.

[78] In August, after the Republican National Convention, Ronald Reagan gave a campaign speech at the annual Neshoba County Fair on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Mississippi, where three civil rights workers were murdered in 1964.

[91] Two days later, Reagan appeared at the Urban League convention in New York, where he said, "I am committed to the protection and enforcement of the civil rights of black Americans.

[84] Inflation, high interest rates, and unemployment continued through the course of the campaign, and the ongoing hostage crisis in Iran became, according to David Frum in How We Got Here: The '70s, a symbol of American impotence during the Carter years.

But it was President Carter's reference to his consultation with 12-year-old daughter Amy concerning nuclear weapons policy that became the focus of post-debate analysis and fodder for late-night television jokes.

A famous political cartoon, published the day after Reagan's landslide victory, showed Amy Carter sitting in Jimmy's lap with her shoulders shrugged asking "the economy?

"[84] Former Democratic Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota (who in 1968 had challenged Lyndon B. Johnson from the left, causing the then-President to all but abdicate) endorsed Reagan.

Carter had appointed Abner J. Mikva, a fervent proponent of gun control, to a federal judgeship and had supported the Alaska Lands Bill, closing 40,000,000 acres (160,000 km2) to hunting.

[140] Ronald Reagan and running mate George H. W. Bush defeated the Carter-Mondale ticket by almost 10 percentage points in the popular vote.

[145] He had the most support in New England, fueled by liberal and moderate Republicans who felt Reagan was too far to the right, and with voters who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the Carter administration's policies.

But the public was aware that Reagan would move the nation in a more conservative direction, and was apparently willing to give it a chance to avoid four more years of Carter.