The 1980 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 4, 1980, as part of the 1980 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. By an exceptionally narrow margin, Massachusetts was carried by the Republican nominee, former Governor Ronald Reagan of California, over incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter of Georgia. Also contesting the state was independent candidate Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, who won an unexpectedly solid 15.15%, mostly from disaffected Democratic voters.

On election day, Reagan won a plurality of 41.90% of the vote in the state to Carter's 41.75%, with Anderson in third at 15.15%, giving Reagan a razor-thin margin of 0.1517%. This constitutes the fifteenth-smallest percentage margin in any statewide presidential election since the Civil War, (twentieth overall) and the smallest since John F. Kennedy won Hawaii by 115 votes in that state's inaugural presidential election two decades previously. The only smaller percentage margins since have been Florida (537 votes or 0.009%) and New Mexico (361 votes or 0.061%) in the controversial 2000 election, and Missouri in 2008, which John McCain won by 3,903 votes or 0.1343%.

To date, this is the last time that the towns of Belmont, Fairhaven, Heath, Hull, Lexington, Lincoln, Swampscott, Truro, Warwick, and Wellfleet have voted Republican.

Primaries +1980 Democratic PrimaryCandidateVotesDelegatesTed Kennedy590,39381Jimmy Carter (incumbent)260,40136Jerry Brown31,4980No preference19,6630Blank votes16,7710Others5,3680Totals907,314117

+1980 Republican PrimaryCandidateVotesDelegatesGeorge H.W. Bush124,36516John Anderson122,98716Ronald Reagan115,33414Howard Baker19,3660John B. Connally4,7140Philip M. Crane4,6690Robert J. Dole5570Benjamin Fernandez3740Harold Stassen2180No preference2,2430Blank votes5,8070Others5,9790Totals406,63346

Results 1980 United States presidential election in MassachusettsPartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Republican Ronald Reagan 1,057,631 41.90% 14 Democratic Jimmy Carter (incumbent) 1,053,802 41.75% 0 Anderson Coalition John B. Anderson 382,539 15.15% 0 Libertarian Ed Clark 22,038 0.87% 0 Socialist Workers Clifton DeBerry 3,735 0.15% 0 Citizens (Write-in) Barry Commoner (Write-in) 2,056 0.08% 0 Write-ins Write-ins 2,497 0.09% 0 Totals 2,524,298 100.00% 14 Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) 59%/80%

Results by county County Ronald ReaganRepublican Jimmy CarterDemocratic John B. AndersonAnderson Coalition Ed ClarkLibertarian Various candidatesOther parties Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % # % # % Barnstable 41,493 50.43% 23,952 29.11% 15,951 19.39% 567 0.69% 310 0.38% 17,541 21.32% 82,273 Berkshire 27,063 39.78% 29,458 43.30% 10,575 15.54% 740 1.09% 195 0.29% -2,395 -3.52% 68,031 Bristol 77,545 41.12% 83,460 44.25% 25,423 13.48% 1,695 0.90% 482 0.26% -5,915 -3.13% 188,605 Dukes 1,809 33.52% 2,370 43.91% 1,127 20.88% 58 1.07% 33 0.61% -561 -10.39% 5,397 Essex 130,252 43.78% 116,173 39.05% 47,670 16.02% 2,654 0.89% 784 0.26% 14,079 4.73% 297,533 Franklin 12,528 41.59% 11,830 39.27% 5,162 17.14% 336 1.12% 266 0.88% 698 2.32% 30,122 Hampden 72,528 40.36% 80,369 44.72% 24,765 13.78% 1,676 0.93% 382 0.21% -7,841 -4.36% 179,720 Hampshire 21,117 34.99% 27,611 45.75% 10,119 16.77% 656 1.09% 852 1.41% -6,494 -10.76% 60,355 Middlesex 256,999 40.30% 270,751 42.46% 102,180 16.02% 5,200 0.82% 2,549 0.40% -13,752 -2.16% 637,679 Nantucket 1,149 40.49% 1,040 36.65% 614 21.63% 22 0.78% 12 0.46% 109 3.84% 2,838 Norfolk 136,184 44.84% 117,274 38.61% 47,076 15.50% 2,448 0.81% 747 0.25% 18,910 6.23% 303,729 Plymouth 85,593 49.40% 58,772 33.92% 26,510 15.30% 1,952 1.13% 421 0.24% 26,821 15.48% 173,248 Suffolk 73,271 33.89% 113,416 52.46% 26,988 12.48% 1,861 0.86% 671 0.31% -40,145 -18.57% 216,207 Worcester 120,100 43.11% 117,326 42.12% 38,379 13.78% 2,173 0.78% 583 0.21% 2,774 0.99% 278,561Totals1,057,63141.90%1,053,80241.75%382,53915.15%22,0380.87%8,2880.33%3,8290.15%2,524,298

Counties flipped from Democratic to Republican Essex Franklin Norfolk Plymouth Worcester

Analysis With President Carter a greatly weakened incumbent by 1980, Reagan won a comfortable election victory nationwide. Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960. In 1972, Massachusetts was the only state in the nation to vote for Democrat George McGovern over Republican Richard Nixon in his 49-state landslide. However, in 1980 the Democratic Party in Massachusetts was divided and weakened after Carter had been unsuccessfully challenged by Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy (brother of the late President John F. Kennedy) in a bitter primary race which left many liberal voters in the state estranged from the incumbent, thus allowing Reagan to become the first Republican to win Massachusetts’ electoral votes since the landslide re-election of Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Another major contributing factor to Reagan's win in Massachusetts was the strong independent candidacy of John Anderson, a liberal Republican Congressman who ran in 1980 as an independent after failing to win the Republican Party's own presidential nomination. Anderson proved very popular with liberal and moderate voters in New England who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter Administration and viewed Reagan as too far to the right. In 1976, Carter had won Massachusetts with 56% of the vote, however, in 1980 he bled a substantial amount of this support to Anderson, allowing Reagan to eke out a narrow win with only 41.90% of the vote. Nevertheless, Reagan became the first Republican ever to win the White House without carrying Dukes County, which cast only its third-ever Democratic vote in 1980, after 1964 and 1976. With 15.15% of the vote, Massachusetts would prove to be John B. Anderson's strongest state in the nation, and more than double the 6.61% total he received nationwide.

While Reagan nationally won a convincing victory in the electoral college, Massachusetts would be his narrowest win, with the state being about ten percent more Democratic than the national average.Counting the Votes; Massachusetts As of 2024, this election marks only the third and last time (after 1852 and 1972) that Massachusetts has not voted for the same candidate as neighboring Rhode Island.

See also Presidency of Ronald Reagan United States presidential elections in Massachusetts

References

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