The 1976 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 2, 1976. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1976 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.
Utah was won by incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford over the Democratic nominee, Jimmy Carter. Ford took 62.44% of the vote in the state, while Carter took 33.65%, making Utah around 31% more Republican than the nation in the 1976 election.
Utah was Ford's strongest state in the nation in terms of percentage of the vote, although unlike in Vermont, Ford didn't win every county in Utah. For a presidential candidate who lost the election nationwide, Ford won a record 27 states, a record which stands to this day, but Utah was the only state where Ford broke 60% of the vote statewide. Carter won the election nationwide, and despite the election solidifying Utah's place within the core of the Republican heartland (which it retains to this day), 1976 stands as the last occasion where a Democrat has carried Emery County,Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016 where Carter obtained a fifty-four vote plurality win. After Nixon's clean sweep of all twenty-nine counties in 1972, Carter would also win Carbon County with 59.39% of the vote, but Ford won absolute majorities in all twenty-seven remaining Utah counties, with his total vote ranging from 50.34% in Tooele County to 72.50% in Kane County.1976 Presidential General Election Data Graphs – Utah by County Ronald Reagan would repeat Nixon's 1972 clean sweep in both his elections, and no county in Utah except Carbon and Tooele would ever vote against a Republican until 2008.
Results
Results by county County Gerald FordRepublican Jimmy CarterDemocratic Thomas AndersonAmerican Eugene McCarthyIndependent Roger MacBrideLibertarian Other candidatesVarious parties Margin Total votescast # % # % # % # % # % # % # % Beaver 1,088 52.41% 963 46.39% 10 0.48% 6 0.29% 4 0.19% 5 0.24% 125 6.02% 2,076 Box Elder 9,319 69.02% 3,353 24.84% 729 5.40% 45 0.33% 34 0.25% 21 0.16% 5,966 44.18% 13,501 Cache 16,636 71.73% 5,430 23.41% 752 3.24% 246 1.06% 67 0.29% 63 0.27% 11,206 48.32% 23,194 Carbon 3,360 38.70% 5,157 59.39% 86 0.99% 34 0.39% 33 0.38% 13 0.15% -1,797 -20.69% 8,683 Daggett 217 59.45% 131 35.89% 14 3.84% 3 0.82% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 86 23.56% 365 Davis 31,216 66.28% 14,084 29.90% 1,052 2.23% 374 0.79% 226 0.48% 145 0.31% 17,132 36.38% 47,097 Duchesne 2,619 65.77% 1,110 27.88% 242 6.08% 8 0.20% 1 0.03% 2 0.05% 1,509 37.89% 3,982 Emery 1,717 47.13% 1,771 48.61% 106 2.91% 27 0.74% 13 0.36% 9 0.25% -54 -1.48% 3,643 Garfield 1,163 65.48% 539 30.35% 51 2.87% 11 0.62% 6 0.34% 6 0.34% 624 35.13% 1,776 Grand 1,781 62.38% 931 32.61% 62 2.17% 42 1.47% 26 0.91% 13 0.46% 850 29.77% 2,855 Iron 4,757 69.62% 1,700 24.88% 270 3.95% 55 0.80% 36 0.53% 15 0.22% 3,057 44.74% 6,833 Juab 1,290 51.58% 1,091 43.62% 92 3.68% 15 0.60% 9 0.36% 4 0.16% 199 7.96% 2,501 Kane 1,094 72.50% 330 21.87% 73 4.84% 8 0.53% 4 0.27% 0 0.00% 764 50.63% 1,509 Millard 2,484 62.68% 1,224 30.89% 218 5.50% 17 0.43% 9 0.23% 11 0.28% 1,260 31.79% 3,963 Morgan 1,356 62.95% 701 32.54% 78 3.62% 9 0.42% 3 0.14% 7 0.32% 655 30.41% 2,154 Piute 377 55.85% 265 39.26% 24 3.56% 3 0.44% 5 0.74% 1 0.15% 112 16.59% 675 Rich 541 67.12% 248 30.77% 13 1.61% 2 0.25% 2 0.25% 0 0.00% 293 36.35% 806 Salt Lake 144,100 60.35% 86,659 36.29% 3,796 1.59% 2,122 0.89% 1,321 0.55% 780 0.33% 57,441 24.06% 238,777 San Juan 1,856 57.60% 1,182 36.69% 143 4.44% 23 0.71% 11 0.34% 7 0.22% 674 20.91% 3,222 Sanpete 3,683 62.06% 1,925 32.43% 275 4.63% 31 0.52% 13 0.22% 8 0.13% 1,758 29.63% 5,935 Sevier 3,686 65.24% 1,564 27.68% 357 6.32% 15 0.27% 20 0.35% 8 0.14% 2,122 37.56% 5,650 Summit 2,316 61.55% 1,282 34.07% 77 2.05% 61 1.62% 23 0.61% 4 0.11% 1,034 27.48% 3,763 Tooele 4,657 50.34% 4,371 47.25% 127 1.37% 47 0.51% 27 0.29% 22 0.24% 286 3.09% 9,251 Uintah 4,017 69.18% 1,342 23.11% 404 6.95% 31 0.53% 16 0.28% 7 0.12% 2,675 46.07% 5,807 Utah 49,328 69.48% 18,327 25.82% 2,604 3.67% 266 0.37% 239 0.34% 207 0.29% 31,001 43.66% 70,993 Wasatch 1,940 61.59% 1,092 34.67% 73 2.32% 26 0.83% 14 0.44% 5 0.16% 848 26.92% 3,150 Washington 5,944 70.64% 1,893 22.50% 467 5.55% 40 0.48% 36 0.43% 34 0.40% 4,051 48.14% 8,414 Wayne 555 59.11% 334 35.57% 34 3.62% 7 0.75% 3 0.32% 6 0.64% 221 23.54% 939 Weber 34,811 58.33% 23,111 38.72% 1,055 1.77% 329 0.55% 230 0.39% 148 0.25% 11,700 19.61% 59,684Totals337,90862.44%182,11033.65%13,2842.45%3,9070.72%2,4380.45%1,5510.29%155,79828.79%541,198
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic Carbon Emery
By congressional district Ford won both congressional districts, including one held by a Democrat. District Ford Carter Representative 67.3% 32.7%K. Gunn McKay 62.8% 37.2%David Daniel Marriott See also United States presidential elections in Utah
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