Former President Jimmy CarterPhoto: Getty Images
CONCORD, N.H. (WBZ NewsRadio) — New Hampshire has been a longtime proving ground for politicians hoping to make the national stage, and it was no different for former President Jimmy Carter.
The nation’s 39th president died Sunday at the age of 100 with a prolific career and Nobel Peace Prize under his belt. But during the 1976 Democratic presidential primary, he was a fresh face to a nation still reeling from the Watergate scandal.
Carter, a former naval officer and peanut farmer from Georgia, was relatively unknown in national politics. He served in the Georgia State Senate, and then served as governor of Georgia from 1971-1975, leaving office a short time after he announced his presidential campaign. About a year later, it was his win in the New Hampshire that put him on the national map.
Jean, a Concord resident, remembers voting for Carter.
“He was a peanut farmer from Georgia,” Jean, from Concord, said. “He was a relative unknown. But he resonated with people because he was just like you and I.”
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Jean said Carter was an unexpectedly “dynamic person” on the campaign trail.
“Very personable, very down to earth, and his wife was very lovely,” she said.
Margie from Concord said she was a little too young to be dialed into politics in 1976, but does remember the buzz generated by Carter’s campaign in New Hampshire.
“Kind of a big deal in our family,” she said.
Anne lived in Connecticut at the time and said she “went to one of his campaign stops in Hartford.”
“It was the first presidential election that I voted in,” she said. “Those things are linked in my head.”
Carter also won the New Hampshire Democratic primary four years later in 1980, beating out Sen. Ted Kennedy. But he ultimately lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan in the general election, including a decisive victory for Reagan in the Granite State.
WBZ NewsRadio's Shari Small (@ShariSmallNews) reports.