1976 United States presidential election in Colorado

The 1976 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 2, 1976, as part of the 1976 United States presidential election. Voters chose seven representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1976 United States presidential election in Colorado

November 2, 1976

Nominee Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Party Republican Democratic Home state Michigan Georgia Running mate Bob Dole Walter Mondale Electoral vote 7 0 Popular vote 584,367 460,353 Percentage 54.05% 42.58%

County Results Ford   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Carter   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70-80%

President before election Gerald Ford Republican Elected President Jimmy Carter Democratic

Colorado was won by incumbent President Gerald Ford (R–Michigan) with 54.05% of the popular vote, against Jimmy Carter (D–Georgia), with 42.58% of the popular vote. Like most of the Mountain West, Colorado was comfortably in Ford's column; Colorado was Ford's ninth-best state overall (and one of only nine which he won by double digits). Ford held Carter's margin in the city of Denver to 2.8%, and rolled up large margins in the suburban Denver-area counties of Jefferson and Arapahoe. He also ran well in Boulder County, at the time a traditionally Republican county; he would be the last Republican apart from Reagan in his 1984 landslide to win a majority in the county. Despite the large national swing in favor of the Democrats, Ford even took back Pitkin County, which had supported McGovern in 1972.

Nevertheless, Carter showed some strength in some rural parts of Colorado that later Democrats would fail to replicate. As of the 2020 presidential election, this was the last occasion on which Dolores County, Prowers County, Phillips County, and Cheyenne County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[1][2]

None of the third-party candidates amounted to a significant portion of the vote, but Eugene McCarthy (I–Minnesota) won 2.41% of the popular vote, proportionally significantly ahead of his national 0.91%.

Despite losing in Colorado, Carter went on to win the national election and became the 39th president of the United States. Colorado had previously voted Republican fifteen times, Democratic nine times, and Populist once (for James B. Weaver in 1892).[3]

Results

1976 United States presidential election in Colorado

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Gerald Ford (inc.)	584,367	54.05%
	Democratic	Jimmy Carter	460,353	42.58%
	Independent	Eugene McCarthy	26,107	2.41%
	Libertarian	Roger MacBride	5,330	0.49%
	Colorado Prohibition	Benjamin Bubar	2,882	0.27%
	Socialist Labor	Peter Camejo	1,126	0.10%
	U.S. Labor	Lyndon LaRouche	567	0.05%
	Communist	Gus Hall	403	0.04%
Total votes			1,081,135	100%

Results by county

County	Gerald Rudolph Ford[4] Republican		James Earl Carter[4] Democratic		Eugene Joseph McCarthy[4] Independent		Roger Lea MacBride[4] Libertarian		Various candidates[4] Other parties		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Rio Blanco	67.24%	1,439	29.30%	627	2.66%	57	0.61%	13	0.19%	4	37.94%	812
Hinsdale	66.55%	189	29.23%	83	3.87%	11	0.35%	1	0.00%	0	37.32%	106
Douglas	65.54%	5,078	31.74%	2,459	2.09%	162	0.49%	38	0.14%	11	33.80%	2,619
Mesa	65.44%	17,924	32.15%	8,807	1.98%	541	0.27%	74	0.16%	44	33.29%	9,117
Gunnison	61.88%	2,568	30.12%	1,250	6.27%	260	0.72%	30	1.01%	42	31.76%	1,318
Eagle	64.18%	2,963	32.53%	1,502	2.40%	111	0.74%	34	0.15%	7	31.64%	1,461
Ouray	62.50%	645	32.27%	333	4.75%	49	0.39%	4	0.10%	1	30.23%	312
Arapahoe	63.45%	63,154	33.85%	33,685	1.76%	1,748	0.45%	449	0.49%	490	29.61%	29,469
Custer	62.39%	491	32.91%	259	3.43%	27	0.89%	7	0.38%	3	29.48%	232
Grand	61.77%	1,703	33.01%	910	4.10%	113	0.80%	22	0.33%	9	28.76%	793
Rio Grande	62.37%	2,627	35.02%	1,475	2.09%	88	0.33%	14	0.19%	8	27.35%	1,152
Larimer	60.72%	32,169	35.87%	19,005	2.56%	1,356	0.56%	297	0.29%	156	24.85%	13,164
Jefferson	60.44%	87,080	36.64%	52,782	2.18%	3,141	0.53%	770	0.21%	300	23.81%	34,298
Summit	58.15%	1,826	34.62%	1,087	5.29%	166	1.15%	36	0.80%	25	23.54%	739
Jackson	60.83%	455	37.30%	279	1.87%	14	0.00%	0	0.00%	0	23.53%	176
Garfield	59.74%	4,699	36.26%	2,852	2.83%	223	0.52%	41	0.65%	51	23.48%	1,847
La Plata	59.05%	6,228	36.44%	3,843	2.96%	312	0.62%	65	0.94%	99	22.61%	2,385
El Paso	59.13%	50,929	38.21%	32,911	1.83%	1,574	0.62%	530	0.22%	186	20.92%	18,018
Delta	58.82%	4,980	38.17%	3,232	2.29%	194	0.41%	35	0.31%	26	20.64%	1,748
Montrose	58.42%	4,838	38.20%	3,164	2.66%	220	0.23%	19	0.50%	41	20.21%	1,674
Montezuma	57.99%	3,002	38.50%	1,993	2.94%	152	0.39%	20	0.19%	10	19.49%	1,009
Moffat	55.68%	2,099	38.49%	1,451	3.18%	120	0.80%	30	1.86%	70	17.19%	648
Teller	55.93%	1,410	39.11%	986	3.73%	94	0.95%	24	0.28%	7	16.82%	424
Chaffee	56.66%	2,925	39.98%	2,064	2.29%	118	0.35%	18	0.72%	37	16.68%	861
Mineral	55.56%	235	39.48%	167	4.73%	20	0.24%	1	0.00%	0	16.08%	68
Park	55.24%	1,034	39.58%	741	3.58%	67	0.69%	13	0.91%	17	15.65%	293
Clear Creek	55.36%	1,477	40.07%	1,069	3.00%	80	0.34%	9	1.24%	33	15.29%	408
Pitkin	53.61%	2,955	39.80%	2,194	5.52%	304	0.83%	46	0.24%	13	13.81%	761
Weld	55.35%	21,976	41.56%	16,501	2.32%	922	0.39%	153	0.38%	150	13.79%	5,475
Routt	54.13%	2,822	40.86%	2,130	4.09%	213	0.75%	39	0.17%	9	13.27%	692
San Juan	53.77%	221	40.63%	167	5.11%	21	0.24%	1	0.24%	1	13.14%	54
Boulder	52.71%	42,830	40.96%	33,284	5.23%	4,252	0.69%	558	0.40%	329	11.75%	9,546
Alamosa	53.51%	2,599	42.25%	2,052	3.69%	179	0.31%	15	0.25%	12	11.26%	547
Crowley	54.90%	834	43.91%	667	0.92%	14	0.13%	2	0.13%	2	10.99%	167
Archuleta	53.63%	768	44.13%	632	2.03%	29	0.07%	1	0.14%	2	9.50%	136
Morgan	53.34%	4,603	44.01%	3,798	1.58%	136	0.23%	20	0.83%	72	9.33%	805
Lincoln	53.46%	1,276	44.37%	1,059	1.97%	47	0.17%	4	0.04%	1	9.09%	217
Logan	53.32%	4,256	44.39%	3,543	1.75%	140	0.28%	22	0.26%	21	8.93%	713
Elbert	52.72%	1,279	44.02%	1,068	2.64%	64	0.54%	13	0.08%	2	8.70%	211
Washington	52.63%	1,440	44.26%	1,211	2.23%	61	0.58%	16	0.29%	8	8.37%	229
Sedgwick	53.06%	902	45.47%	773	1.24%	21	0.18%	3	0.06%	1	7.59%	129
Yuma	52.20%	2,350	44.98%	2,025	2.11%	95	0.51%	23	0.20%	9	7.22%	325
Fremont	52.44%	5,647	45.38%	4,886	1.62%	174	0.27%	29	0.30%	32	7.07%	761
Kit Carson	52.28%	1,888	45.61%	1,647	1.63%	59	0.28%	10	0.19%	7	6.67%	241
Kiowa	52.59%	598	46.53%	529	0.70%	8	0.09%	1	0.09%	1	6.07%	69
Baca	51.97%	1,303	46.43%	1,164	1.12%	28	0.40%	10	0.08%	2	5.54%	139
Otero	51.54%	4,597	46.17%	4,118	0.81%	72	0.21%	19	1.28%	114	5.37%	479
Saguache	49.50%	1,094	47.92%	1,059	2.31%	51	0.05%	1	0.23%	5	1.58%	35
Lake	48.03%	1,575	47.24%	1,549	2.71%	89	0.79%	26	1.22%	40	0.79%	26
Cheyenne	48.15%	610	49.33%	625	1.74%	22	0.63%	8	0.16%	2	-1.18%	-15
Phillips	48.12%	1,142	49.43%	1,173	2.02%	48	0.29%	7	0.13%	3	-1.31%	-31
Denver	46.73%	105,960	49.50%	112,229	2.38%	5,386	0.49%	1,105	0.91%	2,058	-2.76%	-6,269
San Miguel	43.83%	622	47.50%	674	7.47%	106	0.99%	14	0.21%	3	-3.66%	-52
Dolores	45.61%	343	49.73%	374	3.46%	26	0.80%	6	0.40%	3	-4.12%	-31
Bent	46.61%	1,156	51.13%	1,268	1.57%	39	0.16%	4	0.52%	13	-4.52%	-112
Prowers	46.13%	2,578	51.20%	2,861	1.02%	57	0.16%	9	1.49%	83	-5.06%	-283
Adams	45.30%	35,392	51.90%	40,551	2.07%	1,618	0.53%	416	0.19%	150	-6.60%	-5,159
Conejos	44.65%	1,426	53.16%	1,698	1.41%	45	0.22%	7	0.56%	18	-8.52%	-272
Gilpin	41.19%	451	51.42%	563	5.39%	59	1.28%	14	0.73%	8	-10.23%	-112
Pueblo	41.06%	18,518	57.29%	25,841	1.26%	568	0.27%	120	0.12%	56	-16.24%	-7,323
Huerfano	37.35%	1,182	61.04%	1,932	1.20%	38	0.22%	7	0.19%	6	-23.70%	-750
Las Animas	36.45%	2,615	62.15%	4,459	1.14%	82	0.11%	8	0.15%	11	-25.70%	-1,844
Costilla	26.96%	392	71.05%	1,033	1.10%	16	0.14%	2	0.76%	11	-44.09%	-641

References

1. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 159-161 ISBN 0786422173
2. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
3. Leip, David. "1976 Presidential General Election Results – Colorado". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
4. Our Campaigns; CO US President, November 02, 1976