ATLANTA — Jimmy Carter held the highest elected office in the country even though he was often the underdog.
As he began his career in politics, Carter’s aim to become a Georgia state senator almost didn’t happen.
In 1962, he ran for a state senate seat in South Georgia.
The initial counting of the ballots showed him losing. But he contested the results, and it was determined there was election fraud. In a new election, he won the seat.
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Carter quickly set his sights on the governor’s office, running in 1966 but losing in the Democratic primary.
“I think probably his biggest disappointment was losing the governor’s race in 1966 because he had been someone who had always through hard work and perseverance had succeeded. And when he lost the race to Maddox, he got in the car with Rosalynn and just drove home and kind of withdrew and it was very, very difficult,” said Hamilton Jordan, Carter’s chief political advisor.
The loss left Carter deep in debt and in despair. But he overcame the setback and tried again, running in 1970 against former Gov. Carl Sanders.
Conventional wisdom said Carter could not win, and early on, Jordan tried to talk Carter out of running.
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“Jimmy, I said, you just don’t have any chance, you should run for Lt. Governor and kind of wait in line and he said, ‘If I don’t get but two votes, mine and Rosalynn’s, hopefully yours, three votes, I’m gonna run for governor of Georgia and I’m gonna be elected governor in 1970.’ And that kind of confidence he had and inspired in other people,” Jordan said.
But Carter’s confidence attracted a group of young Georgians who would help orchestrate his campaign, among them, Atlanta advertising executive Gerald Rafshoon.
“He was the perfect candidate for cinema verité, so to say of sorts, because he was going to 159 counties and talking to people and listening to people,” Rafshoon said.
Carter beat the odds and became governor. In his inaugural address, he surprised many white voters who cast a ballot for him, declaring that the time for racial discrimination was over.
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Carter then set his sights on the presidency. In 1976, he campaigned in Iowa ahead of the caucuses, and Channel 2 Action News was there covering it.
Carter’s extended family and the so-called Peanut Brigade crisscrossed the nation in a grassroots campaign to introduce carter to the country.
“There was always a question is he liberal, is he conservative, is he moderate and that was a very hard question to answer because his key question that he always asked on any issue was is it fair, are we doing the right thing?” Rafshoon said.
On the campaign trail, Carter pledged to always be truthful -- a message many wanted to hear after the Watergate scandal.
“I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement,” Carter promised.
In November 1976, Carter narrowly defeated Gerald Ford and was sworn in as the nation’s 39th president in January 1977.
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