Jimmy Carter, who was born James Earl Carter Jr., was born October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. Jimmy’s father, Earl, was a farmer and a business man, and his mother Lillian, was a registered nurse. Jimmy attended Plains public schools growing up, and in 1941 he was the first person on his father’s side to graduate high school. …show more content…
Even though Carter had made great strides to get known in the political world, he was probably the least well known of all the candidates. In the wake to Watergate, Carter ran with many mottos besides “I’ll never tell a lie”. A few of his other mottos were; I 'll never avoid a controversial issue." Another of his pithy campaign slogans was “A Leader, For a Change." These themes hit home with an electorate feeling betrayed by its own government during the Watergate scandal.” (Biography 2015). With those blocks of foundation, Carter was able to gain the trust of the Democratic party and won the nomination in July 1976, Senator Walter Mondale from Minnesota was chosen as his running mate. Carter was up against Gerald Ford, who was Nixon’s vice president, but had stepped into presidency after Nixon’s resignation. Carter had a strong lead against Ford, but had started to slip once some interviews had started to leak. “Most prominently, in an interview with Playboy, Carter admitted to committing adultery "in his heart" and made several other glib remarks about sex and infidelity that alienated many voters.” (Biography 2015). Seems all to familiar with the presidential election of 2016, will history repeat itself? Nevertheless Carter did prevail in the November elections, and was able to secure 51 percent of the popular votes and 297 of the electoral votes, to become the 39th