The 1976 United States presidential election in Tennessee was held on November 2, 1976. The Democratic Party candidate, former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter won the state of Tennessee with 56% of the vote against Republican Party candidate, President Gerald Ford, carrying the state's 10 electoral votes.
As of the 2024 presidential election, this was the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won more than 50% of the vote in Tennessee or carried the state by a double-digit margin. This was also the last presidential election until 2020 that the Democratic nominee won over 60% of the vote in Davidson County, home to Nashville.
This is also the last election in which Williamson County, Sullivan County, Madison County, Hamblen County, Cumberland County, McMinn County, Loudon County, Monroe County, Rhea County, and Chester County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. In addition, despite landslide victories statewide in previous elections, this would be the first time Wayne County would vote for the Republican nominee by less than 16 points since Samuel J. Tilden's victory in the county, as well as the closest any Democratic candidate running for president would get to winning there since Reconstruction.
Background
From 1966 to 1972, the Republicans won Tennessee in the presidential elections, both of the state's seats in the United States Senate, the governorship, and increased its membership in the U.S. House to four of the state's nine seats. However, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Ray Blanton won in the 1974 election.
Campaign
Carter won Tennessee and the Democratic nominee won in the concurrent senatorial election. Among white voters, 51% supported Carter while 48% supported Ford.
Primary elections
Democratic primary
Jimmy Carter easily won Tennessee in the 1976 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
Republican primary
Gerald Ford narrowly won the popular vote in the 1976 Tennessee Republican presidential primary, but Ronald Reagan won the majority of Tennessee's delegates.
Results
Results by county
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
- Anderson
- Bedford
- Benton
- Bledsoe
- Campbell
- Cannon
- Carroll
- Cheatham
- Chester
- Claiborne
- Clay
- Coffee
- Crockett
- Cumberland
- Davidson
- Decatur
- DeKalb
- Dickson
- Dyer
- Fayette
- Fentress
- Franklin
- Gibson
- Giles
- Grundy
- Hamblen
- Hardeman
- Hardin
- Haywood
- Henry
- Hickman
- Humphreys
- Lake
- Lauderdale
- Lawrence
- Lewis
- Lincoln
- Loudon
- Madison
- Marion
- Marshall
- Maury
- McMinn
- McNairy
- Meigs
- Monroe
- Montgomery
- Moore
- Morgan
- Morgan
- Obion
- Overton
- Polk
- Putnam
- Rhea
- Roane
- Robertson
- Rutherford
- Sequatchie
- Shelby
- Smith
- Sullivan
- Sumner
- Tipton
- Trousdale
- Van Buren
- Warren
- Weakley
- White
- Williamson
- Wilson
Results by congressional district
In Tennessee Jimmy Carter won 6 out of the 8 congressional districts, including one that elected a republican, while Ford won the other two.