Chapter 9

Aiming High

Two years after Jimmy became governor, his advisors began asking him what he wanted to do next. At the time, Georgia law allowed a governor to serve only four years. His advisors said, “We think you should run for president.” Jimmy had been thinking the same thing. He decided he was ready for the challenge, but he didn’t announce his decision for another two years.

He began writing his autobiography, Why Not the Best? It was one way to introduce himself to America’s voters. The autobiography began with stories of his boyhood in Archery and ended with his plans for the presidency. He also began studying subjects that he thought might help him as president: foreign affairs, the economy, energy, and American history. He read the biographies of past presidents to learn how to make good decisions and avoid bad ones.

Jimmy Carter’s friendliness, honesty, and small-town values appealed to voters.

Once a month, Jimmy met with his advisors to discuss his campaign, but he didn’t stop working as Georgia’s governor. He knew that his record as a good governor would help him get elected. In a way, running for president made it easier for him to take bold steps. In February 1974, he hung a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. in the state capitol building. Even though protestors marched outside, Jimmy joined the crowd inside the capitol singing “We Shall Overcome,” a song to protest racial discrimination.

On December 16, 1974, Jimmy Carter stood in Atlanta before a crowd of three thousand cheering supporters and announced his decision to run for president. His campaign officially began when his term as governor ended on January 13, 1975.

In an early television interview, Jimmy said he enjoyed tackling difficult problems, and he talked about why he was running for president. Jimmy hoped to bring his values to government and to make the United States a nation of peace. He felt it was wrong to send troops into another country — unless that country was directly threatening the United States. “We don’t have to show that we are strong. We are strong,” Jimmy declared. “I want to see us once again have a nation that is as good and honest and decent and truthful and confident and compassionate and as filled with love as all the American people.”

On the campaign trail

Jimmy’s first goal was to win the Democratic Party Primary. He had eighteen months to convince the Democratic Party to choose him as their candidate for president. Unlike other candidates, who were still in office as senators or governors, Jimmy could spend all his time running for president. His family helped. They usually traveled separately so they could meet more people in distant places, like New Hampshire, Iowa, Florida, and South Dakota.

When Jimmy’s oldest son, Jack, finished law school in June, he joined the campaign. So did his wife, Judy. However, Judy took a few weeks off in August to give birth to Jason, their first son, and Jimmy Carter’s first grandson. At the time, Jimmy was in Boston appearing on a morning talk show. The show’s host handed him a cigar and announced the birth to the world. Jimmy Carter was now a grandpa!

Campaigning in the 1970s was different from the way it is today. There were no cell phones, so it was not easy for the family to stay in touch. There was no Internet. No one could text or tweet or blog about their favorite candidate. Jimmy Carter couldn’t conduct an interview on Facebook. Television news was limited to about thirty minutes a day. There were no twenty-four-hour-a-day television news channels. People relied on newspapers and radio.

Jimmy Carter and his family traveled by car, bus, train, and plane. They went to newspaper and radio stations, hoping to get interviewed. They stayed in the homes of ordinary people who had an extra room and were willing to share their supper. They stayed with rich and poor people in big cities and small towns. They got to know the problems facing all kinds of people in all kinds of places. What worried people? What did they expect their next president to do for them?

In 1975, Jimmy Carter stayed with fifty-one different families. Some of them were poor. Jimmy later said, “I was embarrassed when some people were so poor, to impose on them.” But staying in homes built up a group of strong supporters in many states. They told their friends about Jimmy, and the friends told more friends. Support grew. After Jimmy was elected, he invited everyone who had hosted him or his family in their homes to come to the White House. Almost eight hundred people came! The Carters thanked them for their help and gave them small brass plaques: “A member of Jimmy Carter’s family slept here.”

On Saturday afternoons, the Carters returned to Plains and shared their experiences. They talked about what concerned the voters, and they made sure that they were all giving the same answers about important issues. Returning to Plains also gave Jimmy a much-needed break. Reporters got to see a different side of Jimmy Carter. One time, reporters watched him drain the dammed-up pond on his mother’s property. Another time he played baseball with reporters and went fishing with Rosalynn.

During the presidential campaign, Jimmy started his day between four and five in the morning. He went to factories, stood by the door, and shook hands with workers leaving the night shift or beginning the day shift. He gave interviews on radio and TV and met with newspaper reporters. One supporter said, “Jimmy Carter outworked everyone. He’s tireless.” Carter himself said, “I can get up at nine and be rested or I can get up at six and be president.”

New Hampshire

The New Hampshire primary happens early in the presidential race and gets lots of television and newspaper attention. Carter’s supporters began to work early in New Hampshire. Chip Carter and his wife, Caron, moved to New Hampshire to campaign. They lived in a large house in Concord with lots of rooms for Carter volunteers. They called it Camp Carter.

Volunteers from Georgia paid their own expenses and went door-to-door telling people why Jimmy Carter deserved their support. No other candidate had ever done this sort of thing. People were amazed by the efforts of this group, who called themselves the Peanut Brigade. In one January week, the Peanut Brigade knocked on the doors of eighteen thousand Democratic households. The Peanut Brigade made a huge difference. Robert Curren, a New Hampshire Democrat commented, “If that many people thought that much about him to come all the way up here, then he must be a good man.”

When Rosalynn arrived in New Hampshire, people greeted her carrying signs that said:

WIN WITH A GRIN

HEAL THE NATION WITH PEANUT OIL

PUT AMY’S DADDY IN THE WHITE HOUSE

LET’S CARTERIZE THE COUNTRY

WE LOVE YOU JIMMY AND ROSALYNN

Carter won in New Hampshire.