45 0 3,083,661 739,833 35.91% 8.62% | 4,524,858 3,083,661 52.69% 35.91% Start date November 4, 1980 | |
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The 1980 United States presidential election in California refers to how California participated in the 1980 United States presidential election. California voted for the Republican nominee, the state's former governor Ronald Reagan, in a landslide over the Democratic incumbent, Jimmy Carter. Reagan won his home state by a wide 16.78% margin and carried all but three counties. Among the counties Reagan won was Plumas, the first Republican victory in that county since 1920. Reagan is also the last Republican candidate to carry the counties of Marin and Santa Cruz in a presidential election.
1980 stands as the last election in which California voted more Republican than the United States as a whole. This election indeed constitutes the most Republican California has voted relative to the whole nation since 1928, when anti-Catholic prejudice against Al Smith had a substantial influence; here, it was widely believed that Carter lacked understanding of critical Western issues, most importantly water development.