Peanuts. Simple legumes with a wide range of uses: Peanut butter, peanut brittle, protein bars and simply on their own with salt. Though unremarkable, it’s hard to deny the longevity of the humble peanut as an enduring snack food. Something that people go to time and time again as a reliable staple. In that regard, the humble peanut and Jimmy Carter aren’t so different.
Following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, Jimmy Carter, a humble Georgia peanut farmer, began reconsidering an entrance into politics. Though Carter had long been in favor of racial integration, he’d avoided any strong positions to avoid making enemies in the still very-much Jim Crow state of Georgia. However, after the Baker v. Carr ruling, which releveled the political playing field, Carter felt comfortable with the idea of running for any political office.
So, on October 1, 1962, his birthday of the same year, he drove to his local newspaper and had his candidacy announced for the Georgia state senate. Just 15 days later, the news came out that, by 136 votes, Jimmy Carter had lost. However, Carter noticed a discrepancy between the amount of registered voters and the number of total votes received. In Quitman County, 360 people had voted for his opponent, Homer Moore. Trouble was, there were more ballots than there were registered voters in the county.
As it turned out, the party boss in the region, Joe Hurst, had attempted to fix the election in Moore’s favor. In the pursuing investigation, Carter’s lawyer, one Charles Kirbo, impounded the ballot box, in which a rubber-banded roll of ballots had been shoved inside haphazardly. A judge overturned the results, and in the following recast, Carter won by a healthy margin. In just over two weeks time, he’d gone from a political unknown, to a state senator.
Him being a dark horse candidate was something that would be echoed 12 years later. Following another stint in the state senate, an unsuccessful gubernatorial run in 1966 and a stint as governor of Georgia, Carter opted against reelection. Instead, beginning to form a campaign for the 1976 Presidential cycle.
His opponent at the time, incumbent President Gerald Ford, had taken a public beating in popularity following his decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon of any wrongdoing during the Watergate Scandal. Even two years after the fact, the bitter taste still lingered on. Carter, seizing on his position as a dark horse candidate, campaigned heavily on the fact he was a “Washington-outsider.” Via careful management of his image as a simple Georgia peanut farmer, he ended up seizing the Democratic nomination. “I voted for him,” said retired nurse and Delaware resident Annie Ralph. “He was a very respected President.”
He won with 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240 and led by just under 1.7 million in the popular vote. Interestingly, both parties lost one electoral vote to another unlikely candidate: Ronald Reagan. The former California governor and Hollywood movie star had been slowly building his own political reputation out west. It would prove prophetic in 1980. Carter’s time in office was most notable for the work done in foreign relationships. Among some of the most well-known examples are the Camp David Accords of 1978, the returning of the Panama Canal to Panama and the second in a line of nuclear desecration treaties, SALT II. The latter most was notably never ratified, with both the Soviet Union and United States choosing to follow it out in the interest of not provoking one another.
However, the tail end of his time serving as the chief-executive was plagued with conflict. In 1979, off the back of 66 Americans being taken hostage by the Iranians, he stopped all imports of petroleum from Iran, severely limiting supply within the United States. This, in combination with the still felt damages from the OPEC oil crisis of just a few years prior, led to a spike in price and another series of shortages.
“I remember the gas crisis which I always associated with him,” said Karl von Valtier, Chair of the Delaware County Republican Club East. “But his defining political crisis was the Iran Hostages, at least in my mind.”
The damage done to the Carter administration’s image was more than substantial. His perceived failure to free the hostages crippled his already dwindling popularity, leading to a massive defeat in the 1980 elections. Reagan would end up winning with an electoral landslide of 489 votes, while Carter secured only 49. Carter also lost heavily in the popular poll, by a margin of nearly 8.5 million voters.
Following the 1980 election, Carter wouldn’t merely fade into obscurity. Instead, both Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn threw themselves at humanitarian work, notably deciding to work with Habitat for Humanity. After working on a housing project in 1984, the Carters came to see the value in the project, forming a long-lasting relationship with Habitat known as the Carter Work Project. The project operates in 14 countries and has built just under 4,500 homes. Carter’s 100th birthday was marked by another 30 homes being constructed.
Additionally, the husband-wife duo started the Carter Foundation in 1982. The Foundation works in conflict resolution and mediation, health advocacy and health education, with a heavy focus on the extermination of the Guinea Worm. Carter still remains an active advocate for these causes, giving support to the idea that he’s a better humanitarian then he was a president.
Regarding Carter’s unwavering altruism, President Joe Biden said that, “[Carter’s] unwavering belief in the power of human goodness continues to be a guiding light for all of us.”
If anyone was deserving of securing the achievement of becoming America’s first centenarian president, even against unlikely odds, it’s a humble peanut farmer from Georgia named Jimmy Carter.
On the 38th President’s longevity, von Valtier said that, “It’s good that he’s living to a ripe old age. We all hope we can do that.”
And so he did. Here’s to November, Mr. President.