George Wallace - Democratic Presidential Primaries of 1976

Democratic Presidential Primaries of 1976

In November 1975, Wallace announced his fourth bid for the presidency. Ronald Reagan entered the Republican race the same month. Wallace's campaign was plagued by voter concern about his health as well as the media use of images that portrayed him as nearly helpless. His supporters complained that such coverage was motivated by bias, citing the discretion used in coverage of Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralysis, before television became commercially available. In the southern primaries and caucuses, Wallace carried only Mississippi, South Carolina and his home state of Alabama. If the popular vote in all primaries and caucuses were combined, Wallace would have placed third behind Jimmy Carter and California Governor Jerry Brown. After the primaries were completed, and he had lost several Southern primaries to former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter, Wallace left the race in June 1976. He eventually endorsed Carter, who faced the Republican incumbent Gerald R. Ford, Jr., who narrowly defeated Reagan for the GOP nomination. Wallace later claimed that he had facilitated a fellow southerner's nomination; however, no position advocated by Wallace was included in the 1976 Democratic platform.