1976

Reading the 1976 result in Montana

Montana backed Ford (Republican) in the 1976 presidential election, casting 4 electoral votes for the ticket. Nationally the result broke the other way — Jimmy Carter (Democratic) won the presidency, leaving Montana among the states he did not carry.

It marked the 3rd consecutive election in which Montana backed the Republican party, a streak reaching back to 1968. Montana did not move alone — neighboring Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota broke the same way in 1976. Across the 34 presidential elections Montana has taken part in, it has most often sided with the Republican party (22 times). The vote fell within the Cold War Realignment — Nixon, Reagan, and the Republican South.

In the national count, Jimmy Carter took 297 of the 538 electoral votes, against Gerald Ford's 240. Jimmy Carter led the national popular vote with 50.08% of the ballots cast.