The tenacious Southerner was turned out of office by disillusioned voters after a single term but he had a brilliant post-presidential career as a champion of health, peace, and democracy.
Jimmy Carter, a no-frills and steel-willed Southern governor who was elected president in 1976, was rejected by disillusioned voters after a single term and went on to an extraordinary post-presidential life that included winning the Nobel Peace Prize, died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son James E. Carter III, known as Chip. He was 100 and the oldest living U.S. president of all time.
Carter’s reelection bid in 1980 was undermined by a bruising primary challenge from Sen. Edward Kennedy. Though Carter won the nomination, his presidency struggled under low approval ratings and the fallout of the Iran hostage crisis. Despite these challenges, his post-presidency years were marked by humanitarian efforts and global advocacy.
His son confirmed the death but did not provide an immediate cause. In a statement in February 2023, the Carter Center said the former president, after a series of hospital stays, would stop further medical treatment and spend his remaining time at home under hospice care. He had been treated in recent years for an aggressive form of melanoma skin cancer, with tumors that spread to his liver and brain.
His wife, Rosalynn, died Nov. 19, 2023, at 96. The Carters, who were close partners in public life, had been married for more than 77 years, the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history.
His final public appearance was at her funeral in Plains, where he sat in the front row in a wheelchair. Carter was last photographed outside his home with family and friends as he watched a flyover on Oct. 1 held to mark his 100th birthday.
The President is survived by his children Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren, according to the Carter Center.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
Carter, a small-town peanut farmer, U.S. Navy veteran, and Georgia governor from 1971 to 1975, was the first president from the Deep South since 1837, and the only Democrat elected president between Lyndon B. Johnson’s and Bill Clinton’s terms in the White House.
As the nation’s 39th president, he governed with strong Democratic majorities in Congress but in a country that was growing more conservative. Four years after taking office, Carter lost his reelection bid, in a landslide, to one of the most conservative political figures of the era, Ronald Reagan.
When he left Washington in January 1981, Carter was widely regarded as a mediocre president, if not an outright failure. The list of what had gone wrong during his presidency, not all of it his fault, was long. It was a time of economic distress, with a stagnant economy and stubbornly high unemployment and inflation.
“Stagflation,” connoting both low growth and high inflation, was a description that critics used to attack Carter’s economic policies. In the summer of 1979, Americans waited in long lines at service stations as gasoline supplies dwindled and prices soared after the revolution in Iran disrupted the global oil supply.
Carter made energy his signature domestic policy initiative, and he had some success, but events outside his control intervened. In March 1979, a unit of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa., suffered a core meltdown. The accident was the worst ever for the U.S. nuclear-energy industry and a severe setback to hopes that nuclear power would provide a safe alternative to oil and other fossil fuels.
Carter’s fortunes were no better overseas. In November 1979, an Iranian mob seized control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans as hostages. It was the beginning of a 444-day ordeal that played out daily on television and did not end until Jan. 20, 1981, the day Mr. Carter left office, when the hostages were released.
In the midst of the crisis, in April 1980, Carter authorized a rescue attempt that ended disastrously in the Iranian desert when two U.S. aircraft collided on the ground, killing eight American servicemen. Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who had opposed the mission, resigned.
“I may have overemphasized the plight of the hostages when I was in my final year,” Mr. Carter said in a 2018 interview. “But I was so obsessed with them personally, and with their families, that I wanted to do anything to get them home safely, which I did.”
Evidence surfaced later suggesting that Republicans intervened with Iran, encouraging the Islamic Republic to hold on the the hostages to benefit the Reagan campaign.
Gary Sick, the Iran expert on President Carter’s National Security Council, wrote a 1991 book called October Surprise, which made the case that there was a deal between the Reagan campaign and Iran.
Ben Barnes, a prominent Democratic politician at the time, waited for 43 years to tell the New York Times he was a witness to Republican efforts to prevent the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran from being freed before Election Day.
Barnes went to the Middle East with former Texas Governor John Connally, to delay the release of American hostages in Iran – and potentially help Ronald Reagan win the presidency. Connally, who was seriously wounded when President Kennedy was assassinated, began his career as a Democrat but he became a Republican in 1973 after President Richard Nixon appointed him as his treasury secretary.
A month after the Iranian hostage crisis erupted, an emboldened Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Carter ordered an embargo of grain sales to the Soviet Union, angering American farmers, and a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, a step that was unpopular with many Americans and was widely seen as weak and ineffectual.
As the years passed, judgment on Carter’s presidency shifted toward a more positive view. He lived to see his record vindicated, with recognition that his presidency encompassed much more than gas lines and the Iran hostage crisis.
Late in his life, two biographies argued that Carter was a more consequential president than widely believed. Jonathan Alter’s 2020 book, His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life, described him as “perhaps the most misunderstood president in American history,” while Kai Bird’s 2021 biography, The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter, highlighted his forward-thinking policies on energy and racial equality. Both books concluded that his reputation as a failed president stemmed from his steadfast commitment to doing what he believed was right, regardless of political consequences.
Carter’s resoluteness was pivotal to achieving the Camp David Accords, a hallmark of his presidency. Over 13 days in 1978, he brokered a historic peace agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, leading to the first Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and a treaty that endures to this day. Begin and Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize that year, while Carter earned the prize in 2002 for his lifetime dedication to peace.
Carter also pursued the Panama Canal treaties, transferred diplomatic recognition to China, and prioritized human rights in U.S. foreign policy. Domestically, he established the Departments of Energy and Education, launched the Superfund for toxic waste cleanup, and enacted the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, doubling the size of national parks and wildlife refuges. In 1979, he installed solar panels on the White House, signaling a commitment to renewable energy decades ahead of its time.
Although his administration faced challenges such as strained congressional relations, inflation, and the Iran hostage crisis, Carter’s legislative record included deregulating the airline and trucking industries and initiating a military buildup that contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.
After leaving office, Carter dedicated over four decades to public service. He and Rosalynn built or renovated over 4,300 homes with Habitat for Humanity. Through the Carter Center, founded in 1982, he promoted democracy, monitored elections in 40 countries, and spearheaded efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease. His freelance diplomacy included mediating international conflicts and advancing human rights.
Carter avoided lucrative opportunities typical for former presidents, instead writing 33 books and living modestly in Plains, Georgia. Despite criticism from conservatives and occasional U.S. policy clashes, he became a global ambassador for peace and democracy. In awarding him the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the committee praised his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts.”
Carter’s presidency was shaped by the historical circumstances of his election, following Nixon’s resignation and Ford’s brief tenure. Campaigning as an outsider, Carter eschewed the trappings of power, signaling a frugal and honest approach to governance. While this style alienated some, it underscored his commitment to integrity and humility.
Despite a sense of farewell in Plains, Jimmy Carter remained active in public life. Five months later, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, he penned a New York Times op-ed condemning “unscrupulous politicians” who incited the mob and perpetuated the lie of a stolen election. Carter urged Americans to reject political violence and embrace civility, warning of the risk of civil conflict and the loss of democracy without immediate action.
James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, where his family farmed in modest but improving conditions. His father, Earl, expanded the farm and ventured into agribusiness, including a peanut warehouse. While often labeled a peanut farmer, Carter became an affluent agribusinessman by the 1960s.
Carter’s Navy career was cut short in 1953 when his father’s death required him to return home and stabilize the family’s finances. He and his wife Rosalynn formed a business partnership, with Rosalynn managing the books and Carter advancing farming techniques. Together, they prospered and remained lifelong partners in all endeavors, including Carter’s political career.
Carter’s entry into politics began in 1962 with a successful campaign for the Georgia Senate, where he built a reputation for diligence.
His 1966 congressional campaign ended in defeat, but it spurred a deep religious transformation, shaping his moral and political vision. By 1970, he successfully ran for governor, adopting progressive racial policies and gaining national attention with his inaugural speech declaring, “The time for racial discrimination is over.”
As governor, Carter appointed more women and minorities to state positions than his predecessors and championed education reforms. In 1976, he launched a presidential campaign, initially underestimated but gaining momentum after the Iowa caucuses. Carter won the presidency by a narrow margin, but his political
vulnerabilities emerged early. His approval ratings plummeted during his presidency, exacerbated by economic challenges and political strife.