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United States · Election results history · 1976 president · California
Election 1976 Results

Each election opens in its own mode: the forecast before the votes are counted, the live count while races are still too close to call, and the results once every race is decided.

1976 presidential election in California

Gerald Ford (Republican) beat Jimmy Carter (Democrat) in California in 1976, 49.3% to 47.6%, a margin of 1.8 points and 139,960 votes.

California voted 3.8 points more Republican than the country as a whole, where the margin was D+2.1.

The Republican hold continued from 1972, when Richard Nixon won.

Republicans led in 31 of the 58 counties as they stood then and Democrats in 27. The largest, Los Angeles, cast 2,459,077 votes and went to the Democrat by 1.9 points. The closest was Siskiyou, where 10 votes separated the two parties.

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Early projection, based on early and incomplete polling: the likely matchups, each weighted by the betting markets' odds of both nominations, not a result. Each county is its 2024 presidential margin moved by its state's projected swing; set a national vote and every state, district and county moves by the same amount from our projection. Colours run in 100 steps from a safe Republican to a safe Democratic margin. Boundaries: US Census Bureau.

Result

CandidatePartyVotesShare
Gerald Ford won Republican 3,882,244 49.3%
Jimmy Carter Democratic 3,742,284 47.6%
All other candidates 242,589 3.1%
Total7,867,117

Every county

CountyDemocratRepublicanOthersTotalMargin
Los Angeles 1,221,893 49.7% 1,174,926 47.8% 62,258 2,459,077 D+1.9
Orange 232,246 35.3% 408,632 62.2% 16,555 657,433 R+26.8
San Diego 263,654 41.6% 353,302 55.7% 16,839 633,795 R+14.1
Santa Clara 208,023 46.9% 219,188 49.5% 15,927 443,138 R+2.5
Alameda 235,988 57.9% 155,280 38.1% 16,413 407,681 D+19.8
Sacramento 144,203 52.3% 123,110 44.6% 8,563 275,876 D+7.6
San Francisco 133,733 52.1% 103,561 40.3% 19,594 256,888 D+11.7
Contra Costa 123,742 48.2% 126,598 49.3% 6,194 256,534 R+1.1
San Mateo 102,896 44.4% 117,338 50.6% 11,507 231,741 R+6.2
San Bernardino 109,636 47.9% 113,265 49.5% 5,984 228,885 R+1.6
Riverside 96,228 48.5% 97,774 49.2% 4,556 198,558 R+0.8
Ventura 68,529 44.1% 82,670 53.2% 4,201 155,400 R+9.1
Fresno 74,958 49.7% 72,533 48.1% 3,314 150,805 D+1.6
Santa Barbara 55,018 45.9% 60,922 50.8% 3,904 119,844 R+4.9
Kern 50,567 45.6% 58,023 52.3% 2,371 110,961 R+6.7
Sonoma 50,353 47.5% 50,555 47.7% 5,044 105,952 R+0.2
Marin 43,590 42.9% 53,425 52.5% 4,700 101,715 R+9.7
San Joaquin 48,733 48.1% 50,277 49.6% 2,351 101,361 R+1.5
Monterey 36,849 46.0% 40,896 51.0% 2,408 80,153 R+5.0
Santa Cruz 37,772 51.1% 31,872 43.1% 4,325 73,969 D+8.0
Stanislaus 38,448 52.3% 32,937 44.8% 2,080 73,465 D+7.5
Solano 33,682 54.6% 26,136 42.4% 1,826 61,644 D+12.2
Tulare 25,551 43.7% 31,864 54.5% 1,027 58,442 R+10.8
Butte 24,203 44.1% 28,400 51.8% 2,251 54,854 R+7.7
San Luis Obispo 24,926 45.9% 27,785 51.2% 1,587 54,298 R+5.3
Humboldt 23,500 54.2% 18,034 41.6% 1,838 43,372 D+12.6
Yolo 23,533 54.3% 18,376 42.4% 1,408 43,317 D+11.9
Placer 21,026 52.2% 18,154 45.0% 1,131 40,311 D+7.1
Napa 18,048 44.9% 20,839 51.8% 1,318 40,205 R+6.9
Shasta 19,200 50.7% 17,273 45.6% 1,381 37,854 D+5.1
Merced 16,637 51.7% 14,842 46.1% 729 32,208 D+5.6
El Dorado 12,763 48.8% 12,472 47.7% 919 26,154 D+1.1
Mendocino 10,653 49.5% 9,784 45.5% 1,072 21,509 D+4.0
Imperial 10,244 48.2% 10,618 49.9% 400 21,262 R+1.8
Nevada 7,926 47.0% 8,170 48.4% 785 16,881 R+1.4
Kings 8,061 48.4% 8,263 49.7% 318 16,642 R+1.2
Sutter 6,966 43.2% 8,745 54.2% 420 16,131 R+11.0
Madera 7,625 51.2% 6,844 46.0% 423 14,892 D+5.2
Siskiyou 7,060 48.3% 7,070 48.4% 485 14,615 R+0.1
Tehama 6,990 51.3% 6,110 44.8% 535 13,635 D+6.5
Tuolumne 6,492 49.9% 6,104 46.9% 407 13,003 D+3.0
Lake 6,374 51.9% 5,462 44.5% 449 12,285 D+7.4
Yuba 6,451 52.5% 5,496 44.7% 338 12,285 D+7.8
Amador 4,037 50.3% 3,699 46.1% 282 8,018 D+4.2
Glenn 3,501 45.0% 4,094 52.7% 178 7,773 R+7.6
Calaveras 3,607 47.9% 3,695 49.1% 226 7,528 R+1.2
Lassen 3,801 54.3% 3,007 43.0% 190 6,998 D+11.3
Inyo 2,635 39.3% 3,905 58.2% 166 6,706 R+18.9
San Benito 3,122 46.7% 3,398 50.9% 160 6,680 R+4.1
Plumas 3,429 52.2% 2,884 43.9% 250 6,563 D+8.3
Del Norte 2,789 50.9% 2,481 45.3% 208 5,478 D+5.6
Colusa 2,340 45.2% 2,733 52.7% 109 5,182 R+7.6
Trinity 2,172 49.9% 1,989 45.7% 195 4,356 D+4.2
Mariposa 2,093 48.5% 2,012 46.6% 212 4,317 D+1.9
Modoc 1,733 46.3% 1,917 51.2% 94 3,744 R+4.9
Mono 1,025 37.7% 1,600 58.8% 96 2,721 R+21.1
Sierra 841 53.4% 680 43.1% 55 1,576 D+10.2
Alpine 189 42.3% 225 50.3% 33 447 R+8.1

Counties as they stood in 1976; some have since been split, merged or renamed. Margin: the Democrat's share of all votes minus the Republican's. Sources and how the results were checked.

California in every presidential election we hold

YearWinnerMargin
2024 Kamala Harris (D) D+20.1
2020 Joe Biden (D) D+29.2
2016 Hillary Clinton (D) D+30.1
2012 Barack Obama (D) D+23.1
2008 Barack Obama (D) D+24.1
2004 John Kerry (D) D+9.9
2000 Al Gore (D) D+11.8
1996 Bill Clinton (D) D+12.9
1992 Bill Clinton (D) D+13.4
1988 George H. W. Bush (R) R+3.6
1984 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.2
1980 Ronald Reagan (R) R+16.8
1976 Gerald Ford (R) R+1.8
1972 Richard Nixon (R) R+13.5
1968 Richard Nixon (R) R+3.1
1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (D) D+18.3
1960 Richard Nixon (R) R+0.5
1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+11.1
1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (R) R+14.6
1948 Harry S. Truman (D) D+0.4
1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+13.5
1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+16.1
1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+35.3
1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) D+21.0
1928 Herbert Hoover (R) R+30.5
1924 Calvin Coolidge (R) R+49.0
1920 Warren G. Harding (R) R+41.9
1916 Woodrow Wilson (D) D+0.4
1912 Theodore Roosevelt (other)
1908 William Howard Taft (R) R+22.5
1904 Theodore Roosevelt (R) R+34.9
1900 William McKinley (R) R+13.2
1896 William McKinley (R) R+0.6
1892 Grover Cleveland (D) D+0.1
1888 Benjamin Harrison (R) R+2.8
1884 James G. Blaine (R) R+6.6
1880 Winfield Scott Hancock (D) D+0.1
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (R) R+1.8
1872 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+13.3
1868 Ulysses S. Grant (R) R+0.5