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United States · Election results history · 1980 president · California
Election 1980 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.

1980 presidential election in California

Ronald Reagan (Republican) beat Jimmy Carter (Democrat) in California in 1980, 52.7% to 35.9%, a margin of 16.8 points and 1,441,197 votes.

California voted 7.1 points more Republican than the country as a whole, where the margin was R+9.7.

The Republican hold continued from 1976, when Gerald Ford won.

Republicans led in 55 of the 58 counties as they stood then and Democrats in 3. The largest, Los Angeles, cast 2,440,185 votes and went to the Republican by 10.0 points. The closest was Alpine, where 121 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
Ronald Reagan won Republican 4,524,858 52.7%
Jimmy Carter Democratic 3,083,661 35.9%
John B. Anderson Independent 739,833 8.6%
All other candidates 238,711 2.8%
Total8,587,063

Every county

CountyDemocratRepublicanOthersTotalMargin
Los Angeles 979,830 40.2% 1,224,533 50.2% 235,822 2,440,185 R+10.0
Orange 176,704 22.6% 529,797 67.9% 73,711 780,212 R+45.3
San Diego 195,410 27.3% 435,910 60.8% 85,546 716,866 R+33.5
Santa Clara 166,995 35.0% 229,048 48.0% 80,960 477,003 R+13.0
Alameda 201,720 48.3% 158,531 38.0% 57,366 417,617 D+10.3
Sacramento 130,031 40.4% 153,721 47.7% 38,368 322,120 R+7.4
San Bernardino 91,790 31.7% 172,957 59.7% 25,065 289,812 R+28.0
Contra Costa 107,398 37.3% 144,112 50.1% 36,035 287,545 R+12.8
San Francisco 133,184 52.4% 80,967 31.9% 39,877 254,028 D+20.6
Riverside 76,650 31.5% 145,642 59.9% 20,986 243,278 R+28.4
San Mateo 87,335 36.6% 116,491 48.8% 34,811 238,637 R+12.2
Ventura 56,311 29.5% 114,930 60.3% 19,409 190,650 R+30.7
Fresno 65,254 40.4% 82,515 51.1% 13,617 161,386 R+10.7
Santa Barbara 40,650 31.5% 69,629 54.0% 18,716 128,995 R+22.5
Sonoma 45,596 36.2% 60,722 48.2% 19,667 125,985 R+12.0
Kern 41,097 33.7% 72,842 59.6% 8,182 122,121 R+26.0
San Joaquin 41,551 35.6% 64,718 55.4% 10,594 116,863 R+19.8
Marin 39,231 36.2% 49,678 45.8% 19,598 108,507 R+9.6
Monterey 29,086 33.5% 47,452 54.7% 10,256 86,794 R+21.2
Santa Cruz 32,346 37.7% 37,347 43.5% 16,111 85,804 R+5.8
Stanislaus 33,683 40.0% 41,595 49.4% 8,908 84,186 R+9.4
Solano 30,952 38.4% 40,919 50.7% 8,805 80,676 R+12.4
Tulare 25,155 35.5% 41,317 58.3% 4,374 70,846 R+22.8
San Luis Obispo 20,508 29.5% 38,631 55.6% 10,388 69,527 R+26.1
Butte 19,520 29.6% 38,188 57.9% 8,304 66,012 R+28.3
Placer 17,311 33.7% 28,179 54.8% 5,950 51,440 R+21.1
Yolo 21,527 43.3% 19,603 39.5% 8,560 49,690 D+3.9
Humboldt 17,113 35.1% 24,047 49.4% 7,532 48,692 R+14.2
Shasta 15,364 32.4% 27,547 58.1% 4,507 47,418 R+25.7
Napa 14,898 33.8% 23,632 53.7% 5,505 44,035 R+19.8
Merced 15,886 42.9% 18,043 48.8% 3,067 36,996 R+5.8
El Dorado 10,765 29.5% 21,238 58.3% 4,446 36,449 R+28.7
Mendocino 10,784 38.2% 12,432 44.0% 5,008 28,224 R+5.8
Nevada 7,605 29.0% 15,207 57.9% 3,449 26,261 R+28.9
Imperial 7,961 36.9% 12,068 55.9% 1,550 21,579 R+19.0
Madera 7,783 39.3% 10,599 53.6% 1,398 19,780 R+14.2
Kings 7,299 38.4% 10,531 55.4% 1,191 19,021 R+17.0
Sutter 5,103 27.5% 11,778 63.5% 1,676 18,557 R+36.0
Siskiyou 5,664 33.8% 9,331 55.7% 1,743 16,738 R+21.9
Lake 5,978 35.9% 8,934 53.6% 1,742 16,654 R+17.7
Tuolumne 5,449 33.9% 8,810 54.8% 1,804 16,063 R+20.9
Tehama 4,832 31.3% 9,140 59.1% 1,485 15,457 R+27.9
Yuba 4,896 34.7% 7,942 56.3% 1,273 14,111 R+21.6
Calaveras 3,076 29.9% 6,054 58.9% 1,145 10,275 R+29.0
Amador 3,191 33.0% 5,401 55.9% 1,078 9,670 R+22.9
Glenn 2,227 26.8% 5,386 64.8% 699 8,312 R+38.0
Lassen 2,941 35.9% 4,464 54.5% 793 8,198 R+18.6
Plumas 2,911 35.7% 4,182 51.2% 1,068 8,161 R+15.6
Inyo 2,080 25.9% 5,201 64.8% 746 8,027 R+38.9
San Benito 2,749 36.2% 4,054 53.3% 799 7,602 R+17.2
Del Norte 2,338 33.5% 4,016 57.5% 633 6,987 R+24.0
Mariposa 1,889 33.7% 3,082 55.0% 637 5,608 R+21.3
Trinity 1,734 31.3% 3,048 55.0% 764 5,546 R+23.7
Colusa 1,605 32.1% 2,897 58.0% 493 4,995 R+25.9
Modoc 1,046 26.2% 2,579 64.5% 375 4,000 R+38.3
Mono 865 25.3% 2,132 62.3% 424 3,421 R+37.0
Sierra 651 37.9% 855 49.8% 212 1,718 R+11.9
Alpine 133 28.9% 254 55.1% 74 461 R+26.2

Counties as they stood in 1980; 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