The 1980 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 4, 1980. All fifty states and The District of Columbia were part of the 1980 United States presidential election. Voters chose four electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Maine was won by former California Governor Ronald Reagan (R) by a slim margin of 3%,^[1] carrying fourteen out of sixteen counties. In recent years, however, the state has grown much more liberal, and no Republican presidential nominee has carried it since 1988.^[2]

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1980 United States presidential election in Maine

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Nominee Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter John B. Anderson Party Republican Democratic Independent Home state California Georgia Illinois Running mate George H. W. Bush Walter Mondale Patrick Lucey Electoral vote 4 0 0 Popular vote 238,522 220,974 53,327 Percentage 45.61% 42.25% 10.20%

County Results Congressional District Results Municipality Results Reagan   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Carter   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Tie

President before election Jimmy Carter Democratic Elected President Ronald Reagan Republican

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The already embattled incumbent Democratic president Carter was hurt in the state by the strong third party candidacy of John B. Anderson, a liberal Republican Congressman who ran in 1980 as an independent after failing to win the Republican Party's own presidential nomination. Anderson proved very popular with liberal and moderate voters in New England who normally leaned Democratic but were dissatisfied with the policies of the Carter administration and viewed Reagan as too far to the right. New England overall would prove to be Anderson's strongest region in the nation, with all six New England states giving double-digit percentages to Anderson. However, Maine would prove to be Anderson's weakest state in New England with only 10.20% of the popular vote, whereas all five of the other states in New England gave Anderson over 12% of the popular vote, peaking at 15.15% in Massachusetts.

Along with Michigan, New York, Mississippi and Vermont, Maine was one of the few states in which President Carter won counties that had gone to Ford in the previous presidential election, as Carter flipped Cumberland County. As a result, Reagan was the first Republican to ever win a presidential election without this county. This was the last presidential election in which Hancock County was the most Republican county in Maine.

• United States presidential elections in Maine
• Presidency of Ronald Reagan