The 1976 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 2, 1976. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1976 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose twelve electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

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1976 United States presidential election in Virginia

← 1972 November 2, 1976 1980 →

Nominee Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter Party Republican Democratic Home state Michigan Georgia Running mate Bob Dole Walter Mondale Electoral vote 12 0 Popular vote 836,554 813,896 Percentage 49.29% 47.96%

County and Independent City Results Ford   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Carter   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70-80%

President before election Gerald Ford Republican Elected President Jimmy Carter Democratic

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Virginia had voted Republican at all but one of the previous six presidential elections, largely due to its large white Washington and Richmond suburbs that received large-scale in-migration from the Northeast,^[1] alongside the Shenandoah Valley,^[2] being amongst the first traditionally Democratic areas of the former Confederacy to turn Republican at both the presidential level and in federal congressional elections.^[3] After the collapse of the Byrd Organization and the expansion of the state's formerly small electorate via the Voting Rights Act, these trends intensified except in the heavily unionised coalfields of Southwest Virginia, where unlike elsewhere in the Confederacy, many newly registered poor whites voted Democratic. The statewide Democratic party was severely divided into conservative, moderate and liberal factions,^[4] so that in addition to voting Republican in five of six presidential elections, Virginia's Congressional delegation would gain a Republican majority as early as the 91st Congress, although it was 1970 before significant GOP gains occurred in the state legislature.

It was generally acknowledged that President Nixon offered no support to down-ballot Republican candidates,^[5] but the division in the state Democrats was so bad that they did not nominate a candidate for governor in 1973 — with most of the party supporting populist Henry Howell.^[6] However, the Democrats did regain a dozen seats in the state legislature in 1975.

Carter did do relatively well in many rural sections of Virginia – for instance he is the solitary Democratic presidential nominee to top forty percent in traditionally arch-Republican Floyd County since Grover Cleveland in 1892. As of the 2020 presidential election^[update], this is the last occasion a Democratic presidential nominee has carried Amelia County, Bedford County, Botetourt County, Charlotte County, Cumberland County, Fluvanna County, Gloucester County, Goochland County, Grayson County, Halifax County, King George County, New Kent County, Nottoway County, Patrick County, Prince George County, Rappahannock County, Rockbridge County, Scott County, Spotsylvania County, Warren County, Bristol City and Salem City, while Stafford County would not vote for the Democratic nominee again until 2020.^[7] It is also the last occasion Virginia voted to the left of Connecticut, Illinois, Vermont or Washington state.

During the fall campaign, Virginia was the scene of debates between Carter and Ford in the third week of October. They would have their final debate of the whole campaign at the College of William and Mary.^[8]

56% of white voters supported Ford while 40% supported Carter.^[9][10] Virginia was the only southern state to support Ford.^[11]