Jimmy Carter Transformed More Than the Presidency

Although in office for only one term, Jimmy Carter was a national and international force for almost 50 years. From “Jimmy Who?” to President Carter, from peanut farmer to world peace activist, Carter’s influence was widespread and long-lasting, particularly the impact he had on the presidency as an institution.

Pre-presidency: Carter’s influence on campaigning

Jimmy Carter was a little-known governor when he announced he was running for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. In fact, “Jimmy Who?” was such a common question that Carter used it to introduce himself throughout the campaign. In the wake of what he called “the shame of Watergate,” Carter promoted himself as an outsider, a “peanut farmer from Georgia,” who could dispel the “veils of secrecy [that] seemed to thicken around Washington.” To improve his name recognition, Carter took advantage of a record number of primaries that year, stopping in small towns across the nation to meet people one-on-one. His “success” in the Iowa caucus (he finished second to “uncommitted”) propelled him to the list of front-runners and propelled Iowa to prominence as the place to make or break a presidential campaign. Carter’s ever-present, highly personal approach became a gameplan copied by decades of presidential hopefuls.

The presidency: Carter’s influence on policy

After becoming president, Carter focused a great deal of his domestic policy attention on energy. His words and actions influenced future administrations, foreshadowing the climate change debates to come. Carter regularly addressed the nation about the energy crisis. One of his very first official announcements, made on day two of his presidency, called for “a coherent energy policy” and just two weeks later, in a nationally televised address, he asked Americans to turn down their thermostats. Carter wore a sweater during this speech, sending the message that the White House would lead by example. In the summer of 1979, Carter continued to demonstrate his commitment to energy policy by installing 32 solar panels on the White House West Wing roof, which helped heat water in the household for the next seven years. Over the next four years, Carter consistently tried to focus public attention on the energy crisis, calling it “the moral equivalent of war” and predicting it would get “progressively worse through the rest of this century.”

Carter’s policy-making legacy was even more pronounced in the arena of foreign affairs. Carter came into office promising to follow the moral strength and sense of the nation, a promise at the heart of his inaugural pledge that “our commitment to human rights must be absolute.” Although he did not achieve all his goals, Carter attempted to magnify the issue of human rights around the world and, according to the Miller Center of Public Affairs, his approach “revived a long-dormant practice of presidential mediation in disputes between other nations, something every succeeding chief executive has emulated to varying degrees.” Carter’s most prominent success came with his facilitation of the 1978 Camp David Accords, an agreement signed by Carter, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel, which led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty the following year.

The post-presidency: Carter’s influence on future ex-presidents

Jimmy Carter was a former president longer than any of his predecessors, and he kept very busy in that role for more than 40 years. After losing his bid for re-election, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded the Carter Center at Emory University in Georgia in 1982 to continue their “fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering,” including efforts “to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.” The Carter Center engages in election observation around the world and Carter himself often served as a mediator. In addition, for more than 35 years, the Carters personally volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in the United States and around the world.

In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve conflicts peacefully, advance democracy and human rights, and promote economic and social development. Carter once acknowledged that “I am a better ex-president than I was a president,” and many have agreed. When he presented the Carters with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Bill Clinton said that Carter’s post-presidency work “is truly unparalleled in our nation’s history,” adding that “to call Jimmy Carter the greatest former president in history, as many have . . . does not do justice either to him or to his work.” Carter’s ultimate influence on the presidency may be in setting a very high bar for future former presidents.

In his speech announcing his first presidential campaign, Jimmy Carter said, “Our government can express the highest common ideals of human beings—if we demand of it standards of excellence.” As happens to any president, some of his policies were enacted and many were rejected. But as president and elder statesman, Carter continued to call upon himself and his fellow citizens to have faith in each other to make our highest ideals a reality.

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Claire Jerry is a curator in the Division of Political History, where she specializes in campaign rhetoric.