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When it was over, Reagan had won a projected 51% of the popular vote and an overwhelming 44 states, with the staggering total of 489 electoral votes. Carter took 41% of the popular ballot and a mere six states, with 49 electoral votes (Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Rhode Island, West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia).
Moreover, Reagan carried Republicans to victory—or perhaps Carter dragged Democrats to defeat—around the country. The Republicans took control of the Senate for the first time in 26 years and made substantial gains in the House, creating more conservative chambers for the Reagan Administration and knocking out of office some key Democratic stalwarts. The voters who cast their ballots for a President-elect who has pledged to reverse the tone and direction that have prevailed in Washington for almost half a century also retired such noted liberal Democratic Senators as Birch Bayh in Indiana, George McGovern in South Dakota, Frank Church in Idaho and John Culver in Iowa. Even Washington's Warren Magnuson, a fixture in the Senate since 1944 and No. 1 in seniority among all 100 Senators, went down to defeat. In the House, powerful Ways and Means Chairman Al Ullman got the ax, as did Indiana's John Brademas, the majority whip.
Reagan's triumph dismembered the old Democratic coalition. Jews, labor-union members, ethnic whites, big-city voters—all gave Reagan far more votes than they usually cast for a Republican. The disaster left the Democratic Party, which has held the presidency for 32 of the 48 years since 1932, badly in need of a new vision and a new agenda.
Though the dimensions of the landslide were totally unexpected, both camps knew from their polling in the final days that the momentum was swinging to the challenger. The debate completed the process of certifying Reagan in the public mind as an acceptable President, and the hostage news seemed to remind voters of all their frustrations with the state of the country and Carter's performance as President.
On election eve, calling on all his skill in the medium he uses best, Reagan delivered a superbly moving half-hour TV speech. He called a roll of patriotic heroes from John Wayne to the three astronauts killed in a launch-pad accident, asked the voters "Are you happier today than when Mr. Carter became President?" and said, in relation to the U.S. role in the world, "at last the sleeping giant stirs and is filled with resolve—a resolve that we will win together our struggle for world peace." It was the kind of speech hardly another living politician would have been able to bring off, but Reagan did magnificently—and not least because it was evident it is what he profoundly believes about America and its rightful world role.