Jimmy Carter of racial segregation and support the growing civil rights movement. He became an activist within the Democratic Party. From 1963 to 1967, Carter served in the Georgia State Senate, and in 1970, he was elected as Governor of Georgia, defeating former Governor Carl Sanders in the Democratic primary on an anti-segregation platform advocating affirmative action for ethnic minorities. Carter remained as governor until 1975. Despite being a dark horse candidate little-known outside of Georgia at the start of the campaign, Carter won the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination. In the general election, Carter ran as an outsider and narrowly defeated incumbent
Jimmy Carter judicial appointment controversies and Ralph Wilson Nimmons, Jr., subsequently were nominated by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush or Bill Clinton to federal district judgeships. Also, another of the 16, Walter Meheula Heen, was given a recess appointment to his district judgeship by Carter and as a result served as a federal judge for close to a year into the presidency of Reagan, who chose not to renominate and seek a full Senate vote on Heen. The failed Carter district court nominees: Jimmy Carter judicial appointment controversies During President Jimmy Carter's presidency, he nominated four people for four different federal appellate judgeships