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 Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. Polls of historians and political scientists usually rank Carter as an average president, often receiving more positive evaluations for his post-presidential work. In 2012, Carter surpassed Herbert Hoover as the longest-retired president in U.S. history and in 2017 became the first president to mark the 40th anniversary of his inauguration. He is currently the oldest and earliest serving of all living U.S. presidents. He established the Carter Center in 1982 to promote and expand human rights. He has traveled extensively to conduct peace negotiations, monitor elections, and advance disease prevention and eradication in developing nations. Carter