Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter dead at 100

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter died Sunday, confirmed by his family to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Washington Post. He was 100 years old.

Born James Earl Carter, Jr., in Plains, Georgia, on October 1, 1924, the Democrat pursued state politics before he was elected to one term in the White House, where he served as the 39th president between 1977 and 1981.

Carter’s mother was a nurse, and his father was a businessman and farmer who grew peanuts, cotton, sugar and corn. The National Park Service currently oversees the Carter family farm as part of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, which is open to visitors.

Carter attended public school in his hometown before enrolling in Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He ultimately graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for seven years.

Once his time at the academy was completed, Carter married Rosalynn Smith, who later became the first lady during Carter’s time in office. The couple had three sons and one daughter and would be married for 77 years, the longest marriage in presidential history.

Carter first decided to pursue a career in politics in the early 1960s, when he was elected to the Georgia Senate. He launched his first gubernatorial campaign ahead of the 1966 election and lost, but went on to win his second bid for governor four years later, becoming the state’s 76th elected leader and serving from January 1971 through January 1975.

After a brief time overseeing the Democratic National Committee, Carter announced his intention to run for president in late 1974. He defeated incumbent Republican Gerald Ford with 297 electoral votes to Ford’s 240, with former Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale joining the new Democratic administration as Carter’s vice president.

Mondale died in 2021 at 93. In a statement Carter released at the time, he remembered Mondale as “the best vice president in our country’s history” and a “dear friend.”

While president, Carter was credited with encouraging a peace agreement in the Middle East that ultimately resulted in the Camp David Accords, which the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State described as “historic.” The White House archives lists the Panama Canal treaties and an agreement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union restricting nuclear weapon production as some of Carter’s biggest victories overseas. In the U.S., Carter pursued deregulation in a handful of industries, including energy and transportation, and pushed for new environmental protections. The U.S. Department of Education also launched during his time in office.

Carter’s presidency is often remembered by the Iran hostage crisis and struggles at home as the U.S. faced an economic downturn. A White House Historical Association overview of Carter’s administration credited the hostage crisis—which continued for more than a year and didn’t end until Carter’s final day as president—with impacting the Democrat’s unsuccessful bid for re-election.

Carter lost the 1980 election with 41 percent of the popular vote and just 49 electoral college votes. He was succeeded by Republican Ronald Reagan.

Shortly after leaving the White House, Carter established The Carter Center in Atlanta with his wife and in collaboration with Emory University. The former first lady was Carter’s “full partner” in their efforts at the nonprofit and was continuing her work by chairing its Mental Health Task Force as of January, according to her co-founder page on the organization’s website.

The Carter Center was created “on a fundamental commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering” and describes its continuing mission as seeking “to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health.”

In 2002, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Carter was its choice for the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” At the time of the announcement, the committee recognized Carter’s work on the Camp David Accords while he was president, as well as his efforts in protecting democratic elections overseas and defending human rights through the Carter Center.

More recently, Carter continued voicing his positions on voting rights in his own country as a slew of states weighed the implementation of new election-related restrictions. In March 2021, Carter criticized his home state’s legislature for pursuing election-related legislation that he said seemed “to be rooted in partisan interests, not in the interests of all Georgia voters.”

“As our state legislators seek to turn back the clock through legislation that will restrict access to voting for many Georgians, I am disheartened, saddened, and angry,” Carter said at the time.

Two months later, the Carters were visited at their home in Georgia by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden. Carter had previously congratulated Biden on his win in the 2020 election through a statement in which he and Rosalynn said they both “look forward to seeing the positive change they bring to our nation.”

In the years before his death, and following a series of hospital stays, Carter began hospice care at home, opting to spend his remaining time surrounded by family. Rosalynn, who was also in hospice care at their Georgia home following a diagnosis of dementia, died in November 2023.

Carter is survived by his four children, Jack, James, Donnel and Amy, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This is a developing news story and will be updated with more information.