Data refurbished from a 1978 Iowa opinion poll shows that Iowans admired most of President Jimmy Carter’s family, with only his brother, Billy Carter, being overwhelmingly disliked. This data stems from Iowa Poll #229, which randomly sampled 600 Iowans in March of 1978 and was restored by Iowa Policy and Opinion Lab members last fall. 

The question asked “rate the following members of the Carter family in terms of how much you admire each of them”, including Jimmy Carter himself, his mother Lillian, his wife Rosalynn, his daughter Amy, his brother Billy, and his sister Ruth. Respondents were prompted to rank their admiration of each member, with “0” being the lowest admiration and “5” being the highest.

President Carter, his mother, and his daughter all received an average score of about 3, suggesting that Iowans leaned towards higher admiration about them. Both of President Carter’s siblings earned scores less than 3, with his sister Ruth getting an average score of 2.5 and his brother, Billy, receiving the lowest score, around 1.6. First Lady Rosalynn had the highest level of admiration, with an average response of 3.5. 

Iowa Poll #229, conducted by the Des Moines Register, was administered to a random sample of Iowans in March 1978. In addition to the questions about the Carter family, the survey asked respondents their opinions on a wide variety of topics, including whether taxes were too high, the creation of an independent Palestinian state, LGBTQ+ individuals holding different positions, and entertainment consumption. Understanding Iowans’ past opinions on these topics can help us understand how perspectives have changed and what ideas have remained popular. IPOL has also been working with UI Libraries and the Des Moines Register to restore data from dozens of Iowa Polls from the 1960s to early 1980s. More information about the project can be found here. We are working to release a full report on our findings as we analyze additional questions.