On Dec. 29, 2025, President Jimmy Carter passed away at the age of 100. Despite living for a century very few people know what he did during his presidency and afterward.
Jimmy Carter was born in Plains, Georgia where he helped his family work on their peanut farm. He then met his wife Rosalynn and joined the U.S. Marines and served his country for seven years.
After his service was over, he decided to start his political career and ran as a Democrat in the Georgia Senate in 1962 and 1964. After serving two terms in the Senate, he decided to run for governor in 1970.
As governor Jimmy Carter began pushing for more inclusion for Black people and pushed many progressive issues at the time. Using his popularity from his time as governor he decided to run against President Gerald Ford who was still hurting from the Watergate Scandal that his original running mate President Richard Nixon was connected to. Using this momentum Jimmy Carter won and became the 34th President of the United States.
Once Jimmy Carter became president his administration had a tough time getting bills passed through Congress, labeling his administration as a failure. A place where Jimmy Carter was able to find success was in his foreign affairs ability. Jimmy Carter gave the Panama Canal back to Panama, as well as managed a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.
While his foreign affairs work was great for his presidency the economy was hurting badly, and the American people saw his presidency as a failure. Inflation started rising and was not slowing down, this led to one of the biggest electoral landslides in Jimmy Carter losing to President Ronald Regan.
After his presidency, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter started The Carter Foundation in which they
would build houses for the less fortunate, and help push for peace specifically in Africa, the Middle East, and North Korea.
Jimmy Carter was a progressive president and did many great things both in and out of his time in office. Due to some miscalculations and the rising conservative movement, many see Jimmy Carter as a failure of a president. However, looking at the good he did for so many people is important to truly see who Jimmy Carter was outside the presidency.
