Election of 1980 Nearing the end of his term, Carter believed that his most critical problem was a vague sense of ill-being in the United States that, he felt, had produced a crisis of ?national will.? The gloom hanging over the administration deepened even further when in 1979 Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced that he would challenge Carter for the Democratic nomination. Party leaders generally supported Carter, however. Claiming that he was needed to watch …showed first 75 words of 371 total…

…showed last 75 words of 371 total…of the vote to 51 percent for the Republicans. The Democrats also lost control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in 26 years. Carter's last major official action was to secure the release of the U.S. hostages in Iran. The 53 Americans were freed on January 20, 1981, the day of Reagan's inauguration. Carter agreed to return Iranian assets in U.S. banks, which he had ordered frozen, and pledged U.S. noninterference in Iran's affairs.