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James Earl Carter, Junior (born October 1, 1924) was the 39th (1977 to 1981) President of the United States, a Democrat. He is better known as Jimmy Carter, and sued for the right to have his name appear on the ballot in that form.

Carter was born in the town of Plains, Georgia. Before entering politics, he was a peanut farmer in Georgia.

Carter's administration is best remembered for the peace treaty brokered between the states of Israel and Egypt with the Camp David Accord, the SALT II treaty brokered with the Soviet Union, and an energy crisis. It is also remembered for the 1979 takeover of the American Embassy in Iran by Iranian militants and the botched attempt to rescue the hostages. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, he announced the Carter Doctrine, according to which the US would not allow any other single power to gain control of the Persian Gulf.

Since losing his bid for re-election, Carter has been involved in a variety of human rights and charitable causes, largely through Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center. Habitat is involved in affordable housing throughout the world and the Carter Center also focuses on world-wide health care including the campaign to eliminate guinea worm disease. Another major focus of his work has been providing election observers to help ensure free and fair elections in a variety of countries. In 2002, Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his human rights and mediation work.

The submarine USS Jimmy Carter (SSN-23) was named on April 27, 1998, making it one of the very few US Navy ships to be named for a living person. (The first was USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70); others include USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), USS Hyman G. Rickover (SSN 709), and USNS Bob Hope (T-AKR-300).)

See also:

• U.S. presidential election, 1976
• U.S. presidential election, 1980

This article is about the US President. For the boxer, see Jimmy Carter (boxer).