DOT PADGETT: JIMMY CARTER ELECTED PRESIDENT (01/27/24)
About the Author
Dorothy "Dot" Padgett organized the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign effort known as the Peanut Brigade. Forty years later she wrote a book about it, Jimmy Carter, Elected President with Pocket Change and Peanuts, telling the story of an army of loyal supporters, friends, neighbors, and elected officials who joined the Carter campaign across the country knocking on doors, standing at factory gates, walking streets, asking voters to vote for Jimmy Carter for President. Padgett’s eyewitness account tells the story in an earthy, honest, and often humorous southern voice.
During the Carter administration (1977-1981), the former PTA volunteer, served as chief of Protocol in the State Department. Still active at 96, she is a member of the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Metropolitan Mental Health Association and is a Life Member of the Carter Center Board of Councilors.
She lives in historic Douglasville, GA (her hometown) where she serves as an advisor to the American Chestnut Tree Restoration project in Douglas County.
About the Book
How does a peanut farmer become Governor of Georgia and President of the United States? Only in America could such a story be true. As a small child, Jimmy Carter set his sights on the United States Naval Academy. After graduation in 1946, he married Rosalynn Smith, and six years later, Carter followed the brilliant Captain Hyman G. Rickover into the uncharted waters of the Navy’s nuclear submarine program. When Carter left the Navy, he returned with his young family to the fields of the family farm in Plains, Georgia.
Not satisfied with the climate of injustice he witnessed in his daily life, Carter sought a political career and was elected state senator in 1962 and again in 1964. He successfully won the 1970 campaign for Governor of Georgia. In 1975, Carter announced he would run for President. Under the new Federal Election Laws only $21.8 million would be provided for the General Election Campaign. A trivial amount compared to future campaigns.
An army of loyal supporters, friends, neighbors, and elected officials, known as the Peanut Brigade, joined the campaign. They traveled across the country, joining Jimmy and Rosalynn, knocking on doors, standing at factory gates, walking streets, asking voters to vote for Jimmy Carter for President.
In 1976, Carter was elected the 39th President of the United States and served one term. Since leaving office, Carter has not stopped working on behalf of not just Americans, but for people worldwide. While the basics of his story are well known, they have never been told from the perspective of a “soldier” in the Peanut Brigade. Dorothy “Dot” Padgett, with an earthy, honest, and Southern voice, tells the story as if new to all of us. Humor and insight abound in this direct telling of how a peanut farmer from Georgia became President and leader of the United States. The secret is in his character, his morality, and in his being truly human.
About the Event
The event took place at the Roswell Library on 01/27/2024 at 2 p.m. Dot Padgett was a lively and engaging speaker.
The program was recorded and you can view the presentation in its entirety by clicking here.
