Did Gerald Ford ever try to brand Carter a racist?

[Asenath Waite]

Did Ford make any attempt in 76 to win over the black vote by trying to paint Carter as a George Wallace lite Dixiecrat?

[President Johnson]

I've never read or seen anything about that. 1976 seems to have been a relatively fair campaign. Also remember that Ford and Carter actually became close personal friends in their later years.

[Senator Incitatus]

I think that was largely left to his Democratic challengers. At that point, Ford was focused on fending off Reagan. By the time he'd secured the nomination, the Democratic attacks on Carter as racist had failed and both parties wanted Wallace voters.

[Podgy the Bear]

Never an indication that Ford ever did anything like that, but there was an incident the weekend before the election in Plains that a civil rights activist named Clennon King tried to integrate the all-white church that Carter attended at the time.  It was an obvious attempt to embarrass Carter, and it backfired.

On the other hand, there were accusations in the Democratic primary between the Carter and Udall campaigns in which each side attacked the other for racial insensitivity and hostility.  Udall to Carter because of his Deep South heritage--and Carter to Udall because of his Mormon background--and thereby implying such.  This animosity between Carter and Udall lasted throughout the campaign and thereafter.    Udall backed Ted Kennedy in 1980.