1980 with successful operation Eagle Claw

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

What does the 1980 electoral map look like if Carter manages to successfully free the hostages in April, 1980?

[NewYorkExpress]

There's no scenario where Carter wins in 1980. There's just too much headwinds that he's going against. The farm crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, inflation and just the general malaise in America stretching back to the late Nixon years.

Maybe Carter picks up a few more states here, but he still doesn't get to a hundred electoral votes, and he still gets flattened in the popular vote.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

By November, the focus was firmly on the economy. Carter successfully resolving the hostage crisis might get him a few points in the polls--a 2% swing flips Massachusetts, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Kentucky--but not the win.