On today’s National Day of Mourning in honor of Jimmy Carter, we look back on the relationship between the 38th and 39th Presidents.

Gerald Ford met Jimmy Carter first as a political rival, running against the Georgia governor in the 1976 presidential election. Carter narrowly won the election, and the two men began a cordial working relationship during the transition and Carter’s presidency. 

In 1981, after Carter’s term in office had ended, they traveled together to attend the funeral of President of Egypt Anwar Sadat. The two bonded during the long plane rides, and their professional relationship grew into a friendship. In the following decades, Ford and Carter would collaborate on several projects, including American Agenda, a bipartisan group formed in 1988 to heal political divisions, and the National Commission on Federal Election, an electoral reform commission created after the controversial 2000 presidential election. 

When receiving the 2017 Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service, Carter reflected on his decades of friendship with Ford, saying that he was “grateful for the mutual respect and the intense personal friendship that developed during that time together.” Ford and Carter became such good friends, in fact, that they made a promise that the longest to live would speak at the other’s funeral, which Carter did at Ford’s funeral in Grand Rapids in January 2007. During his eulogy, Carter echoed his inaugural address, stating, “For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.”

Although Ford and Carter had met as opposing candidates for the presidency in 1976, their political rivalry morphed into a twenty-five year friendship that set the mold for relationships between former presidents.

Author: Lauren White