Jimmy Carter impressed Sheboygan during 1976 campaign visit. 'I understand the consciousness of this country,' he said.

When Jimmy Carter came to Sheboygan, Sheboygan Press reporter Dawn Jax Belleau got the story of a lifetime.

In March 1976, Carter was working just about everywhere in Wisconsin to give his campaign for president the edge he needed to win in the April primary election.

Carter arrived at Sheboygan's Plaza 8 to an enthusiastic crowd, according to the Press, and the headline proclaimed, "Jimmy Woos 'em On Plaza 8."

Plaza 8 was the name for downtown Sheboygan when it was a pedestrian mall area.

The Press reported: "One woman fingered his sleeve, revealing her affiliation with the opposite party, but assuring him of her affection for Jesus Christ and Jimmy Carter. 'I'm a Republican,' she breathed, 'but I'm also a Christian.' It was apparent that he had her vote in his hip pocket."

A Milwaukee reporter walking with the crowd observed: "When you get a candidate that quotes from the Bible, watch out. He's the kind of person that brings the creeps out of the woodwork."

It was a quick and busy visit for Carter, who ate a quick meal while standing before he left the city.

After greeting Sheboygan, Carter needed to get to Milwaukee and got in a Chevrolet Malibu driven by a Secret Service agent. Reporter Belleau, who followed behind in a press bus, got her chance some 20 miles out of Sheboygan when the Carter caravan stopped and she was given the nod to speak to Carter in his car. She rode with Carter all the way to Milwaukee.

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Belleau said recently that the interview was one of her career highlights and she will always remember Carter's kindness toward her. She said she was amazed she had that much one-on-one time with Carter for the paper.

Carter told Belleau about his electorate: "They have confidence in me; they know I will keep my promises; they know that I am genuinely concerned. I keep an intimacy between myself and the voter that will continue to the White House. I understand people, I understand the consciousness of this country."

Belleau described Carter as more than a former governor, peanut farmer, Sunday school teacher and nuclear scientist. She prodded him with a statement suggesting he was a master psychologist.

Carter didn't deny the label to the Press. He said to pattern his campaign on the values of hope, love, kindness and Boy Scout wholesomeness was just what the voters are looking for.

At the time, Carter was in a bit of a whirlwind of a controversy within his own party. Other Democratic hopefuls apparently launched a "Get Carter" campaign. Carter said the campaign wasn't working because the voters were reacting adversely to the situation.

In the same edition of the April 1, 1976, Press, Minnesota Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey said the accusations were "utterly ridiculous" that he and Minnesota Rep. Morris Udall led the "Stop Carter" movement.

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Carter told Belleau his education was almost entirely in the sciences and he was working via his reading habits to put together a liberal arts education on his own.

"My mother never sat down to a meal without a book in her hand. I'm the same way, so is my wife, so are my children," he said. Lately, he said in the interview, that his reading is was geared toward the presidency. "Welfare, tax reform, government structure — all very heavy, he admitted, 'but exciting.'"

The caravan pulled into the Hotel Pfister, where his "people" had paid $100 just to sip a cocktail in his presence. He held up the anxious Secret Service men to oblige the reporter who needed another picture. He added as the interview ends, "I'm glad you're interested in me."

Belleau said the Secret Service drove her back to Sheboygan following that interview in which she said Carter exuded confidence.

In her report, Belleau said before leaving the car, he leveled an intense blue-eyed look, shook her hand, held it an extra sincere second and disappeared into the hotel.

She concluded in her report, "Like the cat in Wonderland, the grin remains in the air after he's gone."

Gary C. Klein can be reached at 920-453-5149 or gklein@gannett.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @leicaman99.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Jimmy Carter in 1976 visit to Sheboygan even warmed over a Republican