Dot Padgett: Jimmy Carter inspired loyalty and hard work

Caption

Dot Padgett, a leading member of the Peanut Brigade, speaks with GPB's Peter Biello at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum on October 1, 2024.

Credit: Caio Jardim

When former President Jimmy Carter first campaign for president, his was not a household name. So it took an army of volunteers to campaign in early primary battleground states, knocking on doors to introduce voters to Carter. The "Peanut Brigade" was instrumental in helping Carter sway voters in early primary states like New Hampshire. Leading member of the Peanut Brigade, Dot Padgett, spoke with GPB's Peter Biello at a live broadcast of All Things Considered at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta.

TRANSCRIPT

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Peter Biello: Can you tell us about the moment you met him?

Dot Padgett: The moment that I met Jimmy Carter was in 1970, and I was working in my yard pulling up weeds and loving it. And I thought, "well, what will I tell my grandchildren that I've ever done with my life?" And about that time, a car pulled up to the curb and a young man got out and I knew it was Jimmy Carter because a friend of mine had told me that he would be stopping by to see me. And I looked at him and I thought, well, he had some of the characteristics of John Kennedy, but he was not quite as tall and he wasn't quite as handsome. Jimmy Carter later told me he wrote something in my book, and he said, "I thought Padgett was my friend," but she did not. He says, "But I forgive that and I still love her." That day he asked me if I would volunteer to work and help him in his campaign for governor. I was a busy mother of four children. But somehow when that man asked me to do something, I was willing to go and help him. And so I went to the campaign office the next day, and they assigned me to work with Rosalynn Carter and Miss William. And I campaigned and scheduled and traveled with them. He won that race, of course.

Peter Biello: And what was the skill set they were searching for when they came to you and asked for your help? What did they want you to do?

Dot Padgett: Well, they wanted me to work very hard for very little money.

Peter Biello: And so you did.

Dot Padgett: I did. But I was certainly I was willing to do it. And one of the reasons that was attracted me to him was the people that he had around him, the people that were advising him. They were very — some of 'em — prominent people that names that people would recognize, but they also were people that knew what we needed for the state of Georgia. And that was one of the things that attracted me to him.

Peter Biello: When I was researching ahead of our conversation, I happened to find a clip of a video where a woman knocks on the door in New Hampshire and says, "Hi, I'm Dot Padgett, and I'm here for the Carter campaign."

Dot Padgett: That's correct. New Hampshire, you had nine people in the primary that people had. So in order to set him apart, they decided to send a load of — a planeload of Georgians to New Hampshire. And that was the beginning of the Peanut Brigade. And it was a strategy that they used. I went and knocked on the door, and I — the man opened the door and I handed him a brochure, and he read. He looked at me and I gave him the entire spiel about Jimmy Carter and why I thought he would make a good president of the United States. And when I finished, he said, "I love the way you've talked about him, but I have not understood a word you have said." But he did take my brochure and he said he would read it. And so we did that over and over again. We had one woman that went up to a door, knocked on the door, and the lady came to the door. And she said, "I am so damn cold, I don't care who you vote for." So they invited her to come in and they gave her a cup of coffee and she talked about Jimmy Carter. And we were very believable. That was in New Hampshire. And then — there was no money. We had, we were under the federal election laws — that was $31 million. There was no money, but these people could donate their own money. Plane tickets, the hotels, the food, everything. And they were willing to go into different states. And before the election was over, there were 600 volunteers that had traveled in 18 states. Jimmy Carter gave us credit for being elected president because that was part of it, that Jimmy Carter was a great part of it, Rosalynn Carter and the entire family. And it was a good campaign. But these people made a difference. And they were called the Peanut Brigade.

Peter Biello: Yeah. In my research, I found a clip of Carter speaking about how he didn't know what you were doing. Like, he — he found out only when this museum was put together, the extent of the Peanut Brigade's activities, as well as, you know, his — his various family members scattering to different states. It's just a representative of a different time, isn't it, when information is not flowing back and forth? He must have had a lot of trust in you.

Dot Padgett: Well, he had to, but he knew that we wanted him to be president. We knew him personally, and we wanted — we wanted a man from Georgia. And that was a lot of what we felt, that people in Georgia actually supported him because they were so proud of the fact that we had a person and a Southerner that might be president of the United States. It — it never occurred to us that he would not be elected. We just kept thinking every day that he would. This is a man that we want him to be in the White House. And that was the reason that we were so willing to work so hard for him. But it was just Rosalynn and Jimmy are people that you have such loyalty for them. And — and it's that's one of the things that I noticed very quickly about him, that people that supported him in his first race when he ran for the Senate supported him all the way through. They're the same people that are still supporting the Carter Center. So I think you could say that about a person, and it says a lot for them when he has that amount of loyalty throughout his entire life.

Peter Biello: Well, you must have a lot of memories of him that are really meaningful to you. Can you tell us a story? Tell us one of those memories that — that really means something to you?

Dot Padgett: I do have a lot of memories of him. I remember that you decided you were going to work for Jimmy Carter, you worked very hard. And he appointed me assistant chief of protocol in Washington, D.C., and I felt the responsibility of that. And working in Washington, D.C., in — I worked for the State Department and the White House — But seeing Jimmy Carter in that role was such a — it was — meant a whole lot to me. And knowing that what he was doing and what he was doing for our country. And that's one of the things that I would like to see him rise up.

Peter Biello: His legacy?

Dot Padgett: The ranks of history — through the ranks of history as one of our better presidents. An example of that, of course, was the solar panels that he put on the White House — on the roof of the White House that heated the water. And that was very visionary. When he put those panels on the White House, he said that "Today when I put these panels here, they could be a museum piece. They could be an item of curiosity. They could be a road not taken or it could be one of the most exciting things in our life." And, of course, it has practically been all four of them, because that one office ended up in a museum. And it has been very exciting. And that's one of the things that — and of course, the other things that the, like the contributions that he made and what he's made.  I like to concentrate, though, what he did as president. He there's a little thing that I read just recently, and it said, "Did you know that Jimmy Carter got the hostages released using the Iranians' own money?" They did. He had frozen the Iranian assets and that was the leverage, the leverage that was used. And so I'm delighted to be able to talk to him. And happy birthday, Jimmy. I love you.