carter won the iowa caucuses and the new hampshire primary. in the south, carter ran as a moderate and in the north, carter ran as a conservative christian. he had visited 37 states, and gave over 200 speeches before any other candidate entered the race. carter ended up winning 30 states, with a total of 6,235,609 (39.2%) of the popular vote. he was officially nominated as the democratic nominee at the national convention. he picked u.s. senator walter mondale from minnesota as his vice president pick.