Gerald Rafshoon, former President Jimmy Carter’s White House communications director, initially refused to join Carter’s 1966 campaign for Georgia governor because, he said, it wasn’t “good for business.”
But when he heard a particularly cringeworthy campaign jingle on the car radio, Rafshoon said he “almost ran off the road.” Recalling the jingle in a 2023 POLITICO interview, he called it “just awful.” Soon after, he joined the campaign.
As the media mastermind who launched Carter from peanut farmer and state senator to governor and then president, Rafshoon, now 90, has a unique and intimate perspective on his friend, the former president.
Today, Carter marks his 100th birthday. Watch the video to hear more about Rafshoon’s groundbreaking ad campaign and what it was like behind the scenes in the Carter administration.