Channel 13 Archives: Campaigning With Jack and Jimmy Carter

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The nation is continuing to mourn the loss of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who passed away on Sunday.

Carter had several ties to Nevada, including through his oldest son John "Jack" Carter.

Jack and his family were living in Bermuda in the early 2000s, where he ran a financial investment company, before they eventually decided to move to Las Vegas.

"We bought a condo in Las Vegas. [My wife] Elizabeth did one of those virtual tours on the Internet and bought it because we were sort of looking at where we wanted to live eventually," Jack said during a 2003 interview with the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum. "We were tired of the humidity. We didn't like living in somebody else's country and Las Vegas is very interesting. It's got an international flavor to it, we think. There's always people going through there and the Righteous Brothers play every three or four months. So for all of those reasons, we decided it just would be a good place for us."

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In 2003, the family made the move to the valley.

"As we bought the house and eventually sort of moved stuff into it, we decided to keep moving up the time that we would go to move to Vegas," Jack said at the time. "And all of a sudden, instead of being five or six years down the road, it got to be one. And so, we moved out to Las Vegas."

In that same 2003 interview, Jack was asked why he hadn't run for office yet and he said it was on his mind.

"Actually, I almost did once. In 1980, I was tired of the grain business and it was 1979 and the 1980 election was coming up," Jack explained. "And so, I called up somebody down there — I can't remember how I got the name — I think it was one of Dad's old organizing people — and met her somewhere outside of Marietta."

Jack said he spent six to eight hours meeting people asking what they thought of him possibly running for office.

"At the end of the day, the enthusiasm was overwhelming. And I got back to the house that night and I started thinking to myself, What if I win?"

Ultimately, he decided not to run in 1979 and some Democrats at the time speculated that if he did, he probably would have been defeated by Larry McDonald. McDonald served as a U.S. Representative for Georgia from 1975 to 1983.

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However, in 2006, Jack decided to run for a U.S. Senate seat representing Nevada and his father Jimmy joined him on the campaign trail.

Some of the central topics during his campaign were around then-President George W. Bush's policies on war and security.

Channel 13 spoke to the Carters in September 2006 about what they think needed to change.

"After 9/11, we had almost unanimous support in the war against terrorism," Jimmy told us in 2006. "This administration has frittered that away by abandoning Afghanistan, abandoning the war against Al Qaeda, and abandoning the effort to find Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice in order to have this ill-advised war in Iraq. I think the American people increasingly understand that."

WATCH: Channel 13 interviews Jimmy and Jack Carter in 2006

Jack also told Nevada voters that he saw a lot of his family in them.

"I am one of them because I'm from a small town. And when I do go out into those small towns out there, those people are the same I grew up with," Jack said. "I am a country boy and I believe very deeply that country people — or ordinary, regular people — are the basis of everything."

While Jack's famous father campaigned with him, Jimmy questioned if it would be a good fit.

"I never did see Jack as a future political candidate," Jimmy told us at the time. "I don't think Jack is naturally fascinated with politics as a subject. But neither am I, by the way."

Jack eventually lost to Republican Sen. John Ensign. Ensign resigned in 2011 after the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into his attempts to hide an extramarital affair.

Jack has not run for any other positions since the 2006 general election.

JAE C. HONG/AP

Funeral arrangements have been announced and they are scheduled to run between Saturday and next Thursday.

That includes stops at Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm, a motorcade to Atlanta, a stop at the Georgia State Capitol, a service at the Carter Presidential Center, public viewings in Atlanta and Washington, a funeral procession in Washington, a service at the U.S. Capitol, a National Funeral Service at Washington National Cathedral, and a private service and interment in Plains, Georgia.

President Joe Biden has also declared next Thursday, Jan. 9, as a National Day of Mourning.