Gerald "Jerry" Carmen — RIP

Many individuals try to take credit for Ronald Reagan’s revolutionary campaign victory of 1980. Only a few can really lay claim to that win; men like Ed Meese and Ken Khachigian and Dick Wirthlin.

This writer knows this well, having labored in that campaign and then having written the definitive history of the 1980 campaign, "Rendezvous with Destiny."

Another one of those, who can justifiably claim a lot of the credit, was the delightful — and my friend — Gerald "Jerry" Carmen, who very recently passed away at the age of 93.

My first encounter with Jerry, in 1978 — right out of college, was when this writer went to New Hampshire to work on the longshot U.S. senate campaign of Gordon John Humphrey.

Jerry at the time was the state GOP Chairman.

Humphrey won in an upset and Jerry was enormously helpful to our efforts, never once pooh-poohing Humphrey’s dark horse chances.

Over the past half century in American politics, I’ve met many people but few as charming and delightful and effective as Jerry. And charismatic.

He took this inexperienced young kid, as he did with many others, under his wing and mentored me with gentle persuasion and humor.

Small in stature, funny, irascible, he was big in heart and mind.

He was always agitating for Reagan to spend more time in New Hampshire, to campaign.

After Reagan unexpectedly lost the 1980 Iowa caucuses to then Ambassador George Bush, Reagan’s campaign was reeling and the national office was paralyzed.

Jerry had five weeks to right Reagan’s faltering campaign, but as Reagan’s state chairman, he’d already been hard at work organizing the Granite State from top to bottom for The Gipper.

Jerry knew in politics, it was often better to ask forgiveness than permission.

He alone agreed that Reagan would appear at the now famous Nashua High School debate.

He agreed to this even before Reagan’s national office got off the dime and agreed.

He knew Reagan would perform well despite, at the time, ducking the 1980 debates and "candidate forums" including the famous Des Moines Register debate which led to the loss in Iowa.

Reagan’s magnificent and historic performance at the Nashua debate is now legendary, "I am paying for this microphone!"

It would not have happened without Carmen. But, that is what independent businessmen do. They don’t wait for a committee: They make executive decisions.

Reagan won the New Hampshire primary in a historic landslide over Bush which helped propel him to the nomination and eventually his triumph over Jimmy Carter.

That was Jerry Carmen.

He didn’t wait for orders from the high command. He simply went to work and won.

One by one, old Reagan hands are passing away but that only amplifies all they achieved — and will achieve.

As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn once said of Ronald Reagan, "May the soft earth be a comfort in his present rest."

May the soft earth be a comfort in Jerry’s present rest.

RIP Jerry. Gentleman and friend; genuinely so.

Craig Shirley is a Ronald Reagan biographer and presidential historian having written six books on Reagan. He's also written The New York Times bestseller, "December, 1941" and just published the companion book, "April, 1945" to wide acclaim. He's also the author of the book "Mary Ball Washington," which won the People’s Choice Award from the Library of Virginia. His book on the 1980 presidential campaign, "Rendezvous with Destiny" was named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the five best campaign books of all time. Read Craig Shirley's Reports — More Here.