Buffalo in the ’80s: Candidate Ronald Reagan visits Buffalo waterfront

By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo

In 1980, as former California Gov. Ronald Reagan was challenging President Jimmy Carter for the White House, the Reagan campaign made a stop in Buffalo.

Buffalo News archives

The future president had breakfast with longshoremen and visited the docks and Port of Buffalo before heading to Erie, Pennsylvania, later that day.

Reagan visited Buffalo four times in the run-up to the 1980 presidential campaign: once in 1977, once in 1979, and twice in 1980. This photo was taken on his last visit before the Sept. 11, 1980, election.

As president, four years and one day after this photo was taken, Reagan visited Buffalo to help dedicate the Santa Maria Apartments on Buffalo’s West Side.

 

Published by

Steve Cichon

Steve Cichon writes about Buffalo’s pop culture history. His stories of Buffalo's past have appeared more than 1600 times in The Buffalo News. He's a proud Buffalonian helping the world experience the city he loves. Since the earliest days of the internet, Cichon's been creating content celebrating the people, places, and ideas that make Buffalo unique and special. The 25-year veteran of Buffalo radio and television has written five books and curates The Buffalo Stories Archives-- hundreds of thousands of books, images, and audio/visual media which tell the stories of who we are in Western New York.