Indiana created An Honest Man Has Been President: A Portrait of Jimmy Carter at the request of the Democratic National Committee. It was included in the Presidential Portfolio, published as a fundraiser for Carter's unsuccessful re-election campaign of 1980. The other prints in this portfolio are by Ansel Adams, Romare Bearden, Audrey Flack, Sam Francis, and Wayne Thiebaud.
The print’s title, although more hopeful, recalls his 1961 painting A Divorced Man Has Never Been the President, which was a comment on shallow morality, in this instance how the dissaproval of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller’s divorce hurt his presidential ambitions.
The print’s composition is similar to that of the artist’s Decade: Autoportraits; like those paintings An Honest Man Has Been President is dominated by a circle with a large number one. In the Autoportraits the one represents the artist, here it represents the artist's support for President Carter. The Autoportraits contain references to important people and places from Indiana’s life, here the references are to Carter’s life. He was born in Plains, a town in Georgia, his wife’s name was Rosalynn, K-1 references the USS Barracuda, a submarine on which Carter served as an officer, and 76 references the year he was elected as president.
Indiana was continually engaged in the political landscape of the United States, creating works that addressed current events and societal issues, and contributing to political causes. In 1980 he also created a poster for the re-election campaign of John Brademas, a representative from Indiana and the House Majority Whip of the Democratic Party from 1977 to 1981.