United States presidential election, 1968

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The U.S. presidential election of 1968 was a wrenching national experience, and included the assassination of liberal Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across American university and college campuses. In the end, Richard M. Nixon would win the election over Hubert H. Humphrey on a campaign of "law and order". The 1968 election is sometimes considered to be a realigning election.

Contents 1 Historical and contemporary background 2 Nominations 2.1 Democratic Party nomination 2.1.1 Johnson withdraws 2.1.2 Contest for nomination 2.2 Republican Party nomination 2.3 Other candidates 3 General election 3.1 Campaign 3.2 Results 3.2.1 National voter demographics 3.2.2 Voter demographics in the South 4 Miscellanea 5 See also 6 Notes 7 Further reading 8 External links 9 Navigation

[edit] Historical and contemporary background

In the election of 1964, after serving the 14 remaining months after Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon Johnson had won the largest popular vote landslide in US Presidential election history over Barry Goldwater. During his term, Johnson had seen many political successes, including the passage of his sweeping Great Society domestic programs, landmark civil rights legislation, and the continued exploration of space. At the same time, however, the country had been undergoing massive violence in the streets of the cities, along with a generational revolt of young people and violent debates over foreign policy. The Secret Service would not let Johnson appear on college campuses nor attend the 1968 Democratic national convention in Chicago. The emergence of the hippie counterculture, the rise of New Left activism, and the emergence of the Black Power movement exacerbated social and cultural cleavages between classes, generations and races. Every summer during Johnson's administration, known thereafter as the "long, hot summers", major US cities erupted in massive race riots that left hundreds dead and destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in property. Adding to the national tension, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, sparking further mass rioting and chaos.

The Vietnam War had escalated, with over 500,000 Americans inside the country, suffering thousands of casualties every month. The Tet Offensive of February 1968 made the war front-page news for the first time. The military demanded hundreds of thousands more soldiers--which could only be provided by a draft because Johnson refused to use the Reserves or the National Guard. In the months following Tet, Johnson's approval ratings fell below 35%.

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Democratic Party nomination

Though President Lyndon Johnson had served during two presidential terms, the 22nd Amendment did not disqualify Johnson from running for another term, because Johnson had only served 14 months following John F. Kennedy's assassination before being elected to his "second" term in 1964.

Entering the 1968 election campaign, initially, no prominent Democratic candidate was prepared to run against a sitting President of his own party. Only Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota challenged Johnson as an anti-war candidate in the New Hampshire primary, hoping to pressure the Democrats to oppose the war. Normally, an incumbent president faces little formidable opposition within his own party. However, McCarthy, although he was trailing badly in the national polls , decided to pour most of his resources into New Hampshire, one of the first states to hold a primary election. On March 12, McCarthy won 42% of the primary vote to Johnson's 49%, an amazingly strong showing for such a challenger, and one which gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum. The momentum ended, however, when Senator Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy four days later, on March 16, as McCarthy supporters cried betrayal and vowed to defeat Kennedy. However, it was Kennedy who would provide stronger opposition to Johnson (the pre-Tet Gallup poll among Democrats showed that 52% preferred Johnson to 40% for Kennedy. 71% preferred Johnson to McCarthy ^[1]).

[edit] Johnson withdraws

On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primaries and Kennedy's entry into the election, the President startled the nation by announcing he would not seek re-election. (Not discussed publicly at the time was Johnson's concern that he might not make it through another term.) Bleak forecasts also contributed to Johnson's withdrawal: internal polling by Johnson's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to hold a primary election, showed the President trailing badly. Johnson did not leave the White House to campaign. Johnson had lost control of the Democratic party, which was splitting into four factions, each of which despised the other three.

• The first comprised Johnson (and Humphrey), labor unions, and local party bosses (led by Mayor Richard J. Daley).
• The second group, who rallied behind McCarthy, was composed of students and intellectuals who were vociferous against the war.
• The third group was primarily made up of Catholics, African-Americans, and other minorities, and they rallied behind Robert Kennedy.
• and the fourth group consisted of traditional white Southerners, who rallied behind George C. Wallace and his third-party campaign.

Vietnam was one of many issues that splintered the party, and Johnson could see no way to unite the party long enough for him to win reelection. On the other hand, he could avoid defeat in November by withdrawing from the race, keeping control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, and secure his place in history by ending the war before the election.^[2]

[edit] Contest for nomination

After Johnson's announcement, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy. Kennedy was successful in four primaries and McCarthy five. Humphrey, for the most part, did not compete in the primaries, leaving that job to favorite sons who were his surrogates, notably Senator George A. Smathers from Florida, Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio, and Governor Roger D. Branigin of Indiana, the first two of which won their respective primaries (Branigin lost to Kennedy). Humphrey was well ahead, thanks to the large role still played in the nominating process by delegate selection controlled by party bosses. Still, the nominee remained unclear, even after Kennedy defeated McCarthy in the crucial California primary on June 5. That night, Kennedy was shot shortly after midnight; he died twenty-six hours later.

There is a theory that Kennedy was the presumptive nominee the morning he died, and would have won easily at the Chicago convention. However, at the moment of RFK's death, the totals were:

• Hubert Humphrey 561
• Robert Kennedy 393
• Eugene McCarthy 258

Robert Kennedy's death altered the dynamics of the race, and threw the Democratic party into disarray. Although Humphrey appeared the prohibitive favorite for the nomination, thanks to his support from the institutional structures of the party, he was an unpopular choice with many of the more anti-war elements within the party, who identified him with Johnson's controversial position on the Vietnam War. During the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Americans were shocked by television footage of Chicago police brutally beating anti-war protesters in the streets of Chicago. Meanwhile, the convention itself was marred by the strong-arm tactics of Chicago's mayor Richard J. Daley (who was seen on television angrily cursing Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, who made a speech at the convention denouncing the excesses of the Chicago police). In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Vice President Humphrey beating McCarthy and Senator George McGovern (who acted as a stand-in for many of the Kennedy delegates, even though he had not run in a single primary election during the campaign).^{[citation needed]}

The Votes

The presidential tally		Vice presidential tally:
Hubert Humphrey	1759.25	Edmund S. Muskie	1942.5
Eugene McCarthy	601	Not Voting	604.25
George S. McGovern	146.5	Julian Bond	48.5
Channing Phillips	67.5	David Hoeh	4
Daniel K. Moore	17.5	Edward M. Kennedy	3.5
Others	30.25	Others	19.25

[Source for roll call votes: Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1973.]

[edit] Republican Party nomination

The front-runner for the Republican nomination was former Vice President Richard M. Nixon, and to a great extent the story of the Republican primary campaign and nomination is the story of one opponent entering the race and dropping out.

Nixon's first challenger was Michigan Governor George W. Romney. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Nixon with 39%, followed by Romney with 25%. However, in a slip of the tongue, Romney told a news reporter that he had been "brainwashed" by the military and the diplomatic corps into supporting the Vietnam War. As the year 1968 opened, Romney was opposed to further American intervention in Vietnam and had decided to run as the Republican version of Gene McCarthy (New York Times 2/18/1968). Romney's support faded slowly, and he withdrew from the race on February 28, 1968. (New York Times 2/29/1968).

Nixon won a resounding victory in the important New Hampshire primary on March 12, winning 78% of the vote. Peace Republicans wrote in the name of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who received 11% of the vote and became Nixon's new challenger. Nixon led Rockefeller in the polls throughout the primary campaign. Rockefeller defeated Nixon in the Massachusetts primary on April 30 but otherwise fared poorly in the state primaries and conventions.

By early spring, California Governor Ronald Reagan was Nixon's chief rival. In the Nebraska primary on May 14, Nixon won with 70% of the vote to 21% for Reagan and 5% for Rockefeller. While this was a wide margin for Nixon, Reagan became the leading challenger. Nixon won the next primary of importance, Oregon, on May 15 with 65% of the vote and won all the following primaries except for California (June 4), where only Reagan appeared on the ballot. Reagan's margin in California gave him a plurality of the nationwide primary vote, but when the Republican National Convention assembled, Nixon had 656 delegates according to a UPI poll (with 667 needed for the nomination).

Nixon chose Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew to be his Vice-Presidential candidate, despite loud calls from within the GOP for Romney to get the spot on the ballot.

The Republican Convention Talley

President	(before switches)	(after switches)	Vice President
Richard M. Nixon	692	1238	Spiro T. Agnew	1119
Nelson Rockefeller	277	93	George Romney	186
Ronald Reagan	182	2	John V. Lindsay	10
Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes	55	—	Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke	1
Michigan Governor George Romney	50	—	James A. Rhodes	1
New Jersey Senator Clifford Case	22	—	Not Voting	16
Kansas Senator Frank Carlson	20	—
Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller	18	—	-
Hawaii Senator Hiram Fong	14	-	-
Harold Stassen	2	—
New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay	1	—	-

As of 2007, this was the last time two siblings (Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller) ran against each other in a Presidential primary.

[edit] Other candidates

The American Independent Party was formed by George Wallace, whose pro-segregation policies had been rejected by the mainstream of the Democratic party. The impact of the Wallace campaign was substantial, winning the electoral votes of several states in the Deep South. Wallace also accomplished a strong showing in several northern states. Although Wallace did not expect to win the election, his strategy was that he might be able to prevent either major party candidate from winning a preliminary majority in the Electoral College, which would then give him bargaining power to determine the outcome. His running mate was General Curtis LeMay.

Also on the ballot in some states was black activist Eldridge Cleaver for the Peace and Freedom Party. Comedians Dick Gregory and Pat Paulsen were notable write-in candidates.

[edit] General election

[edit] Campaign

Nixon campaigned on a "law and order" theme, which appealed to many voters angry at hundreds of violent riots that had taken place across the country, with Army troops called out in Detroit and Washington. He had devised a "southern strategy," which was designed to appeal to white southerners, who traditionally voted Democratic but were turned off by Johnson and Humphrey's support for civil rights. Wallace, however, picked off many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting the conservative vote and boosting Humphrey's chances. The strategy would prove more effective in subsequent elections.

After the Democratic convention Humphrey seemed hopeless. According to Time, "The old Democratic coalition was disintegrating, with untold numbers of blue-collar workers responding to Wallace's blandishments, Negroes threatening to sit out the election, liberals disaffected over the [Vietnam] War, the South lost. The war chest was almost empty, and the party's machinery, neglected by Lyndon Johnson, creaked in disrepair." ^[3] Calling for "the politics of joy", and using the still-powerful labor unions as his base, Humphrey hit back. He demolished Wallace by depicting him as a madman and fool. Humphrey campaigned on continuing the Great Society programs initiated by President Johnson. Labor unions took a major role attacking Wallace, who was winning half their members according to summer polls.

In the end, the war became the one remaining problem Humphrey had to overcome. In October, Humphrey - who trailed badly in the polls - began to distance himself from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt. He began to gain momentum, especially when President Johnson officially announced such a bombing halt, and even a possible peace deal, the weekend before the election. Tipped off in advance by Henry Kissinger, and fearing this 'October surprise' might cost him the election, Nixon used Anna Chennault as an intermediary to encourage South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu to stay away from the talks in the belief that he could expect a better deal under a Nixon presidency; Thieu obliged. Publicly, Nixon promised a new approach, which was ridiculed by Democrats as a "secret plan" although Nixon never actually claimed to have a 'secret plan.' By election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.

Nixon won with a plurality of 500,000 popular votes, and handily clinched the electoral vote, 301 to 191, on November 5, 1968.

[edit] Results

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote		Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	Running Mate's Electoral Vote
			Count	Percentage
Richard Milhous Nixon	Republican	New York[4]	31,783,783	43.4%	301	Spiro Theodore Agnew	Maryland	301
Hubert Horatio Humphrey	Democratic	Minnesota	31,271,839	42.7%	191	Edmund Sixtus Muskie	Maine	191
George Corley Wallace	American Independent	Alabama	9,901,118	13.5%	46	Curtis Emerson LeMay	California[5]	46
Other			243,258	0.3%	0	Other		0
Total			73,199,998	100.0%	538	Total		538
Needed to win					270	Needed to win		270

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1968 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (August 7, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (August 7, 2005).

[edit] National voter demographics

NBC sample precincts 1968 election
	% Humphrey	% Nixon	% Wallace
High income urban	29	63	5
Middle income urban	43	44	13
Low income urban	69	19	12
Rural (all income)	33	46	21
African-American neighborhoods	94	5	1
Italian neighborhoods	51	39	10
Slavic neighborhoods	65	24	11
Jewish neighborhoods	81	17	2
Unionized neighborhoods	61	29	10

Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. “Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote” XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.

[edit] Voter demographics in the South

NBC sample precincts 1968 election: South only
	% Humphrey	% Nixon	% Wallace
Middle income urban neighborhoods	28	40	32
Low income urban neighborhoods	57	18	25
Rural (all income)	29	30	41
African-American neighborhoods	95	3	2
Hispanic neighborhoods	92	7	1

Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. “Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote”, XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.

[edit] Miscellanea

• This is the last Presidential Election in which any third party candidate won at least one state in the Electoral College.
• Had LBJ stayed in the race and won and served out the new term, he would have been president for 9 years, second only to FDR.

[edit] See also

• United States House election, 1968
• United States Senate election, 1968
• History of the United States (1964–1980)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• President of the United States
• List of Presidents of the United States
• United States Senate election, 1968

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Ambrose, Stephen E. (1987). Nixon: The Education of a Politician. 
• Brown, Stuart Gerry. The Presidency on Trial: Robert Kennedy's 1968 Campaign and Afterwards. U. Press of Hawaii, 1972. 155 pp.
• Burner, David and West, Thomas R. The Torch Is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism. (1984). 307 pp.
• Carter, Dan T. (1995). The Politics of Rage: George Wallace, the Origins of the New Conservatism, and the Transformation of American Politics. 
• Gallup, George H., ed. The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971. 3 vols. Random House, 1972. press releases
• Lewis, Chester; Hodgson, Godfrey; Page, Bruce (1969). An American Melodrama: The Presidential Campaign of 1968. Viking Press. 
• Kimball, Warren F. "The Election of 1968." Diplomatic History 2004 28(4): 513-528. ISSN 0145-2096 Fulltext online in SwetsWise, Ingenta and Ebsco. Comments by others at pp. 563-576; reply, p. 577.
• Farber, David (1988). Chicago '68. University of Chicago Press. 
• Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1991). Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream. St. Martin's Press. 
• Gould, Lewis L. (1993). 1968: The Election that Changed America. Ivan R. Dee. 
• Humphrey, Hubert H. (1976). The Education of a Public Man: My Life and Politics. Doubleday. 
• Jamieson, Patrick E. "Seeing the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency through the March 31, 1968 Withdrawal Speech." Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol 29#1 1999 pp. 134+
• Kogin, Michael (Spring 1966). "Wallace and the Middle Class". Public Opinion Quarterly 30 (1). 
• by Walter LaFeber. The Deadly Bet: LBJ, Vietnam, and the 1968 Election (2005) short survey
• Eugene McCarthy, The Year of the People (1969), memoir
• McGinniss, Joe (1969). The Selling of the President 1968. Trident Press. 
• Nixon, Richard (1978). RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. 
• Richardson, Darcy G. (2002). A Nation Divided: The 1968 Presidential Campaign. 
• Rising, George (1997). Clean for Gene: Eugene McCarthy's 1968 Presidential Campaign. Praeger Publishers. 
• Savage, Sean J. (2004). JFK, LBJ, and the Democratic Party. SUNY Albany Press. 
• Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. (1978). Robert Kennedy and His Times. Houghton Mifflin. 
• Jeff Shesol, Mutual Contempt: Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, and the Feud that Defined a Decade (1997)
• Unger, Irwin; Debi Unger, Debi (1988). Turning Point: 1968. Scribner's. 
• White, Theodore H. (1969). The Making of the President—1968. Atheneum. 
• Woods, Randall. LBJ: Architect of American Ambition (2006)

[edit] External links

• 1968 popular vote by counties

[edit] Navigation

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