Republican (United States) presidential primaries, 1968

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‹ 1964 Flag of the United States 1972 ›
Republican Presidential Primaries, 1968
March 12, 1968 to June 11, 1968
Ronald Reagan's official White House portrait
Ronald Reagan's official White House portrait
Nixon while serving in Congress
Nixon while serving in Congress
Nominee Ronald Reagan Richard Nixon Jim Rhodes
Party Republican Republican Republican
Home state CA CA Ohio
States carried 1 11 0
Popular vote 1,696,632 1,679,443 614,492
Percentage 37.93% 37.54% 13.74%
Richard Nixon campaign rally
Richard Nixon campaign rally

Republican Candidates

[edit] Candidates gallery

Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas

Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey

Senator Hiram Fong of Hawaii

Mayor John Lindsay of New York City

former Vice President Richard Nixon of California

Governor Ronald Reagan of California

Governor James A. Rhodes of Ohio

Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York

Governor Winthrop Rockefeller of Arkansas

Governor George Romney of Michigan

former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota

Governor John Volpe of Massachusetts

[edit] The primaries

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 Nixon opponent after another entering the race and then 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; the remark led to weeks of ridicule in the national news media. As the year 1968 opened, Romney was opposed to further American intervention in Vietnam and had decided to run as the Republican version of Eugene 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. Antiwar Republicans wrote in the name of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the GOP's liberal wing, 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, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing, had become 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 remained Nixon's 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).

Total popular vote

At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Reagan and Rockefeller planned to unite their forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the strategy fell apart when neither man agreed to support the other for the nomination. Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot. Nixon then chose Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew to be his Vice-Presidential candidate, despite complaints from within the GOP that Agnew was an unknown quantity, and that a better-known and more popular candidate, such as Romney, should have been the Vice-Presidential nominee. It was also reported that Nixon's first choice for running mate was his longtime friend and ally, Robert Finch, who was Lt. Governor of California since 1967 and later his HEW Secretary, but Finch declined the offer.

Candidates for the Vice-Presidential nomination

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 2008, this was the last time two siblings (Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller) ran against each other in a Presidential primary.