United States presidential election, 1968

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

‹ 1964 Flag of the United States 1972 ›
United States presidential election, 1968
5 November 1968
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey George Wallace
Party Republican Democratic American Independent
Home state California Minnesota Alabama
Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie Curtis LeMay
Electoral vote 301 191 46
States carried 32 13+DC 5
Popular vote 31,783,783 31,271,839 9,901,118
Percentage 43.4% 42.7% 13.5%
United States presidential election, 1968

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew, Blue denotes those won by Humphrey/Muskie. Maroon denotes states won by Wallace/LeMay. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
Incumbent President
Lyndon Johnson
Democratic
President-Elect
Richard Nixon
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1968 was a wrenching national experience, and included the assassination of Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy, the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and subsequent race riots across the nation, the violence at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across American university and college campuses. The election also featured a strong third-party effort by former Alabama governor George Wallace; although Wallace's campaign was frequently accused of promoting racism, he would prove to be a formidable candidate, and was the last third-party candidate to win an entire state's electoral votes. In the end, Republican Richard M. Nixon narrowly won the election over Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey on a campaign promise to restore "law and order". The election of 1968 was a realigning election that ended the Democratic realignment started by Franklin Roosevelt in 1932.

Contents

[edit] Historical background

In the election of 1964, after serving the 14 remaining months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Democrat Lyndon Johnson had won the largest popular vote landslide in US Presidential election history over Republican Barry Goldwater. During his term, Johnson had seen many political successes, including the passage of his sweeping Great Society domestic programs (also known as the "War on Poverty"), landmark civil rights legislation, and the continued exploration of space. At the same time, however, the country had experienced large-scale race riots in the streets of its larger cities, along with a generational revolt of young people and violent debates over foreign policy. 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 U.S. cities erupted in massive race riots that left hundreds dead or injured 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, Tenn., sparking further mass rioting and chaos, including Washington, D.C., where rioting came within just a few blocks of The White House.

A major factor in the precipitous decline of President Johnson's popularity was the Vietnam War, which he greatly escalated during his time in office. By late 1967 over 500,000 American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam and suffering thousands of casualties every month. Johnson was especially hurt when, despite his repeated assurances that the war was being "won", the American news media began to show just the opposite. The Tet Offensive of February 1968, in which Communist Vietcong forces were killed inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Saigon, led to increased criticism from antiwar activists that the war was unwinnable. In response, the U.S. military claimed that the war could only be won by adding several hundred thousand more soldiers to the American forces in South Vietnam. In the months following Tet, Johnson's approval ratings fell below 35%, and the Secret Service refused to let the President make public appearances on the campuses of American colleges and universities, due to his extreme unpopularity among college students. The Secret Service also prevented Johnson from appearing at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, because of their fear that his appearance might cause riots.

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Democratic Party nomination

[edit] Candidates

[edit] Gallery

Governor Roger Branigin of Indiana

Retired Admiral John G. Crommelin of Alabama

Businessman Paul C. Fisher of Pennsylvania

Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota

Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York

President Lyndon Johnson of Texas

Attorney General Thomas C. Lynch of California

Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota

Senator George McGovern of South Dakota

Governor Dan Moore of North Carolina

Senator George Smathers of Florida

Senator Stephen Young of Ohio

[edit] Situation

Though President Lyndon B. Johnson had served during two presidential terms, the 22nd Amendment did not disqualify Johnson from running for another term, because he had only served 14 months following John F. Kennedy's assassination before being elected to his "second" term in 1964. As a result, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that President Johnson would run for another term, and that he would have little trouble winning the Democratic nomination.

Despite the growing opposition to Johnson's policies in Vietnam, no prominent Democratic candidate was prepared to run against a sitting President of his own party. Even Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, an outspoken critic of Johnson's policies with a large base of support, refused to run against Johnson in the primaries. Only Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota proved willing to challenge Johnson openly. Running as an antiwar candidate in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam 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, the first state to hold a primary election. He was boosted by thousands of young college students, who shaved their beards and cut their hair to be "Clean for Gene." These students rang doorbells and worked hard in New Hampshire for McCarthy. 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 Kennedy announced his candidacy four days later, on March 16, as McCarthy supporters cried betrayal and vowed to defeat Kennedy. Thereafter McCarthy and Kennedy would engage in an increasingly bitter series of state primaries; although Kennedy won most of the primaries, he could never shake McCarthy and his devoted following of antiwar activists, which included many Hollywood celebrities such as Paul Newman, Barbra Streisand, and Burt Lancaster.

[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 survive another term—Johnson's health was poor, and he had suffered a serious heart attack in 1955. Johnson, in fact, died on January 22, 1973, just two days after the end of the presidential term that was at stake in 1968 (which ran from January 20, 1969 to January 20, 1973). Bleak political 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, and in fact he lost the primary to McCarthy. With Johnson's withdrawal, the Democratic Party quickly split into four factions, each of which distrusted the other three.

  • The first faction comprised labor unions and big-city party bosses (led by Mayor Richard J. Daley). This group had traditionally controlled the Democratic Party since the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and they feared their loss of control over the party. After Johnson's withdrawal this group rallied to support Hubert H. Humphrey, Johnson's Vice President; it was also believed that President Johnson himself was covertly supporting Humphrey, despite his public claims of neutrality.
  • The second faction, which rallied behind Senator McCarthy, was composed of students and intellectuals who had been the early activists against the war in Vietnam; they perceived themselves as the future of the Democratic Party.
  • The third group was primarily composed of Catholics, African-Americans, and other racial and ethnic minorities; these groups rallied behind Senator Robert Kennedy.
  • The fourth group consisted of conservative white Southern Democrats, or "Dixiecrats". Some members of this group (probably older ones remembering the New Deal's positive impact upon rural areas) supported Vice President Humphrey, but many of them would rally behind George C. Wallace and the Alabama governor's third-party campaign in the general election.

Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Democratic Party, and Johnson had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Democrats, Johnson believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Republicans. However, by withdrawing from the race he could avoid the stigma of defeat, and he could keep control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, who had been a loyal Vice President. As the year developed, it also became clear that Johnson believed he could secure his place in the history books by ending the war before the election in November, thus giving Humphrey the boost he would need to win.[1]

[edit] Contest for the Democratic nomination

After Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy. Kennedy was successful in four primaries and McCarthy five; however, in primaries where they campaigned directly against one another, Kennedy won three primaries and McCarthy one. Humphrey 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. Instead, Humphrey concentrated on winning the delegates in non-primary states, where party leaders such as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley controlled the delegate votes in their states. Kennedy defeated Branigin and McCarthy in the Indiana primary, and then defeated McCarthy in the Nebraska primary. However, McCarthy upset Kennedy in the Oregon primary—this was considered important because it was the first time a son of Joseph P. Kennedy had ever lost a public election.[2]

After Kennedy's defeat in Oregon, the California primary was seen as crucial to both Kennedy and McCarthy. McCarthy stumped the state's many colleges and universities, where he was treated as a hero for being the first presidential candidate to oppose the war. Kennedy campaigned in the ghettos and barrios of the state's larger cities, where he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters. Kennedy and McCarthy engaged in a television debate a few days before the election; it was generally considered a draw. On June 4 Kennedy narrowly defeated McCarthy in California, 46%–42%. However, McCarthy refused to withdraw from the race and made it clear that he would contest Kennedy in the upcoming New York primary, where McCarthy had much support from antiwar activists in New York City. The New York primary quickly became a moot point, however, for in the early morning of June 5, Kennedy was shot shortly after midnight; he died twenty-six hours later. Kennedy had just given his victory speech in a crowded ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; he and his aides squeezed into a kitchen on their way to another ballroom to celebrate their victory. In the kitchen Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a young Palestinian militant who disliked Kennedy for his support of the state of Israel.

Political historians have debated to this day whether Kennedy could have won the Democratic nomination had he lived. Some historians, such as Theodore H. White and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., have argued that Kennedy's broad appeal and famed "charisma" would have convinced the party bosses at the Democratic Convention to give him the nomination. Jack Newfield, author of RFK: A Memoir, stated in a 1998 interview that on the night he was assassinated, "[Kennedy] had a phone conversation with Mayor Daley of Chicago, and Mayor Daley all but promised to throw the Illinois delegates to Bobby at the convention in August of 1968. I think he said to me, and Pete Hamil, 'Daley is the ball game, and I think we have Daley.'"[3] However, other writers such as Tom Wicker, who covered the Kennedy campaign for The New York Times, believe that Humphrey's large lead in delegate votes from non-primary states, combined with Senator McCarthy's refusal to quit the race, would have prevented Kennedy from ever winning a majority at the Democratic Convention, and that Humphrey would have been the Democratic nominee even if Kennedy had lived. Journalist Richard Reeves has written that Humphrey was the likely nominee, and RFK's own campaign manager, future Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien, wrote in his memoirs that Kennedy's chances of winning the nomination had been slim, even after his win in California.

At the moment of RFK's death, the delegate totals were:

[edit] Primaries

Statewide contest by winner
Statewide contest by winner

Only 13 states held a primary at this time (California, Oregon, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida).

Results by winners[4]:

Eugene McCarthy

Robert F. Kennedy

Lyndon B. Johnson

Stephen M. Young

George Smathers

Total popular vote[5]:

[edit] Democratic Convention and antiwar protests

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 traditional power blocs of the party, he was an unpopular choice with many of the antiwar elements within the party, who identified him with Johnson's controversial position on the Vietnam War. However, Kennedy's delegates failed to unite behind a single candidate who could have prevented Humphrey from getting the nomination. Some of Kennedy's support went to McCarthy, but many of Kennedy's delegates, remembering their bitter primary battles with McCarthy, refused to vote for him. Instead, these delegates rallied around the late-starting candidacy of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, a Kennedy supporter in the spring primaries who had presidential ambitions himself. This dividing of the antiwar votes at the Democratic Convention made it easier for Humphrey to gather the delegates he needed to win the nomination.

When the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, thousands of young activists from around the nation gathered in the city to protest the Vietnam War. In a clash which was covered on live television, Americans were shocked to see Chicago police brutally beating antiwar protesters in the streets of Chicago. While the protesters chanted "The whole world's watching," the police used clubs and tear gas to beat back the protesters, leaving many of them bloody and dazed. The tear gas even wafted into numerous hotel suites; in one of them Vice President Humphrey was watching the proceedings on television. 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 riots). In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Vice President Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot. The convention then chose Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as Humphrey's running mate. However, the tragedy of the antiwar riots crippled Humphrey's campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered.[6]

The Balloting
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
Edward M. Kennedy 12.75 Eugene McCarthy 3.0
Paul E. "Bear" Bryant 1.5 Others 16.25
James H. Gray 0.5
George Wallace 0.5

Source: Keating Holland, "All the Votes... Really," CNN [3]

[edit] Endorsements

Hubert Humphrey

Robert Kennedy

Eugene McCarthy

George McGovern (during convention)

[edit] Republican Party nomination

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.

[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 proved to be popular among blue-collar workers in the North and Midwest, and took many votes which might have gone to Humphrey. Although Wallace did not expect to win the election, his strategy was 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 winner. Wallace's running mate was retired U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay. LeMay embarrassed Wallace's campaign in the fall by suggesting that nuclear weapons could be used in Vietnam.

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. Another presidential candidate for 1968 was a pig named Pigasus, as a political statement by the Yippies.

[edit] General election

[edit] The fall campaign

Nixon campaigned on a theme to restore "law and order", which appealed to many voters angry at the hundreds of violent riots that had taken place across the country in the previous few years. Following the murder of Dr. King in April 1968, severe rioting in Detroit and Washington, D.C. had forced President Johnson to call out the U.S. Army to protect lives and property, and smoke from burning buildings a few blocks away had drifted across the White House lawn. However, Vice President Humphrey criticized the "law and order" issue, claiming that it was a subtle appeal to white racial prejudice.

Nixon also developed a "southern strategy," which was designed to appeal to conservative white southerners, who traditionally voted Democratic but were deeply angered by Johnson and Humphrey's support for the civil rights movement. Wallace, however, won over many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting the conservative vote and boosting Humphrey's chances. The "southern strategy" would prove more effective in subsequent elections, and would become a staple of Republican presidential campaigns.

After the Democratic Convention in late August Humphrey trailed Nixon by double-digits in most polls, and his chances seemed hopeless. According to Time magazine, "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."[18] Calling for "the politics of joy", and using the still-powerful labor unions as his base, Humphrey fought back. He attacked Wallace as a racist bigot who appealed to the darker impulses of Americans. Labor unions also undertook a major effort to win back union members who were supporting Wallace, with substantial success. Polls which showed Wallace winning almost one-half of union members in the summer of 1968 showed a sharp decline in his union support as election day approached. Humphrey also pledged to continue the Great Society welfare programs initiated by President Johnson.

While Humphrey ran a fighting, slashing campaign, Nixon's campaign was carefully managed and controlled. Nixon often held "town hall" meetings in cities he visited, where he answered questions from voters who had been carefully screened in advance by his aides. Nixon also implied that he had a "solution" to the war in Vietnam, but was vague in providing the details of his plan. As election day approached and Wallace's support in the North and Midwest began to wane, Humphrey finally began to climb in the polls.

In the end, the Vietnam War became the one remaining problem Humphrey could not overcome. In October, Humphrey—who still trailed Nixon in the polls—began to publicly distance himself from the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War, calling for a bombing halt. The key turning point for Humphrey's campaign came when President Johnson officially announced 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 peace talks in the belief that he could expect a better deal under a Nixon Presidency; Thieu obliged. However, the "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost, and by election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.

The election on November 5, 1968 proved to be extremely close, and it was not until the following morning that the television news networks were able to call Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Nixon won the popular vote with a plurality of 512,000 votes, or a victory margin of about one percentage point. In the electoral college Nixon's victory was larger, as he carried 32 states with 301 electoral votes, to Humphrey's 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace's 5 states and 46 electoral votes.

[edit] Aftermath

Nixon's victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. Before 1968 the Democrats had clearly been the majority party, winning seven of the previous nine presidential elections. After 1968, the Republicans won five of the next six presidential elections (and they have won seven of the last ten, as of 2004). Many historians believe the reason for the Democratic Party's decline in strength was the bitter split within the party created by the Vietnam War and other "culture wars" of the 1960's. Most white Southern Democrats (and especially their children) became Republicans in the next two decades, creating a fundamental shift of political power in the nation which favored the GOP. For example, before 1968 the state of North Carolina had voted Republican only once in the twentieth century, and only twice since the American Civil War. However, North Carolina voted for Nixon in 1968 and since that election has voted Republican in every presidential election but one (1976).

Another important result of the 1968 election was that it led to several reforms in how the Democratic Party chose its presidential nominees. After the election, many of McCarthy and Kennedy's supporters gained control of the party machinery, and for the 1972 election they passed a number of initiatives designed to make the nomination process more democratic. A key initiative took the nominating process out of the hands of the party bosses by greatly enlarging the number of states which held presidential primaries. After 1968 the only way to win the party's presidential nomination was through the primary process; Humphrey turned out to be the last nominee of either major party to win his party's nomination without having directly competed in the primaries.

[edit] Results

Presidential Candidate Party Home State Popular Vote Electoral
Vote		 Running Mate Running Mate's
Home State		 RM's Electoral
Vote
Count Pct
Richard Milhous Nixon Republican California[19] 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[20] 46
Eugene McCarthy Independent Minnesota 25,634 0.0% 0 (None) 0
Other 243,258 0.3% – Other –
Total 73,199,998 100 % 538 538
Needed to win 270 270

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] Close states

  1. Missouri, 1.1%
  2. Texas, 1.2%
  3. Washington, 2.1%
  4. New Jersey, 2.1%
  5. Ohio, 2.3%
  6. Alaska, 2.7%
  7. Illinois, 2.9%
  8. California, 3.1%
  9. Pennsylvania, 3.6%
  10. Wisconsin, 3.6%
  11. Tennessee, 3.8%
  12. Connecticut, 5.2%
  13. New York, 5.4%
  14. South Carolina, 5.7%
  15. Oregon, 6.0%
  16. Kentucky, 6.1%
  17. Michigan, 6.7%
  18. Arkansas, 7.6%
  19. Nevada, 8.1%
  20. Colorado, 8.1%
  21. North Carolina, 8.2%
  22. West Virginia, 8.8%
  23. Montana, 9.0%
  24. New Hampshire, 9.2%
  25. Florida, 9.6%
  26. Vermont, 9.8%

NOTES: In Alabama Wallace was official Democratic Party nominee, while Humphrey ran on the ticket of short-lived National Democratic Party of Alabama, loyal to him as an official Democratic Party nominee[21][22]

In North Carolina one Nixon Elector cast his ballot for George Wallace (President) and Curtis LeMay (Vice President).[23]

[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 most recent presidential election in which any third party candidate won at least one state in the Electoral College.

[edit] See also

[edit] Source

  • White, Theodore H., The Making of the President 1968. Pocket Books, 1970.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Dallek (1998); Woods (2006); Gould (1993).
  2. ^ Robert Kennedy: His Life, Evan Thomas, 2000[1] .
  3. ^ Jack Newfield, interview with Terry Gross, Fresh Air from WHYY, National Public Radio, WHYY, Philadelphia, June 4, 1998. Except rebroadcast on June 4, 2008.
  4. ^ Primaries, caucuses and conventions: Classic races for the presidential nomination
  5. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  6. ^ White, pgs. 377–378; [2]
  7. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  8. ^ Our Campaigns - SD US President - D Primary Race - Jun 04, 1968
  9. ^ Our Campaigns - Candidate - Harold Everett Hughes
  10. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  11. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  12. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  13. ^ Our Campaigns - CA US President - D Primary Race - Jun 04, 1968
  14. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Primaries Race - Mar 12, 1968
  15. ^ Our Campaigns - CA US President - D Primary Race - Jun 04, 1968
  16. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Convention Race - Aug 26, 1968
  17. ^ Our Campaigns - US President - D Convention Race - Aug 26, 1968
  18. ^ Time November 15, 1968
  19. ^ In 1968, Richard Nixon's official state of residence was New York, not California, however, he was elected as a Senator from California and that is considered the state from which he was elected from. But, he did move to New York City to practice law after his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial race.
  20. ^ Electoral Votes for President and Vice President. Senate Manual. Government Printing Office (2005). Retrieved on 2006-03-14.
  21. ^ Our Campaigns - Political Party - Alabama National Democrat (NDPA)
  22. ^ Our Campaigns - AL US President Race - Nov 05, 1968
  23. ^ 1968 Presidential General Election Results - North Carolina

[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). 
  • LaFerber, Walter. 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

v • d • e
United States presidential election, 1968
Democratic Party
Candidates
VP Candidates
Republican Party
Candidates
VP Candidates
Agnew · Brooke · Bush · Chafee · Evans · Finch · Hatfield · Javits · Love · Morton · Percy · Tower
Third party
Candidate
VP Candidate
v • d • e
Flag of the United States United States presidential elections
1789 · 1792 · 1796 · 1800 · 1804 · 1808 · 1812 · 1816 · 1820 · 1824 · 1828 · 1832 · 1836 · 1840 · 1844 · 1848 · 1852 · 1856 · 1860 · 1864 · 1868 · 1872 · 1876 · 1880 · 1884 · 1888 · 1892 · 1896 · 1900 · 1904 · 1908 · 1912 · 1916 · 1920 · 1924 · 1928 · 1932 · 1936 · 1940 · 1944 · 1948 · 1952 · 1956 · 1960 · 1964 · 1968 · 1972 · 1976 · 1980 · 1984 · 1988 · 1992 · 1996 · 2000 · 2004 · 2008

List by state · Presidential primaries