1968 Republican National Convention

1968 Republican National Convention

1968 Presidential Election
Nominees Nixon and Agnew
Convention
Date(s)	August 5 - August 8
City	Miami Beach, Florida
Venue	Miami Beach Convention Center
Keynote speaker	Daniel J. Evans
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Richard M. Nixon of California
Vice Presidential nominee	Spiro T. Agnew of Maryland

The 1968 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida, from August 5 to August 8, 1968.

Nixon supporters at the Convention.

Richard M. Nixon, former Vice President of the United States under 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower, emerged as the frontrunner again for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination. Nixon had been the Republican Party nominee in the 1960 presidential election, and lost to Democratic Party candidate John F. Kennedy.

The so-called "New Nixon" in the 1968 presidential election devised a "Southern strategy," taking advantage of anti-integration and progressive/liberal policies of the national Democratic Party and the administration of incumbent 36th President Lyndon B. Johnson.

U.S. House of Representatives House Minority Leader, Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, proposed New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay for Vice President, but Nixon turned instead to another perceived moderate, Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew, former Baltimore County Executive in the Baltimore City suburbs (1963-1967), and since Governor of Maryland, had come to Republican leaders and Nixon's attention when he summoned several Black and Negro civic, religious and political leaders in Baltimore City to the local State Office Building complex, following the disastrous April 1968 urban riots which enveloped Black sections of East and West Baltimore, along with the rest of the nation, after the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Agnew complained of the Black leaders' lack of support after a number of what he perceived to be positive projects, programs and support by his Republican administration for the minority communities in the City. Agnew's biting comments caused many in the audience to walk out.

Nixon was nominated on the first ballot with 692 votes to 277 votes for Nelson Rockefeller, 182 votes for California Governor Ronald Reagan and the rest scattered. In his acceptance speech he deplored the state of the union: "When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in Vietnam with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented racial violence, when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home, then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America". He also said that he had "a good teacher", referring to Eisenhower, and made the delegates happy with the statement "Let's win this one for Ike!" Eisenhower was not present during Nixon's speech nor during any part of the Convention. Due to failing health, he was under doctor's orders not to travel. He died the following March.

Balloting for the nominations at the GOP Convention

The following were placed into nomination:

Nominated for President

• 

  Former Vice President
  Richard Nixon
  of New York
• 

  Governor
  Ronald Reagan
  of California
• 

  Governor
  Nelson Rockefeller
  of New York
• 

  Governor
  George Romney
  of Michigan
• 

  Governor
  James A. Rhodes
  of Ohio
• 

  Senator
  Clifford Case
  of New Jersey
• 

  Senator
  Frank Carlson
  of Kansas
• 

  Governor
  Winthrop Rockefeller
  of Arkansas
• 

  Senator
  Hiram Fong
  of Hawaii

Nominated for Vice President

• 

  Governor
  Spiro Agnew
  of Maryland
• 

  Governor
  George Romney
  of Michigan

The Republican Convention Talley

See also

• 1968 Democratic National Convention
• United States presidential election, 1968