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US President National Vote

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Parents

> United States > U.S. Executive > Popular Vote

Office

President

Type

General Election

Filing Deadline

June 01, 1968 - 12:00pm

Polls Open

November 05, 1968 - 06:00am

Polls Close

November 05, 1968 - 08:00pm

Term Start

January 20, 1969 - 12:00pm

Term End

January 20, 1973 - 12:00pm

Contributor

Thomas Walker

Last Modified

Rob Ritchie February 16, 2018 10:14am

Data Sources

Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U. S. Elections, second edition

Description

President Lyndon Johnson’s second term encompassed the social unrest now associated with the decade of the 1960s. Blacks in the South began to register for the vote, much to the dismay of the old Southern politicians. Some of the registrars were attacked or murdered. The racial tension was not limited to the South; riots broke out in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Students protested Johnson’s escalating of the American involvement in Vietnam, sometimes violently. The Vietnam casualty count mounted, but Pres. Johnson was not able to show that he had a long-range plan for the conduct of the war.

The Democrats were ready for a new direction in the White House as the year 1968 dawned. Pres. Johnson dropped out of the race after winning the New Hampshire Primary with just under 50% of the vote; anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy won 42%. After Johnson’s withdrawal, VP Hubert Humphrey and Sen. Robert Kennedy entered the race. In the critical Oregon primary, McCarthy won a close race with 44% to Kennedy’s 38% (Pres. Johnson came in third with 12%). The last important primary state was California, where Kennedy won 46% to McCarthy’s 42%. His victory was short-lived, as he was assassinated at his victory celebration.

When the Democratic National Convention
met in Chicago, protestors outside called for a withdrawal from Vietnam. The delegates rejected a plank in the platform calling for the American troops to withdraw from Vietnam by a vote of 1041.25 to 1567.75 (Ohio voted 67–48 against the measure as well). The convention nominated VP Humphrey for President.

The Republican Party had much less of a struggle. Gov. George Romney of Michigan began the campaign as the front-runner, but a slip of the tongue that the military was trying to brainwash him about Vietnam brought his campaign to an end. Former VP Richard M. Nixon became the front-runner; he won every primary he entered. Nixon faced several sitting Governors or former Governors: John Volpe of MA, Nelson Rockefeller of NY, Ronald Reagan of CA, and Harold E. Stassen of MN. The Governors were unable to win enough delegates to stop Nixon, who won on the first ballot.

Conservative southerners supported the independent candidacy of Gov. George Wallace of Alabama. Wallace drained Democrats in the South from Humphrey and Republicans in the North from Nixon, receiving 14% of the popular vote.