1964 Johnson Landslide
The 45h Presidential election took place on November 3rd 1964, incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, who assumed the office of the Presidency after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy just under a year earlier on November 22nd 1963. Johnson was the 36th President of the United States and took office at the time when the nation was grieving and heartbroken over the death of Kennedy, as the news broke shock headlines all of the world. Johnson aimed to carry on many of Kennedy’s policies as they were deemed widely popular, therefore Johnson stuck to a pro-Kennedy agenda, in all likelihood to be able to calm the nation with the fact that although Kennedy had passed away, his policies and ideas would still be implemented through Johnson’s succession.
However, Johnson was no Kennedy, the one argument many historians and political commentators make is that Kennedy would have handled the escalation of the Vietnam war differently to Johnson. Despite Kennedy being the one to send troops into Vietnam to fight the Communist Congo, many historians believe that before Kennedy died, he actually wanted to pull troops out of Vietnam. On the other hand, Johnson began sending more troops into the region. However, overall Johnson did align himself with Kennedy which led to his consistent popularity throughout the election year of 1964.
However, Johnson did face challenges, one was due to his stance of the Civil Rights Act which he signed on the 2nd July 1964. This act gave the federal government the ability to enforce ending discrimination based on skin colour, gender, national origin or religion. Johnson hugely contributed to the Civil Rights movement with this act, compared to Kennedy who did support the Civil Rights movement but at times could be lukewarm in his approach to the subject. Although historically, the signing of the Civil Rights Act was seen as a huge success, many people within the Democratic Party, Johnson’s party strongly came out against the passing of this act. Many Democrats threatened to leave the party, this was led by the Democratic Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, who supported segregation within American society. With many Democrats prepared to leave the Democratic party in support of the Republican party, Wallace who ran in 1964 to be the Democratic nominee for President, did well in the Primaries, particularly in the south where segregation remained largely popular but even in the Northern states of Indiana and Wisconsin.
Johnson faced two battlefields for the nomination, he had the conservative Democrats demanding segregation remain intact and pressure from the more liberal wing of his party to select Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General at the time to be his Vice-Presidential running mate, however, Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson did not like each other and Johnson moved Robert Kennedy’s speech at the convention in the summer of 1964 to the very last day, in doing this, Johnson could not be pressured by delegates to select him as the running mate due to the fact the nominations would now be closed. However, Johnson received enough delegates for the nomination and chose Hubert Humphrey as his running mate, a senator for Minnesota. Johnson successfully repelled two threats, he had won over a pro-segregationist George Wallace and managed to select a running mate that wasn’t Robert Kennedy.
At the convention, there was a challenge from the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, made up of mostly African American demanding that there be more black American representation among delegates who chose the nominee. This was due to the fact many delegates from Mississippi were elected in an undemocratic and biased way. This did lead to more African American representation in the delegate field but led to a cluster of white male delegates walking out of the convention centre in protest.
However, by the summer of 1964, it was clear Johnson and Humphrey would be on the Democratic ticket. Their opposition on the Republican ticket would be Barry Goldwater, a senator from Arizona who represented the more conservative wing of the Republican Party. The field for the Republican nomination was crowded at first, with Nelson Rockefeller, who represented the more liberal/moderate views of the Republican Party, the race came down to Goldwater and Rockefeller after Richard Nixon declared he would not run. However, by the summer of 1964, Goldwater secured the nomination, with William Miller, a United States House Representative from New York selected as his running mate. Goldwater sent shock waves through the Republican Party as he was seen as a ‘radical’ and ‘extremist’ a conservative who’s views seemed outdated and out of place. ‘In 1964, the winning ‘peace’ candidate’s supporters (perhaps warranty) denounced the loser as being ‘dangerously irresponsible’ both domestically and foreign-policy wise.’ (Houghton, 1965, p.47) In fact, many Republicans on the more moderate/liberal wing of the party switched from Goldwater to supporting Johnson. Goldwater wanted to fight a more aggressive war against Vietnam and wanted to fight proxy wars against the Soviet Union.
The Johnson campaign successfully targeted Goldwater’s extremisms and the most memorable political add was the ‘Daisy Girl’ which was seen as a negative add towards Goldwater, his name was never mentioned and although it aired only once, it was seen as a key factor which contributed to Johnson’s landslide as it depicted nuclear catastrophe if Goldwater won the Presidency. Goldwater was also not helped by the fact the Klu Klux Klang endorsed him and was seen as an old fashioned Conservative; this led to Johnson leading the polls by wide margins as David Segal notes ‘…widespread defection among Republicans helped account for Johnson's 16 million-vote margin of victory.’ (Segal, 1968, p.441) However, in principle Goldwater was seen as against the Civil Rights Act, therefore many Democrats in the south who were pro-segregation switched to Goldwater.
The results – 61.9% of the population turned out to vote in this election.
Lyndon B. Johnson was re-elected by a landslide, winning 44 states and the District of Columbia.
Johnson received 486 electoral votes and 61.1% of the popular vote which was the highest popular vote share in history.
Goldwater received 52 electoral votes winning six states and 38.5% of the popular vote.
The Johnson campaign successfully painted Goldwater as an extreme and out of touch Conservative which led to the re-election of Johnson. Hubert Humphrey became the 38th Vice President.
The 1964 election marked a new trend where Republican support in the North was slowly reducing and more southerners defined themselves as Republicans.
The Civil Rights act contributed to this trend with the Democrats supporting the act but this election also influenced politicians such as Ronald Regan, who began to think about his future as a potential Presidential candidate.
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