The 1968 Election and the rise of Richard Nixon
The US Presidential Election in 1968 was the 46th election which took place on November 5th 1968. Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson decided to run for re-election, despite poor approval ratings and overall decline in popularity in just under four years. At the last Presidential election, Johnson won a landslide victory. The election took place at a time where society was in turbulence, Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated in April 1968, then Robert Kennedy who was running for the Democratic nomination was assassinated in June, just after winning the California Primary. In addition, more and more Americans, particularly the younger generations were turning against the Vietnam War as Johnson sent more and more troops in every year since his re-election. Mass protests took place, demonstrations and show downs between the younger generations and the police.
However, if we go right to the very start of the election campaign of 1968, Lyndon Johnson put his name forward to be re-elected, however due his decline in popularity and the overall disapproval rating he had over the Vietnam War, Johnson did poorly in the early Primary in the state of New Hampshire. Johnson then decided to drop out, which shocked both Democrats and Republicans. Hubert Humphrey, the then Vice President entered the primaries to be the nominee. The Democratic race for the nomination became a three way race between Hubert Humphrey, Robert Kennedy the Senator from New York and Eugene McCarthy, a US Senator from Minnesota. Humphrey had supported the notion of sending troops to fight in Vietnam compared to McCarthy and Kennedy who opposed the war and wanted the withdrawal of troops out of the region. McCarthy challenged Johnson on his decision to send more troops into Vietnam and came out against the administrations move, but Kennedy who also opposed the war got most of the credit for challenging the decision. After the death of Robert Kennedy in June 1968, many of his supporters switched to support McCarthy in the final primaries.
Despite strong McCarthy support, Hubert Humphrey came out on top at the convention in the summer of 1968, he earned enough delegates to become the nominee and selected Edmund Muskie, a US Senator from Maine as his Vice Presidential running mate.
On the Republican side, Richard Nixon threw himself into the ring again, rather surprisingly as he lost the general election of 1960 and the race to be Governor of California in the 1962 mid-terms. However, a faction of the Republican Party weren’t happy with Nixon, he faced a challenge from Michigan Republican Governor George Romney early on in the primary season and then later on Governor of California Ronald Reagan posed a threat to Nixon’s path, however Nixon came out on top and secured the nominations despite concerns from some wings of his party. Republicans chose Spiro Agnew, the Governor of Maryland as his vice-presidential running mate.
In addition, third party candidates played a huge role in this election, in particular George Wallace, the former governor of Alabama who was nominated for President by the ‘American Independent Party’ who selected the former governor along with Curtis LeMay, the former Chief of Staff for the US Airforce as Wallace’s running mate. Wallace ran on a segregationist platform, which was popular in the southern states but also appealed to blue collar workers as he also ran on populist ideas, appealing to many northern voters outside of the south. ‘Wallace running on the American Independent Party ticket had achieved significant support among the white working class and white union members. Although many of these workers had “been hard-core Democrats backing liberal social legislation” which promoted their “economic self-interests.’ (Devinatz, 2017, p.234) ‘Although Wallace would poll as high as twenty one percent in the polls leading up to the election in September, voters saw Wallace as too extreme, therefore the race narrowed between Nixon and Humphrey.
Historian Evan Thomas describes the mood of the country as this in a CBS interview ‘the country was pre-revolutionary at the time, there race riots, riots on campuses, the country was divided in a way not seen since the civil war, worse than it is today.’ (Thomas, 2018, CBS interview) Therefore, the Democratic Party was divided, on the left due to the Vietnam War and by George Wallace on the right. Therefore the party was squeezed by facing two fronts, struggling to break through on the centre ground. The Nixon campaign enjoyed the Democratic convention as riots took place outside the convention centre between protesters and police, making the whole nomination process look chaotic and out of control. The Nixon campaign used this as an opportunity to make him look like the law and order candidate, the Nixon campaign claimed that the Democrats struggled to control their own convention so how would they control the country? The Nixon campaign launched big attacks on Humphrey due to the chaotic way in which he was nominated.
Although there were three major candidates in the race, the two which had the strongest chance of winning the Presidency was the former Vice-President Nixon and incumbent Vice-President Humphrey. Lyndon Johnson gave Humphrey a boost just weeks before the election as Johnson announced the bombing of North Vietnam would be stopped. Humphrey then put out a television add which suggested that he would campaign for peace. Although this would narrow the polls significantly, Nixon held onto a lead, in another squeaker of an election.
The results
Richard Nixon won 301 electoral votes and 43.4% of the popular vote, winning by just over half a million votes
Hubert Humphrey won 191 electoral votes and 42.7% of the popular vote
George Wallace won 46 electoral votes and 13.5% of the popular vote, winning five states in the south.
60% of the population voted in this election
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