1968 United States presidential election, General election, Campaign themes
Humphrey, meanwhile, promised to continue and expand the Great Society welfare programs started by President Johnson, and to continue the Johnson Administration's "War on Poverty." He also promised to continue the efforts of Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and the Supreme Court, in promoting the expansion of civil rights and civil liberties for minority groups. However, Humphrey also felt constrained for most of his campaign in voicing any opposition to the Vietnam War policies of President Johnson, due to his fear that Johnson would reject any peace proposals he made and undermine his campaign. As a result, early in his campaign Humphrey often found himself the target of anti-war protestors, some of whom heckled and disrupted his campaign rallies.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Humphrey's comeback and the October surprise
After the Democratic Convention in late August, Humphrey trailed Nixon by double digits in most polls, and his chances seemed hopeless. Many within Humphrey's campaign saw their real goal as avoiding the potential humiliation of finishing behind Wallace in the electoral college vote (if not necessarily the popular vote), rather than having any serious chance of defeating Nixon. 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.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Humphrey's comeback and the October surprise
The war chest was almost empty, and the party's machinery, neglected by Lyndon Johnson, creaked in disrepair." Calling for "the politics of joy," and using the still-powerful labor unions as his base, Humphrey fought back. In order to distance himself from Johnson and to take advantage of the Democratic plurality in voter registration, Humphrey stopped being identified in ads as "Vice-President Hubert Humphrey," instead being labelled "Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey." Humphrey attacked Wallace as a racist bigot who appealed to the darker impulses of Americans.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Humphrey's comeback and the October surprise
Wallace had been rising in the polls, and peaked at 21% in September, but his momentum stopped after he selected Curtis LeMay as his running mate. Curtis LeMay's suggestion of tactical nuclear weapons being used in Vietnam conjured up memories of the 1964 Goldwater campaign. Labor unions also undertook a major effort to win back union members who were supporting Wallace, with substantial success. Polls that showed Wallace winning almost one-half of union members in the summer of 1968 showed a sharp decline in his union support as the campaign progressed. As election day approached and Wallace's support in the North and Midwest began to wane, Humphrey finally began to climb in the polls.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Humphrey's comeback and the October surprise
In October, Humphrey—who was rising sharply in the polls due to the collapse of the Wallace vote—began to distance himself publicly 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. The "Halloween Peace" gave Humphrey's campaign a badly needed boost. In addition, Senator Eugene McCarthy finally endorsed Humphrey in late October after previously refusing to do so, and by election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Nixon campaign sabotage of peace talks
The Nixon campaign had anticipated a possible "October surprise," a peace agreement produced by the Paris negotiations; as such an agreement would be a boost to Humphrey, Nixon thwarted any last-minute chances of a "Halloween Peace." Nixon told campaign aide and his future White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman to put a "monkey wrench" into an early end to the war. Johnson was enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands" and that Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen agreed with Johnson that such action was "treason." Defense Secretary Clark Clifford considered the moves an illegal violation of the Logan Act. A former director of the Nixon Library called it a "covert action" which "laid the skulduggery of his presidency."


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Nixon campaign sabotage of peace talks
Bryce Harlow, former Eisenhower White House staff member, claimed to have "a double agent working in the White House....I kept Nixon informed." Harlow and Nixon's future National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who was friendly with both campaigns and guaranteed a job in either a Humphrey or Nixon administration, separately predicted Johnson's "bombing halt": "The word is out that we are making an effort to throw the election to Humphrey. Nixon has been told of it," Democratic senator George Smathers informed Johnson.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Nixon campaign sabotage of peace talks
Nixon asked Anna Chennault to be his "channel to Mr. Thieu" in order to advise him to refuse participation in the talks, in what is sometimes described as the "Anna Chennault Affair." Thieu was promised a better deal under a Nixon administration. Chennault agreed and periodically reported to John Mitchell that Thieu had no intention of attending a peace conference. On November 2, Chennault informed the South Vietnamese ambassador: "I have just heard from my boss in Albuquerque who says his boss [Nixon] is going to win. And you tell your boss [Thieu] to hold on a while longer."


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Nixon campaign sabotage of peace talks
In 1997, Chennault admitted that "I was constantly in touch with Nixon and Mitchell." The effort also involved Texas Senator John Tower and Kissinger, who traveled to Paris on behalf of the Nixon campaign. William Bundy stated that Kissinger obtained "no useful inside information" from his trip to Paris, and "almost any experienced Hanoi watcher might have come to the same conclusion". While Kissinger may have "hinted that his advice was based on contacts with the Paris delegation," this sort of "self-promotion....is at worst a minor and not uncommon practice, quite different from getting and reporting real secrets."


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Nixon campaign sabotage of peace talks
Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort because the NSA was intercepting communications in Vietnam. In response, Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign. He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to "shock America" with the revelation, nor reveal that the NSA was intercepting communications in Vietnam. Johnson did make information available to Humphrey, but at this point Humphrey thought he was going to win the election, so he did not reveal the information to the public. Humphrey later regretted this as a mistake. The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations. A promising "peace bump" ended up in "shambles" for the Democratic Party.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
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 declare Nixon the winner. The key states proved to be California, Ohio, and Illinois, all of which Nixon won by three percentage points or less. Had Humphrey carried all three of these states, he would have won the election.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
Had he carried only two of them or just California among them, George Wallace would have succeeded in his aim of preventing an electoral college majority for any candidate, and the decision would have been given to the House of Representatives, at the time controlled by the Democratic Party. 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, compared to Humphrey's 13 states and 191 electoral votes and Wallace's five states and 46 electoral votes.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
Out of all the states that Nixon had previously carried in 1960, Maine and Washington were the only two states that did not vote for him again; Nixon carried them during his re-election campaign in 1972. He also carried eight states that voted for John F. Kennedy in 1960: Illinois, New Jersey, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada and Delaware. This was the last time until 1988 that the state of Washington voted Democratic and until 1992 that Connecticut, Maine, and Michigan voted Democratic in the general election.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
Nixon was also the last Republican candidate to win a presidential election without carrying Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. This is the first time which the Republican candidate captured the White House without carrying Michigan, Minnesota, Maine and Pennsylvania. He would be the last Republican candidate to carry Minnesota (four years later, in 1972), as of 2020. This is also the first time since 1916 that Minnesota voted for the candidate who did not eventually win.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
Remarkably, Nixon won the election despite winning only two of the six states (Arizona and South Carolina) won by Republican Barry Goldwater four years earlier. He remains the only presidential candidate to win in spite of defending such a low number of his own party's states. All of the remaining four States carried by Goldwater were carried by Wallace in 1968. They would be won by Nixon in 1972.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
Of the 3,130 counties/districts/independent cities making returns, Nixon won in 1,859 (59.39%) while Humphrey carried 693 (22.14%). Wallace was victorious in 578 counties (18.47%), all of which (with one exception of Pemiscot County, Missouri)  were located in the South.


1968 United States presidential election, General election, Election
Nixon said that Humphrey left a gracious message congratulating him, noting, "I know exactly how he felt. I know how it feels to lose a close one."


1968 United States presidential election, Results
Nixon's victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. From 1932 to 1964, the Democratic Party was undoubtedly the majority party, winning seven out of nine presidential elections, and their agenda influenced policies undertaken by the Republican Eisenhower administration. The 1968 election reversed the situation completely. From 1968 until 2004, Republicans won seven out of ten presidential elections, and its policies clearly affected those enacted by the Democratic Clinton administration via the Third Way.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
The election was a seismic event in the long-term realignment in Democratic Party support, especially in the South. Nationwide, the bitter splits over civil rights, the new left, the Vietnam War, and other "culture wars" were slow to heal. Democrats could no longer count on white Southern support for the presidency, as Republicans made major gains in suburban areas and areas filled with Northern migrants. The rural Democratic "courthouse cliques" in the South lost power. While Democrats controlled local and state politics in the South, Republicans usually won the presidential vote. In 1968, Humphrey won less than ten percent of the white Southern vote, with two-thirds of his vote in the region coming from blacks, who now voted in full strength.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
From 1968 until 2004, only two Democrats were elected president, both native Southerners – Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Not until 2008 did a Northern Democrat, Barack Obama of Illinois, again win a presidential election.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
Another important result of this election was that it led to several reforms in how the Democratic Party chose its presidential nominees. In 1969, the McGovern–Fraser Commission adopted a set of rules for the states to follow in selecting convention delegates. These rules reduced the influence of party leaders on the nominating process and provided greater representation for minorities, women, and youth. The reforms led most states to adopt laws requiring primary elections, instead of party leaders, to choose delegates.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
After 1968, the only way to win the party's presidential nomination became 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.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
This remains most recent presidential election in which a sitting president eligible for re-election did not seek another term (and one of only two such elections to occur under the Twenty-second Amendment, the first being the 1952 election), and also the last election in which any third-party candidate won an entire state's electoral votes, with Wallace carrying five states.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
This election was the last time until 1992 that the Democratic nominee won Connecticut, Maine, and Michigan and the last until 1988 when Washington voted Democrat, and the last time a Republican won the presidency without winning Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It was also the first time since 1888 that bellwether Coös County, New Hampshire did not support the winning candidate.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
This was the first time since 1928 that North Carolina voted for a Republican, and the first since 1912 (only the second time since 1852 and as of 2020, the last time) that Maine and Vermont did not support same party. Similarly, it is the last time that Oregon and Washington did not support the same party, meaning the two neighbouring states have only voted for different candidates twice in 100 years.


1968 United States presidential election, Results
Despite the narrow (0.7%) difference in the popular vote, Humphrey took only 35.5% of the electoral vote. This disparity prompted the introduction of the Bayh–Celler amendment in Congress, which would have replaced the Electoral College with a direct election of the presidency. The effort was not successful and the Electoral College is still in force.


1968 United States presidential election, Results, Geography of results
Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote


1968 United States presidential election, Results, Close states
States where margin of victory was less than 5 percentage points (223 electoral votes):


1968 United States presidential election, Results, Close states
States where margin of victory was more than 5 percentage points, but less than 10 percentage points (155 electoral votes):


1968 United States presidential election, Results, Close states
Notes: In Alabama, Wallace was the 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


1968 United States presidential election, Results, Close states
In North Carolina one Nixon Elector cast his ballot for George Wallace (President) and Curtis LeMay (Vice President).


1968 United States presidential election, Results, National voter demographics
Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. "Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote" XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.


1968 United States presidential election, Results, Voter demographics in the South
Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. "Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote", XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.


1968 United States presidential election in Alabama
The 1968 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 5, 1968.


1968 United States presidential election in Alabama
Southern segregationist candidate George Wallace, the former Governor of Alabama running as a third party candidate with his American Independent Party, won his home state in a landslide. Wallace received the official Democratic Party ballot line in Alabama, while national Democratic Party nominee Hubert Humphrey was forced to run on a fusion ticket of "Alabama Independent Democrat" and the National Democratic party ballot line.


1968 United States presidential election in Alabama
Wallace won 65.86% to Democrat Hubert Humphrey's 18.72%, a 47.13% margin. Republican Richard Nixon, while narrowly winning the election nationally, finished a distant third in Alabama with only 13.99%, receiving significant support only in a few northern counties with historically significant GOP votes, and in higher-income urban areas. Wallace's 65.86% of the popular vote would make Alabama not only his best performing state in the 1968 election, but the strongest performing state out of any candidate, with only Washington DC being stronger.


1968 United States presidential election in Alabama
Wallace won 64 of the state's 67 counties. As African-Americans in the South were slowly gaining the right to vote as a result of federal civil rights legislation passed in 1964 and 1965, Wallace's weakest region was Alabama’s Black Belt, where he won most counties with narrow majorities or pluralities. He lost three counties in this region, Sumter County, Greene County, and Macon County, all with majority black populations, to pro-civil rights candidate Hubert Humphrey.


1968 United States presidential election in Alabama
In black-majority Macon County, pro-civil rights Democrat Hubert Humphrey won a commanding landslide, taking 69.7% of the vote to Wallace's 25.4%, reflecting the deep divide between the state's white and black voter populations. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Mobile County, Shelby County, Baldwin County, Lee County, and Houston County were not carried by the Republican candidate, the last election in which the Republican candidate won the election without Alabama and the last election in which Wilcox County, Lowndes County, and Bullock County were not carried by the national Democratic candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in Alaska
The 1968 United States presidential election in Alaska took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the nationwide presidential election. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Alaska
Alaska was won by Richard Nixon (R-New York) with 45.3 percent of the popular vote against incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D-Minnesota) with 42.6 percent. Nixon ultimately won the national vote as well, defeating Humphrey and becoming the next President. Former Governor George Wallace (D-Alabama) ran under the far-right American Independent Party ticket, which favored continuing racial segregation within public schools in addition to most other areas of society throughout the Southern United States. Although unsuccessful, Wallace's third-party campaign was one of the strongest in the 20th century, rivaling the performance of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Robert M. La Follette in 1924 and Ross Perot in 1992.


1968 United States presidential election in Alaska
Alaska has only voted Democratic once, and that was in the previous 1964 election for incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, who did not run for re-election; nonetheless, during the state’s first four presidential elections Alaska was little or no more Republican than the nation at-large. Nixon's 45.28 percent stood 1.86 percent above his national figure and Humphrey’s 42.65 percent a trifling 0.07 percent below his national total.


1968 United States presidential election in Alaska
As usual, the Democrats were strongest in the Bering Sea coastal regions: Humphrey obtained a majority of the vote in Bethel Census Area, North Slope Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough and a plurality in Nome Census Area. Defections to Wallace may have permitted Humphrey to win a plurality in Kenai Peninsula Borough, which as of 2017 remain the last time a Democrat has carried this borough; Humphrey also carried Sitka City and Borough and Yakutat City and Borough, which would subsequently vote Democratic only in 1992, 2012 and (Sitka only) in 2016. Nixon won the remainder of Alaska; however he obtained an absolute majority only in the southern boroughs and census areas of Wrangell and Prince of Wales–Outer Ketchikan.


1968 United States presidential election in Alaska
Despite Alaska lying at the opposite end of the country from Wallace's support base in the Deep South, he did not fare badly in the relatively heavily populated areas of Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and the Susitna Valley: indeed in Kenai Peninsula Borough Wallace received over twenty percent of the vote. Wallace's 12.07 percent of Alaska's vote was 1.46 percent below his percentage for the nation at-large, but nonetheless his third-greatest outside antebellum slave states and Oklahoma, behind 13.25 percent in Nevada and 12.55 percent in Idaho.


1968 United States presidential election in Arizona
The 1968 United States presidential election in Arizona took place on November 5, 1968. All fifty states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Arizona
Arizona was won by the Republican nominees, Richard Nixon of New York and his running mate Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland. Nixon and Agnew defeated the Democratic nominees, Incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and his running mate U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine.


1968 United States presidential election in Arizona
Nixon carried the state with 54.78% of the vote to Humphrey's 35.02%, a victory margin of 19.76%.


1968 United States presidential election in Arkansas
The United States presidential election in Arkansas, 1968 was held on November 5th, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. American Independent candidate George Wallace won the state of Arkansas with 235,627 votes, with Republican Richard Nixon winning 189,062 and Democrat Hubert Humphrey winning 184,901.


1968 United States presidential election in Arkansas
With 38.65% of the popular vote, Arkansas would prove to be Wallace's weakest state that he carried in the 1968 election after Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia. This was the first time since 1872 that Arkansas did not vote for the Democratic candidate, and would be the last time until 2008 that Arkansas did not back the winner of the presidential election. As of 2020, this remains the last election in which the Republican nominee won the presidency without carrying Arkansas, as well as the last time Arkansas voted for a different candidate than neighboring Missouri.


1968 United States presidential election in California
The 1968 United States presidential election in California took place on November 5, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose 40 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in California
California narrowly voted for the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon of New York, over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. The American Independent Party candidate, former Alabama governor George Wallace, performed rather well in California despite being miles away from his base in the Deep South.


1968 United States presidential election in California
Although Nixon was born and raised California, he had moved to New York following his failed 1962 gubernatorial bid, and thus identified New York as his home state in this election. After he won the election, Nixon moved his residency back to California.


1968 United States presidential election in California
Nixon had previously defeated John F. Kennedy in the Golden State in 1960 and would later win the state again against George McGovern in 1972. Had Humphrey or Wallace come out victorious in California, Nixon would have earned only 261 electoral votes, and thus the election would have been sent to the United States House of Representatives.


1968 United States presidential election in California
Nixon is the last Republican candidate to carry Santa Cruz County by a majority of the popular vote, although Republicans in 1972 and 1980 carried the county by plurality, whilst Humphrey is the last Democrat to carry Kings County. Nixon also became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Santa Clara County since Ulysses Grant in 1868, and the first to do so without carrying San Mateo County since Abraham Lincoln in 1860.


1968 United States presidential election in California
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election where California did not have the highest number of electoral votes.


1968 United States presidential election in Colorado
The 1968 United States presidential election in Colorado took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose six representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Colorado
Colorado was won by former Vice President Richard Nixon (R–New York), with 50.46% of the popular vote, against Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D–Minnesota), with 41.32% of the popular vote. American Independent Party candidate George Wallace performed quite well, finishing with 7.50% of the popular vote. This would be the last election until 2020 that Colorado would vote more Democratic than its neighbour New Mexico.


1968 United States presidential election in Connecticut
The 1968 United States presidential election in Connecticut took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Connecticut
Connecticut voted for the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, over the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon of New York and American Independent candidate, Southern populist Governor George Wallace of Alabama. Humphrey's running mate was Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, while Nixon ran with Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland and Wallace's running mate was Curtis LeMay of California.


1968 United States presidential election in Connecticut
Humphrey carried Connecticut by a fair margin of 5.16%. This would be the last election until 1992 in which Connecticut voted for a Democrat, though it has not voted against them since that election.


1968 United States presidential election in Connecticut
As of 2020, this was the most recent presidential election in which the Democratic nominee carried the towns of Prospect and Watertown.


1968 United States presidential election in Delaware
The United States presidential election in Delaware, 1968 was held on November 5, 1968. State voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Delaware
Delaware was won by the Republican former Vice President Richard Nixon, who won the state by 7,529 votes over Democratic incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Also running was Alabama Governor George Wallace on the "American Independent" ticket.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida
The 1968 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 5, 1968. Florida voters chose fourteen electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Background
Between the imposition of a poll tax in 1889 and the migration of numerous northerners seeking a hotter climate in the 1940s, Florida had been a one-party Democratic state, lacking any traditional white Republicanism due to  the absence of mountains or German "Forty-Eighter" settlements. So late as the landmark court case of Smith v. Allwright, half of Florida's registered Republicans were still black, although very few blacks in Florida had ever voted within the previous fifty-five years.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Background
When new migrants from traditionally Republican northern states in Central Florida took their Republican voting habits with them at the presidential level, the GOP restricted Harry Truman to under half the statewide vote in 1948 and under Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon carried the state in the following three elections.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Background
1964 saw a complete reversal of the 1950s voting pattern of a largely Republican south and central Florida and continuing Democratic loyalty in the North, with almost zero correlation between 1960 and 1964 county returns. Incumbent Lyndon Johnson narrowly carried the state with black and retiree votes but lost most Panhandle Kennedy support to Goldwater.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Background
Following his landslide sweep of the northern states, Lyndon Johnson's Great Society at first appeared to be helping him in Florida; however the relationship soured quickly as the Democratic Party factionalized. In 1966, via a campaign portraying his opponent as a dangerous liberal, Claude R. Kirk defeated Miami Mayor Robert King Hugh to become (alongside Winthrop Rockefeller) the first GOP Governor of any Confederate State since Alfred A. Taylor in 1922.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Background
Further political unrest, including a major teacher's strike in the winter of 1967–1968, along with the stalemate in Vietnam, further cut into the Democratic Party's local popularity, which was further affected by Alabama Governor George Wallace entering the race under the "American Independent" banner.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Background
Along with political unrest, the state would face civil unrest as well. During the Long, hot summer of 1967, the state saw several riots take place in it with the largest being in Tampa lasting four days in total. Clearwater, Lakeland, Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach also saw riots that were smaller in scale. During the Martin Luther King assassination riots in 1968, several riots were known to have taken place in state such as in: Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Fort Pierce.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Vote
After contentious primaries, Florida was initially considered a state which all three candidates had a chance to carry.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Vote
Republican candidate Richard Nixon won the state of Florida by a margin of 9.60% or 210,010 votes.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Vote
Nixon obtained his support in Central Florida, Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey got his support from Southern Florida, and third-party candidate George Wallace got his support from the Florida Panhandle, or Northern Florida. This was one of the better states for George Wallace, due to the Northern part of the state being against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which Lyndon Johnson had signed into law. This led to Democratic party gains in support from black voters. The party simultaneously lost the great majority of white voters.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Vote
One exception to this abandonment by white voters came in  the Jewish sections of Miami. It is estimated that over 80% of the non-Hispanic white electorate backed Nixon or Wallace, with Wallace being the choice among those whites in the northern counties with larger numbers of proximate black voters, and Nixon in those areas with few or no blacks.


1968 United States presidential election in Florida, Vote
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Escambia County, Clay County, Okaloosa County, and Santa Rosa County did not support the Republican candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in Georgia
The 1968 United States presidential election in Georgia was held on November 5, 1968. American Independent Party candidate George Wallace received the most votes, and won all twelve of the state's electoral college votes.


1968 United States presidential election in Georgia
Wallace, who ran a campaign based upon support for segregation, won all but seventeen of the state's 159 counties. Nixon won ten, all either suburban Atlanta counties or historically pro-Union counties of North Georgia. Despite Wallace's sweep of most of the state south of Atlanta, Cobb and DeKalb counties were two of only three amongst 210 Southern counties carried by Goldwater for the Republicans for the first time ever or since Reconstruction to vote for Nixon. The Voting Rights Act and subsequent enfranchisement of African-Americans allowed Humphrey to carry seven majority-black counties.


1968 United States presidential election in Georgia
With 42.83% of the popular vote, Georgia would prove to be Wallace's fourth strongest state after Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.


1968 United States presidential election in Hawaii
The 1968 United States presidential election in Hawaii took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Hawaii voters chose 4 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Hawaii
Hawaii overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic Party nominee Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota with Edmund Muskie  against Republican Party candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon of New York with Spiro Agnew. Hawaii weighed in for this election as 22% more Democratic than the national average, with Humphrey winning the state by a 21% margin.


1968 United States presidential election in Hawaii
Ironically, Hawaii, the United States' southernmost state, would prove to be the weakest state for the American Independent Party candidate, former Alabama governor George Wallace, who won 3,469 votes, amounting to a total of 1.47%. Being the only state in the country to have a plurality of non-white residents, mainly Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Wallace's strong segregationist views failed to make any significant impact on the state's electorate, especially since he was far beyond his base of support in the Deep South.


1968 United States presidential election in Idaho
The 1968 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose four representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Idaho
Idaho was won by former Vice President Richard Nixon (R–California), with 56.79% of the popular vote, against former Senator and incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D–Minnesota), with 30.66% of the popular vote. American Independent Party candidate George Wallace performed quite well, finishing with 12.55% of the popular vote.


1968 United States presidential election in Idaho
With 56.79% of the popular vote, Idaho would prove to be Nixon's second strongest state in the 1968 election after Nebraska.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois
The 1968 United States presidential election in Illinois was held on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose 26 electors to represent the state in the Electoral College, which chose the president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Background
After having been strongly Republican during the “System of 1896” apart from a few areas in the southern part of the state that had sympathised with the Confederacy during the American Civil War, Illinois became a critical swing state throughout the New Deal era, having voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1920.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Background
Like other states in the Midwest, Illinois had been severely affected by racial tension during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, which had allowed Charles H. Percy to gain a comfortable win in an open Senate race following the retirement of Paul Douglas, in spite of the fact that Illinois, especially the Metro East, was affected less than states to its east.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Background, Turnout
Turnout in the preference vote of the primaries was 0.67%, with a total of 34,241 votes cast.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Background, Turnout
Turnout in the general election was 81.39%, with a total of 4,619,749 votes cast.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Primaries
Both major parties held non-binding state-run preferential primaries on June 11. All candidates were write-ins.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Primaries, Democratic
The 1968 Illinois Democratic presidential primary was held on June 11, 1968 in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Democratic Party's state primaries ahead of the 1968 presidential election.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Primaries, Democratic
The preference vote was a "beauty contest". Delegates were instead selected by direct-vote in each congressional districts on delegate candidates.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Primaries, Democratic
While he received 33.66% of the vote, Ted Kennedy was not an active candidate for the nomination. Additionally, while he still received some votes, incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson had already ruled himself out for the nomination.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Primaries, Republican
The 1968 Illinois Republican presidential primary was held on June 11, 1968 in the U.S. state of Illinois as one of the Republican Party's state primaries ahead of the 1968 presidential election.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, Primaries, Republican
The preference vote was a "beauty contest". Delegates were instead selected by direct-vote in each congressional districts on delegate candidates.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, General election
By the time the election campaign was in full swing at the end of the summer, Democratic nominee and incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was clearly in serious trouble, and early polling suggested he would have little chance in the state. Humphrey was further hindered by the refusal of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley Sr. to help him.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, General election
The failure of Nixon’s “50 State Strategy” in 1960 led him to focus on a few electoral-vote-rich states, of which Illinois was one of the most critical. Humphrey lost further in polling during September, and at tend of the first week of October Nixon had a substantial lead. Nevertheless, when the Vice-President campaigned alongside rival former and future Alabama Governor George Wallace, he would gain sharply so that state became extremely close at the beginning of November.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, General election, Results
Republican candidate Richard Nixon won the state of Illinois by a narrow margin of 2.93%. The winning of Illinois was the moment that sealed a close and turbulent election for Nixon, who in the last counting did much better in massively populated Cook County than Goldwater or Nixon himself in 1960.


1968 United States presidential election in Illinois, General election, Results
Nixon won ninety of Illinois’ 102 counties, with Humphrey winning only Cook and St. Clair Counties with absolute majorities, although he carried several other Metro East and southern Illinois counties where he was helped by the backing of unions and a strong vote for Wallace taking much Nixon support. Wallace’s segregationism also went down very poorly in many cities of that latter urban region.


1968 United States presidential election in Indiana
The 1968 United States presidential election in Indiana was held on November 5th, 1968. State voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice-President.


1968 United States presidential election in Indiana, Background
Indiana had been a traditionally Republican state that had turned away from Barry Goldwater in 1964 due to powerful hostility to Goldwater’s leanings from its Yankee and Appalachia-influenced Northern and Southern regions, despite having been the centre of a Democratic primary challenge from segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace that attracted considerable support in towns that would soon become part of the “Rust Belt”. However, Wallace lost by worse than one-to-two against solitary opponent Matthew E. Welsh in Indiana and unlike in Maryland his Indiana support was mostly among the middle classes.


1968 United States presidential election in Indiana, Background
In the mid-term elections, the Republicans made major gains in Southern Indiana with its Appalachia influence and in the significantly German central section, but did less well in the north of the state.


1968 United States presidential election in Indiana, Background
1968 saw Indiana – for the second consecutive election – as the center of a major primary battle, this time involving Bobby Kennedy (who was to be assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan that June). Like his brother John, Bobby was interested in entering a primary in a highly Protestant and Southern-influenced state to test his strength. as JFK had done in West Virginia. RFK would win the state, but his performance was regarded as disappointing especially in white urban areas where he was outpolled by Eugene McCarthy.


1968 United States presidential election in Indiana, Vote
Nixon was able, as expected, to restore Indiana’s Republican dominance, defeating Humphrey by 12.30 percentage points. Wallace, in a state with considerable “Southern” influence, had some late October polls place him even with Humphrey at around 20%, but the former Alabama Governor would lose almost half of this by polling day.


1968 United States presidential election in Indiana, Vote
Wallace gained his most substantial support in urban ethnic districts where resentment of blacks and recent race riots had become substantial over the previous two years, but did not do so well elsewhere in the state since – like Goldwater – he was viewed as too aligned with the Deep South.


1968 United States presidential election in Iowa
The 1968 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Iowa voters chose nine representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Iowa
Iowa was won by the Republican candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon, with 53.01 percent of the popular vote, against the Democratic candidate, former Senator and incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, with 40.82 percent. American Independent Party candidate George Wallace performed decently, finishing with 5.69 percent of the popular vote.


1968 United States presidential election in Kansas
The 1968 United States presidential election in Kansas was held on November 5, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Richard Nixon won Kansas against both Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. Nixon carried every county except traditionally Democratic Wyandotte.


1968 United States presidential election in Kentucky
The 1968 United States presidential election in Kentucky took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Kentucky voters chose 9 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.


1968 United States presidential election in Kentucky
Former Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, won the state with 462,411 votes and 43.79 percent of the vote, with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, taking 397,541 votes and 37.65 percent of the vote, followed by American Party candidate George Wallace, who took 193,098 votes and 18.29 percent of the vote.


1968 United States presidential election in Louisiana
The 1968 United States presidential election in Louisiana was held on November 5, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Along with four other contiguous southern states, former and future Alabama Governor George Wallace won the state for the American Party by a large margin against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Republican Richard Nixon. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Jefferson Parish, St. Tammany Parish, Lafayette Parish, Ouachita Parish, Bossier Parish, Union Parish, and LaSalle Parish did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in Louisiana
With 48.32% of the popular vote, Louisiana would prove to be Wallace's third strongest state after Alabama and Mississippi. This marked the most recent election cycle in which a Republican would win the presidency without carrying Louisiana.


1968 United States presidential election in Maine
The 1968 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all fifty states and D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Maine
Maine was won by incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey by twelve percentage points over Republican challenger and former Vice President Richard M. Nixon. Humphrey received 55.30% of the vote in Maine, which equated to 217,312 total votes to Nixon's 43.07% and 169,254 total votes. Despite Nixon squeaking by Humphrey nationwide, the Vice President's decisive victory in Maine made the state about thirteen percentage points more Democratic than the nation as a whole in 1968. Humphrey's win was almost certainly due to the popularity and consequent "favorite son" status in Maine of his running mate Edmund Muskie.


1968 United States presidential election in Maine
Alabama Governor George Wallace received 6,370 votes on the American Independent ticket with 1.62% of the vote. Despite his significant impact on the election as a whole, Wallace did not have a serious impact in Maine. Indeed, upstate Aroostook County was Wallace's weakest in the nation outside of the District of Columbia where he was not on the ballot.


1968 United States presidential election in Maine
1968 would prove to be the last time that a Democratic presidential nominee would carry the state of Maine until Bill Clinton in 1992, and the last time that a Democrat would win an absolute majority of the popular vote in the state until Clinton also did so in 1996. The state swung heavily towards Richard Nixon in 1972, awarding him over 61 percent of the vote, which no presidential candidate of either party has surpassed since.


1968 United States presidential election in Maine
This is the last election as of 2020 where Maine has not voted for the same candidate as fellow New England state Vermont, and one of only two such cases since 1856. Piscataquis County would never vote Democratic again until 1996, whilst Franklin, Oxford, Penobscot, Sagadahoc and Washington Counties would not vote Democratic again until 1992, and populous Cumberland County not until 1980.


1968 United States presidential election in Maine
This is one of two states (The other being Washington) in which Humphrey won but John F. Kennedy failed to carry in the Election of 1960 also against Richard Nixon.


1968 United States presidential election in Maryland
The 1968 United States presidential election in Maryland was held on November 5, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Maryland was won by Hubert Humphrey by a margin of 20,315 votes against Richard Nixon and by 359,576 votes against George Wallace.


1968 United States presidential election in Maryland
Maryland was the home state of Republican vice presidential nominee Spiro Agnew, who was the sitting Governor of Maryland at the time of the election.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
The 1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose 14 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, over the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon of California. Humphrey's running mate was Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, while Nixon ran with Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Humphrey carried Massachusetts in a landslide, taking 63.01% of the vote to Nixon’s 32.89%, a Democratic victory margin of 30.12%. This made it the second most Democratic state in the nation, after Rhode Island.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
The American Independent candidate, Southern populist Governor George Wallace of Alabama, did not have a serious impact on the race. While taking 13.53% nationally and winning electoral votes from five Deep South states, Wallace would take only 3.73% of the vote in Massachusetts. Wallace’s base of support was in the South, and he had little appeal in New England states. Massachusetts would be Wallace’s fourth weakest state in the nation.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
As Nixon eked out a narrow win of the White House nationally in the Electoral College, Humphrey’s landslide win in Massachusetts made the state a whopping 31% more Democratic than the national average.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, and a Democratic stronghold since 1960 — and the 1960s would prove to be a decade of Democratic dominance in Massachusetts. Prior to 1960, Massachusetts had usually been a swing state, and Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower had carried it by 19 points in 1956. However, in 1960 Massachusetts native John F. Kennedy would become the first Democrat ever to win Massachusetts with over 60% of the vote, taking 60.22%.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
In the midst of the 1964 nationwide Democratic landslide, President Lyndon B. Johnson had carried the state in an historically massive landslide, taking over 76% of the vote in Massachusetts to Republican Barry Goldwater’s 23%. While Humphrey did not reach Johnson’s level of support, his 63.01% outperformed JFK and remains the third highest vote share any Democratic presidential candidate has ever received in the state — even though Humphrey was losing the election nationally, thus establishing the state’s reputation as a Democratic stronghold in the modern era.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Despite the scale of Humphrey’s statewide landslide, he did not sweep every county in Massachusetts. Humphrey won 10 of the state’s 14 counties, while Nixon won 4. However Humphrey performed especially well in the most heavily populated parts of the state surrounding the large cities of Boston, Worcester, and Springfield, while Nixon won only the smallest peninsula and island counties.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Nevertheless, Nixon became the first Republican ever to win the White House without carrying Norfolk County.


1968 United States presidential election in Massachusetts
Four years later, Massachusetts would be the only state in the nation to remain Democratic and vote for George McGovern over Nixon in 1972. Having also voted for John F. Kennedy over Nixon in 1960, Massachusetts would ultimately be the only state in the nation to never vote for Richard Nixon in any of his three presidential campaigns.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
The 1968 United States presidential election in Michigan was held on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and The District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Votes chose 21 electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
Michigan was narrowly won by the Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, defeating the Republican Party candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon, by a margin of 6.72%, making the state 6.79% more Democratic than the national average. American Independent Party candidate, former Alabama governor George Wallace, performed rather well, receiving 10% of the vote.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
Humphrey's margin of victory was significantly down from President Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide 33.6 point triumph in 1964. American involvement in the Vietnam War, plus race riots in Detroit and the rest of the country, brought about unpopularity for the incumbent president and disenchantment towards his political agenda.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
Vice President Humphrey ran on a platform to continue the policies of Johnson's Great Society and support civil rights for African Americans, former Vice President Nixon ran on a law and order platform to combat crime in the nation's cities plus promote new leadership in Vietnam, and Governor Wallace ran a similar law and order campaign with an emphasis on opposition to school desegregation and support for states' rights.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
Although Wallace did not poll as heavily in the Midwest as he did in the South, he was able to appeal to blue collar working class voters who traditionally voted Democrat, but had become disillusioned with the race riots and civil rights. As a result, he siphoned off enough votes to allow Nixon to win every state in the region except for Humphrey's home state of Minnesota and Michigan.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
Even with Michigan being Wallace's second best Midwestern state percentage-wise behind Ohio, Humphrey was able to hold on to the Wolverine State's electoral votes for the Democrats once more, mainly by running up margins in heavily populated Wayne County (Detroit), the surrounding suburban counties of Macomb and Monroe, Genesee County (Flint), and the Upper Peninsula. Nixon would become the first Republican to win the White House without Michigan, the only other one to do so was George W. Bush. Michigan would not vote Democratic again until 1992.


1968 United States presidential election in Michigan
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time Wayne County cast more than a million votes.


1968 United States presidential election in Minnesota
The 1968 United States presidential election in Minnesota took place on November 5, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Minnesota
Minnesota was won by the Democratic Party candidate, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the home-state favorite, won the state over former Vice President Richard Nixon by 199,095 votes, giving him one of his fourteen victories in the election.


1968 United States presidential election in Minnesota
The American candidate, former Alabama governor George Wallace, failed to make a substantial impact in Minnesota, as his base of support was primarily in the Deep South. While Wallace took 13.5% of the national popular vote and won five states of the former Confederacy, he only took 4.43% of the vote in Minnesota, his weakest state in the Midwestern United States.


1968 United States presidential election in Minnesota
Nationally, Nixon won the election with 301 electoral votes, though he led Humphrey by less than a percent in the popular vote. The election permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition, which had been dominant in presidential politics since 1932.


1968 United States presidential election in Minnesota
Until 2016, this was the last presidential election in Minnesota where any county was won with over seventy percent of the popular vote. In 2016, Donald Trump carried Morrison County with 73% of the vote, and Todd County with 70.75% of the vote. In this case, Humphrey won the following counties over this threshold: Carlton County, Lake County, and Saint Louis County. Nixon became the first Republican to win a  presidential election without winning Minnesota.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi
The 1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 5, 1968. Mississippi voters chose seven electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice-President.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Background
During the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement dictated Mississippi's politics, with effectively the entire white population vehemently opposed to federal policies of racial desegregation and black voting rights. In 1960, the state had been narrowly captured by a slate of unpledged Democratic electors but in 1964 universal white opposition to the Civil Rights Act and "War on Poverty" and zero or negligible black voter registration meant that white Mississippians – apart from a small number in the northeastern red clay hills who feared loss of public works – turned almost unanimously to Republican Barry Goldwater.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Background
Goldwater's support for "constitutional government and local self-rule" meant that the absence from the ballot of "states' rights" parties was unimportant. The Arizona Senator was one of only six Republicans to vote against the Civil Rights Act, and Goldwater's staunchly conservative policies caused the small Mississippi electorate to almost unanimously support him over the "big government" Johnson.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Background
Following the Voting Rights Act, Federal examiners registered Mississippi blacks as voters in large numbers: African-American registration rose from under seven percent to over fifty-nine percent between mid-1965 and 1968. Extreme anger ensued among white Mississippians, because black voting in significant numbers would threaten the entire social fabric of the Black Belt and was even feared by the few upcountry whites who had stayed loyal to Johnson as potentially causing social breakdown.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Background
The anger of Mississippi's whites was seen in the 1967 Democratic gubernatorial primary when both Black Belt whites and their traditional foes in the upcountry supported conservative John Bell Williams against William Winter whom it was believed was favored by the newly registered blacks – although it remained political suicide to openly court black support.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Background
In addition, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and resultant abolition of Mississippi's rigorous poll tax requirements for voting had allowed large increases in white, as well as black, voter registration, with some of these drives done by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Consequently, when segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace announced in early 1968 that he would mount a third-party candidacy for the Presidency, he had a powerful base in his native Deep South. Meanwhile, the Republican Party in the 1966 mid-term elections had of necessity moved away from the strident conservatism of Goldwater – who had been replaced as Republican National Congress Chairman by Ray Bliss.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Background
Given Wallace's firmly established reputation as a segregationist, it was inevitable that he would be endorsed by Mississippi's established Democratic Party leadership, and this happened in September. William Winter, the losing candidate for Governor the previous year, did support Democratic nominee and sitting Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, but knew that it would be too risky to actively campaign for him.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Vote
By August, there was virtual unanimity that Wallace would carry Mississippi by a large margin, as apart from a small number of wealthy urban communities, he had captured a virtual monopoly of the state's white electorate, including the small minority who had backed Johnson. Wallace was the only candidate to do any campaigning: Nixon did not campaign in the state at all, and won more than twenty percent of the vote in just four of the state's 82 counties. This was the second presidential election which Richard Nixon came in third place in Mississippi.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Vote
Humphrey improved upon the support gained by Johnson, but this was entirely due to the huge increases in black voter registration – exit polls suggest the national Democratic nominee received less than 5 percent of the white vote. In fact, so marked was the reversal of voting patterns from the previous five presidential elections that Humphrey did worst in the counties where Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson and Harry S. Truman had run best.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Vote
With 63.46% of the popular vote, Mississippi would prove to be Wallace's second strongest state in the 1968 election after neighboring Alabama.


1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi, Vote
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which the following counties did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate: Forrest, Lowndes, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lincoln, Newton, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Harrison, Jackson, Choctaw, Jones, and Smith. It is also the last election in which the Republican nominee won the presidency without carrying Mississippi.


1968 United States presidential election in Missouri
The 1968 United States presidential election in Missouri took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Missouri
Former Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, narrowly won Missouri with 811,932 votes and 44.87% of the vote, with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, taking 791,444 votes and 43.74% of the vote, followed by American Independent George Wallace, who took 206,126 votes and 11.39% of the vote. Wallace's strongest support came from the Missouri Bootheel, with its significant rural black population and powerful cultural and geographic ties to Kentucky's Jackson Purchase, the Arkansas Delta and West Tennessee. He carried the state's southeasternmost county, Pemiscot, and ran second ahead of Nixon in two others nearby. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Missouri voted for a different candidate than neighboring Arkansas.


1968 United States presidential election in Montana
The 1968 United States presidential election in Montana took place on November 5, 1968, and was part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Montana
Montana voted for the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon won Montana by a large margin of 9.01%. A third-party candidate, former Alabama Governor George Wallace, won 7.29% of the vote, or 20,015 raw votes, the highest percentage for a 3rd party candidate in the state since Robert M. La Follette in 1924, and would not be surpassed or equaled until Independent John B. Anderson in 1980, who went on to receive 8.05% of the vote, or 29,281 raw votes. Wallace was most successful in the mountain regions, which have a tradition of hostility to Washington D.C. interference, and also to Northeastern big business. Wallace possessed little appeal in heavily German and Scandinavian Plains regions.


1968 United States presidential election in Montana
As of the 2020 presidential election, this remains the last occasion the Democratic presidential nominee has carried Jefferson County, where Humphrey won a 22-vote plurality.


1968 United States presidential election in Nebraska
The 1968 United States presidential election in Nebraska took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose five representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Nebraska
Nebraska was won by the Republican candidate former Vice President Richard Nixon, with 59.82% of the popular vote, against the Democratic candidate former Senator and incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, with 31.81% of the popular vote. American candidate George Wallace performed decently, finishing with 8.36% of the popular vote.


1968 United States presidential election in Nebraska
With 59.82% of the popular vote, Nebraska would prove to be Nixon's best state in the election, just as it had been eight years earlier.


1968 United States presidential election in Nevada
The 1968 United States presidential election in Nevada took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose three representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Nevada, Background
Since William Jennings Bryan's three elections, Nevada had been a bellwether state voting for every winner since 1912. However, relative to the nation the Silver State had trended Republican since the end of World War II when Populist radicalism gave way to small-town and rural conservatism due to demographic and technological change. Although Democrats had a large advantage in registration, the 1966 midterm elections saw Republican Lieutenant Governor Paul Laxalt take most of the Mormon and Catholic vote in traditionally Democratic Clark County, which was becoming the center of the state's rapid demographic growth. This Republican trend was aided by a fall in demand for construction work in Las Vegas and several major strikes across the state.


1968 United States presidential election in Nevada, Background
In the early stages of the campaign, the Democratic Party viewed Nixon – despite losing strongly Catholic Nevada to Kennedy in 1960 – as much more dangerous in Nevada than Ronald Reagan or George Romney. As a part of his national third party segregationist campaign, former Alabama Governor George Wallace became the first third-party candidate to obtain the necessary eight thousand signatures to get on the ballot in Nevada since his namesake for the "Progressive Party" in 1948.


1968 United States presidential election in Nevada, Vote
In the earliest polls Nevada's past Republican trend was confirmed, with it being given clearly to Nixon in the second week of September, and confirmed by further polls until the last few days before the election. During this period Humphrey made a brief visit to Nevada and came back substantially nationwide, whilst a strong poll for Wallace made the state doubtful.


1968 United States presidential election in Nevada, Vote
Ultimately former Vice President Richard Nixon, with 47.46% of the popular vote, won Nevada more substantially than predicted by the last polls, though by less than thought likely in September and early October. "Independent American" candidate George Wallace finished with 13.25% of the popular vote, close to his national average but his best performance outside the Confederacy and Border States. Wallace's success was largely due to his endorsement by state congressman Walter S. Baring Jr., a conservative "States' Rights Democrat" who consistently managed huge majorities in Nevada's rural 'Cow Counties' (the 14 counties apart from Clark, Washoe, and Carson City).


1968 United States presidential election in Nevada, Vote
Nixon had previously lost Nevada in 1960 but would later win it a second time in 1972.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
The 1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
New Hampshire was won by the Republican nominees, former Vice President Richard Nixon of California and his running mate Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland. Nixon and Agnew defeated the Democratic nominees, incumbent Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and his running mate Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Nixon took 52.10% of the vote to Humphrey's 43.93%, a margin of 8.18%.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Like the rest of Upper New England, New Hampshire in this era normally leaned Republican, however the state had voted overwhelmingly Democratic just four years earlier in 1964, when the staunch conservatism of Republican Barry Goldwater drove the liberal Northeastern United States, including New Hampshire, to deliver landslide victories to Democratic incumbent Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1964 Johnson had carried New Hampshire by a landslide 64–36 margin.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
In 1968, the GOP sought to recover from their crippling defeat with Goldwater, and the party looked to former Vice President and the party’s narrowly defeated 1960 presidential nominee, Richard Nixon. Nixon was seen as a mainstream moderate Republican who could unite the competing factions of the Republican Party, and win back the moderate voters that Goldwater had alienated. The party recovered successfully and won back the White House and New Hampshire was returned to the Republican column. However, with four of the six New England states voting for Humphrey, New Hampshire became one of the two New England states (the other being neighboring Vermont) to vote for Nixon.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
The “George Wallace Party” candidate, Southern populist Governor George Wallace of Alabama, did not have a serious impact on the race. While taking 13.53% nationally and winning electoral votes from five Southern states, Wallace would take only 3.76% of the vote in New Hampshire. Wallace’s base of support was in the South, and he had practically no appeal in Northeastern states like New Hampshire. New Hampshire would be Wallace’s fifth weakest state in the nation.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
The county map results followed a familiar pattern of the post-New Deal era, with Nixon winning seven counties to Humphrey’s three. Since Franklin Roosevelt’s election in 1932, in every close election or Democratic victory, Hillsborough County, Strafford County, and Coös County would vote Democratic, while Carroll County would be the most Republican county. This pattern endured in 1968 for the last time, with Humphrey winning the three core New Deal Democratic counties, while Carroll County was the only county in the state where Nixon broke seventy percent of the vote. Humphrey's strongest county was Coös County, which he won by a 53–44 margin – this being along with 2004 one of only three occurrences since 1892 when Coös County has supported a losing presidential candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
As Nixon narrowly eked out a victory over Humphrey nationally, New Hampshire's results in 1968 made the state about 7% more Republican than the national average.


1968 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Nixon had previously won New Hampshire in 1960 and would later win it again in 1972.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
The 1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 17 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
New Jersey was won by the Republican nominees, former Vice President Richard Nixon of California and his running mate Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland. Nixon and Agnew defeated the Democratic nominees, incumbent Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and his running mate Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine. Also in the running was the American Independent Party candidate, Governor George Wallace of Alabama, and his running mate U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay of California.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Nixon carried New Jersey with a plurality of 46.10% to Humphrey's 43.97%, a margin of 2.13%. In a distant third came Wallace with 9.12%.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Despite the closeness of the statewide result, Nixon won a strong majority of the state's 21 counties, taking 14 counties, while Humphrey won 7. Humphrey kept the race fairly close by performing strongly in heavily populated core Democratic counties like Essex County, Hudson County, and Mercer County, along with winning Democratic-leaning counties like Middlesex County, Camden County, Atlantic County, and Cumberland County. Other highly populated counties like Passaic County and Union County were won by Nixon but only by narrow margins. Passaic County went to Nixon 46.3—43.1, while Union County went to Nixon by a razor-thin 45.7—45.5 margin.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
Nixon was able to take the advantage statewide however with a big win in heavily populated Bergen County, taking 54.5% of the vote there, along with wins in several other fairly populated suburban counties like Monmouth County and Morris County, as well as winning many rural counties. Nixon's strongest county by vote share was rural Sussex County, where he received 61.7% of the vote to Humphrey's 28.5%. Humphrey's strongest county by vote share was urban Essex County, where he received 51.9% of the vote to Nixon's 39.2%.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
George Wallace, running on a Southern populist platform, finished a distant third in New Jersey, with a single-digit vote share percentage. But this was still a surprisingly strong performance for Wallace in a Northeastern state like New Jersey. Discounting the border states of Maryland and Delaware, Wallace's 9.12% in New Jersey was the highest statewide vote share he received out of any Northeastern state. Wallace performed most strongly in South Jersey, where he broke into double-digit support in several counties. Wallace's strongest county was Gloucester County, a rural county in the southwestern portion of the state by the Delaware border, where he received 15.5% of the vote.


1968 United States presidential election in New Jersey
New Jersey in this era was a swing state with a slight Republican lean, and this pattern continued with the results of 1968. In the midst of a narrow Republican victory nationally, New Jersey voted basically how the nation voted, its result being just 1% more Republican than the national average.


1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico
The 1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 5, 1968. All fifty states and The District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico, Background
New Mexico had been a long-time political bellwether, having supported the winning candidate in every presidential election since statehood in 1912. However, a definite Republican trend was detectable in 1964, when Goldwater was able to win a vote share two percent above his national mean and Johnson feared losing traditionally Southern Democratic "Little Texas".


1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico, Background
The 1966 midterm elections saw the state join with larger "Sunbelt" dynamics and Democratic candidates for statewide offices would lose twelve percent or more of their previous vote share, in the process showing that Hispanic candidates were becoming a liability in Albuquerque and the east due to considerable in-migration, and legislative GOP percentages reached levels not observed for over four decades.


1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico, Background
Local issues of public school finance and land-grant claims for the Hispanic and Native American populations of the state proved a further liability for the incumbent Democratic Party. The issue of the stalemated Vietnam War was another problem for the Democratic Party in a state severely affected by poverty, and anti-war Eugene McCarthy gained substantial support among New Mexico Democrats before the assassination of Bobby Kennedy largely turned them toward eventual nominee Hubert Humphrey.


1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico, Vote
Incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and segregationist American Independent Party candidate and former Governor of Alabama George Wallace campaigned in New Mexico during the autumn, whilst running mate Spiro Agnew did all the campaigning for Republican Richard Nixon in the state. Despite his failure to visit, New Mexico was won by former Vice President Nixon by a 12-point margin against Humphrey.


1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico, Vote
Wallace, far from his base in the Deep South, did well among lower-middle class unionized workers and farmers in the "Little Texas" region, but received some of his poorest national percentages in the north-central highland regions – Mora County gave Wallace his eleventh-smallest vote share of any county in the country.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
The 1968 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 43 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
New York was won by incumbent Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was running against former Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. Hubert Humphrey ran with Maine Senator Edmund Muskie for vice president, and Nixon ran with Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew. Former and future Alabama Governor George Wallace ran a strong third-party insurgent campaign as a Southern populist with his American Independent Party.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
Humphrey took 49.76% of the vote to Nixon's 44.30%, a victory margin of 5.46 points. Wallace, a mostly Southern-oriented candidate, came in a distant third, with 5.29 percent. He did best in suburban and exurban counties around New York, and reached double figures in some wholly Italian-American precincts. In these, Wallace's pro-segregation stance was popular due to African-Americans taking over the national Democratic Party locally; however in the inner cities and upstate counties his views were seen as repugnant.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
New York weighed in for this election as 7% more Democratic than the national average.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
The presidential election of 1968 was a very multi-partisan election for New York, with almost six percent of the electorate voting for Third Parties. In typical form for the time, the highly populated centers of New York City, Buffalo, and Albany, voted Democratic, while the smaller counties in New York turned out for Nixon as the Republican candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
Despite Nixon winning a strong majority of the state's counties, Humphrey's dominant performance in massively populated New York City provided him with his statewide victory, receiving 60.6% of the vote in the five boroughs to Nixon's 33.9%, a 26.7 percent Democratic victory margin in the City of New York amounting to a raw vote advantage for Humphrey of 695,722 votes, providing all of Humphrey's 370,538 statewide vote advantage.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
Humphrey won the election in New York with a strong 5% margin. The election results in New York represent a trend in the national mentality towards progressive politics, resulting from nationwide emergence of the hippie counterculture, the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., numerous demonstrations in opposition to the Vietnam War, and the violent confrontation between police and protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Humphrey was seen by many as promising to continue the reformist legacy of President Johnson, and this garnered him much support by liberal voters across America.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
Nationwide, the election of 1968 was very contentious across the United States. Nixon, running on a largely socially conservative agenda, was able to attain victory nationwide with less than 1% popular lead on Humphrey, while the historically one-party Democratic stronghold of the Deep South turned out en masse for their own George Wallace, who was spearheading the new American Independent Party.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
This was the first time since Samuel J. Tilden won the state in 1876 that New York voted for a losing Democratic candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election where New York had the highest number of electoral votes.


1968 United States presidential election in New York
As Nixon declared New York as his state of legal residence at the time, this marked the second most recent cycle in which a major party's presidential nominee declared New York as his home state only to change it to another state in the succeeding cycle as Nixon would change his home state back to his native California before the 1972 presidential election. This would happen again in 2016 when Donald Trump stood for president as a resident of New York but changed his home state to Florida before the 2020 election. Richard Nixon is one of 4 presidents to lose his home state on a successful presidential bid. The others are James K. Polk, Woodrow Wilson, and Donald Trump.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
The 1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 5, 1968, and was part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
Whereas in the Deep South, Black Belt whites had deserted the national Democratic Party in 1948, in North Carolina, where they had historically been an economically liberalising influence on the state Democratic Party, the white landowners of the Black Belt had stayed exceedingly loyal to the party until after the Voting Rights Act. This allowed North Carolina to be alongside Arkansas the only state to vote for Democrats in all four presidential elections between 1952 and 1964.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
Indeed, the state had not voted Republican since anti-catholic fervor lead it to support Herbert Hoover over Al Smith in 1928; and other than that the state had not voted republican once in the near century since the reconstruction era election of 1872. Nonetheless, in 1964 Republican Barry Goldwater won a small majority of white voters, although he was beaten by virtually universal support for incumbent President Lyndon Johnson by a black vote estimated at 175,000.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
However, with the VRA's passage, a reaction set in amongst these, and indeed amongst almost all Southern poor whites outside the unionised coalfields of Appalachia. Former Alabama Governor George Wallace, running in North Carolina under the moniker of the “American Party”, appealed very strongly to most white voters in the eastern half of the state who had become extremely critical of black protesters, student radicals, and rising crime rates.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
In early polls it was thought that Wallace would carry the state, but a major swing against him and toward Republican nominee Richard Nixon during October and November saw Nixon win the state, with 39.5% of the vote, whilst Wallace's 31.3% still pushed Democratic nominee and incumbent Vice-President Hubert Humphrey into third on 29.2%.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
The Alabama segregationist carried almost all of the Piedmont and Outer Banks, and some Black Belt areas where black voter registration was still limited – the very areas that had allowed John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson II to carry North Carolina when other Outer South states went Republican. In these previously loyal regions whites felt President Johnson had moved much too far on civil rights issues, and consequent support for highly segregationist candidates in Democratic primary elections led them naturally to Wallace.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
Humphrey had very limited support outside of black voters, who were estimated to comprise well over half his total vote in the state, with his share of the white vote totalling less than 20 percent and coming mainly from some traditionally Democratic mountain counties and the university communities of Orange and Durham counties.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
Nixon won twelve of the state's electoral votes, while one faithless elector that had been pledged to Nixon voted instead for Wallace. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Wayne County and Lenoir County did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in North Carolina
This is one of five states, alongside Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and South Carolina in which Hubert Humphrey came in third place. Alongside Richard Nixon's third place finishes in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, it is the penultimate election in which a Republican or Democrat placed third (the final being in Maine and Utah in 1992, where Ross Perot's strong showing forced George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, respectively, into third place).


1968 United States presidential election in North Dakota
The 1968 United States presidential election in North Dakota took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice President.


1968 United States presidential election in North Dakota
North Dakota was won by former Vice President Richard Nixon (Republican Party, California), with 55.94% of the popular vote, against Vice President Hubert Humphrey (Democratic Party, Minnesota), with 38.23% of the popular vote, a 17.71% margin of victory. Independent candidate George Wallace received 5.75% of the popular vote. North Dakota was Nixon's fourth strongest state after Nebraska, Idaho and Utah.


1968 United States presidential election in North Dakota
This is the last election in which North Dakota had four electoral college votes; it lost its 2nd district due to reapportionment based on the 1970 Census.


1968 United States presidential election in Ohio
The 1968 United States presidential election in Ohio took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and The District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Ohio voters chose 26 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Ohio
Ohio was won by the Republican Party candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon by a narrow margin of 2.28%. Nixon won the vast majority of Ohio’s counties, including the major cities of Columbus, Cincinnati, Canton and Hamilton. The Democratic Party candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, kept the race close by winning the major cities of Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Youngstown, Lorain, and Springfield.


1968 United States presidential election in Ohio
The American Independent Party candidate, former Alabama governor George Wallace, had his best performance in the Midwestern United States, taking 11.81% of the popular vote, despite being far from his base of support in the Deep South. This was due to Ohio's presence along the borders of Kentucky and West Virginia, which are considered part of the southern United States. In the north, Wallace appealed to blue-collar workers and union members who usually voted Democratic, but who had become disgruntled with the racial violence and anti-Vietnam War protests. As a result, this split in the Democratic vote between Humphrey and Wallace was enough for Nixon to narrowly carry Ohio.


1968 United States presidential election in Ohio
As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Mercer County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in Oklahoma
The 1968 United States presidential election in Oklahoma took place on November 5, 1968. All fifty states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.


1968 United States presidential election in Oklahoma
Former Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee, won the state of Oklahoma with 449,697 votes and 47.68 percent of the vote, with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, the Democratic nominee, taking 301,658 votes and 31.99 percent of the vote, followed by American Independent George Wallace, who took 191,731 votes and 20.33 percent of the vote. Wallace’s performance is the second-best by a third-party candidate in the Sooner State, behind Ross Perot in 1992. The Wallace pluralities in Atoka and Pushmataha Counties in the southeast marked the only occasion that a third-party candidate has ever carried any Oklahoma county.


1968 United States presidential election in Oregon
The 1968 United States presidential election in Oregon took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose six representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Oregon
Oregon was won by former Vice President Richard Nixon (R–New York), with 49.83% of the popular vote, against Vice President Hubert Humphrey (D–Minnesota), with 43.78% of the popular vote. Independent candidate George Wallace finished with 6.06% of Oregon's popular vote. As of 2020, this is the last time Oregon and neighboring Washington did not vote for the same presidential candidate.


1968 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
The 1968 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 5, 1968, and was part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 29 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania voted for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, over the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon. Humphrey won Pennsylvania by a margin of 3.57%. A third-party candidate, former Alabama Governor George Wallace, played a significant role by winning 7.97% of the vote. This marked the first election since 1948 that a presidential candidate won the national election without carrying Pennsylvania. That did not happen again until 2000, along with 2004, when George W. Bush would win the presidential election both times without carrying Pennsylvania. This was also the first election that a Republican candidate was elected without carrying the state.


1968 United States presidential election in Rhode Island
The 1968 United States presidential election in Rhode Island took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose four representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in Rhode Island
Rhode Island was won by the Democratic candidate, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, with 64.03% of the popular vote, against the Republican candidate, former Senator and Vice President Richard Nixon, with 31.78% of the popular vote. American Independent Party candidate George Wallace also appeared on the ballot, finishing with 4.07% of the popular vote. Despite the state trending 30 points Republican after setting a record in 1964 since then as of 2020, the state continued to overwhelmingly vote for the Democratic candidate in 1968.


1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina
The 1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.


1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina, Background
For six decades up to 1950 South Carolina was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as the Palmetto State completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession. Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population (or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population).


1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina, Background
Following Harry S. Truman’s To Secure These Rights in 1947, the following year South Carolina’s small electorate overwhelmingly rejected him in favour of state Governor Strom Thurmond, who won 71 percent of the state’s limited electorate and every county except poor white industrial Anderson and Spartanburg. During the 1950s, the state’s wealthier and more urbanized whites became extremely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party and to a lesser extent with the federal administration of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.


1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina, Background
However, aided by the state’s abolition of its poll tax in 1950, the poor white upcountry provided enough support to national Democrats Adlai Stevenson II and John F. Kennedy to, aided by substantial majorities amongst the small but increasing number of blacks able to vote, keep the state in Democratic hands.


1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina, Background
During the 1950s, wealthy textile mill owners in the upcountry developed a grassroots state Republican Party dedicated to the tenets of the John Birch Society. This group nominated the most conservative delegation at the party’s 1960 convention. These wealthy businessmen would merge with hardline segregationists to draft Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination in 1960 and join forces therein by 1964, when Thurmond, now a US Senator, switched his registration from Democratic to Republican to support Goldwater in his presidential campaign. By sweeping the lowcountry and reducing Democratic majorities in the upcountry, Goldwater won the state by almost eighteen percent.


1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina, Background
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 severely angered those poor whites who had remained loyal to the national Democratic Party. Their generally extreme social conservatism and hostility towards opportunities for blacks led poor white Deep Southerners to former Alabama Governor George Wallace who had attracted national attention for his support of segregation in his first term and entered Democratic Party primaries in 1964 with substantial success even in northern states. Wallace would develop a powerful third-party presidential campaign after he left the governor’s office in 1967 amidst a sweeping rejection of the Democratic Party, and it was clear that discontent with racial liberalization was universal across white America.