In the 1964 U.S. presidential election, Senator Barry Goldwater quickly became the likely Republican Party nominee. Goldwater represented a new wave of American conservatism, of which the moderate Romney was not a part. Romney also felt that Goldwater would be a drag on Republicans running in all the other races that year, including Romney's own (at the time, Michigan had two-year terms for its governor). Finally, Romney disagreed strongly with Goldwater's views on civil rights; he would later say, "Whites and Negroes, in my opinion, have "got" to learn to know each other. Barry Goldwater didn't have any background to understand this, to fathom them, and I couldn't get through to him."