United States presidential election, 1964
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The U.S. presidential election of 1964 was one of the most lopsided presidential elections in United States history. President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier upon the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, and Johnson had successfully associated himself with Kennedy's popularity. Johnson also successfully painted his opponent, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, as an extremist who might plunge the country into nuclear war. With both of these factors working for him, Johnson easily won the Presidency, carrying 44 of the 50 states. As of 2006, Johnson's 22.6 percentage point-margin of victory in the popular vote is the third-largest such margin in Presidential election history (after Franklin Roosevelt's 24.3 percentage point margin over Alf Landon in the 1936 election and Richard Nixon's 23.2 percentage point margin over George McGovern in the 1972 election).
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[edit] Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
President Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963. Supporters were saddened by the loss of the charismatic president, while opposition candidates were put in the awkward situation of running against the policies of a slain president.
During the following period of mourning, Republican leaders called for a political moratorium, perhaps so as not to appear disrespectful. Most political pundits agreed the political outlook following the assassination of the president was quite unclear for some time.
[edit] Nominations
[edit] Republican Party nomination
The Republican Party was more divided. Richard Nixon, who had been beaten by Kennedy in a close election, and subsequently lost the 1962 election for Governor of California, decided not to run. Barry Goldwater, a Senator from Arizona, was the champion of the conservative wing of the party, which was dissatisfied with what it perceived as the dominance of the party's Eastern liberal wing. Goldwater was opposed most notably by Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York; and William Scranton, the Governor of Pennsylvania.
In the New Hampshire primary, the voters gave a surprising victory to the ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Nixon's running mate in 1960 and a former Massachusetts senator, who was a write-in candidate.
Lodge went on to win the Massachusetts and New Jersey primaries before finally deciding that the race wasn't really worth it.
Despite the defeat in New Hampshire, Goldwater went on, winning party caucuses, and the Illinois, Texas, and Indiana primaries with little opposition and Nebraska's after a stiff challenge from a draft-Nixon group. Also, Nelson Rockefeller won the West Virginia and Oregon primaries against Goldwater, and William Scranton won in his home state of Pennsylvania, and both had won several caucuses.
The main showdown was in California. Rockefeller's divorce had been a touchy issue early on but had been pretty much forgotten until shortly before the primary, when the birth of his son Nelson, Jr. brought the issue of adultery front and center. "Rocky" lost crucial support, and Goldwater won the primary, thus clinching the nomination.
The Convention at San Francisco's Cow Palace arena was one of the meanest on record, with Rockefeller being soundly booed when he came to the podium for his speech. The Presidential tally was as follows:
-
- Barry Goldwater 883
- William Scranton 214
- Nelson Rockefeller 114
- George Romney 41
- Margaret Chase Smith 27
- Walter Judd 22
- Hiram Fong 5
- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. 2
The vice presidential nod went to Party Chairman William E. Miller, because, according to Goldwater, "he drives Johnson nuts."
In accepting his nomination, he uttered his most famous phrase: “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
[edit] Democratic Nomination
The nomination of Johnson was assured, but he wanted to control the convention and avoid a public fight over civil rights.
At the national convention the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) claimed the seats for delegates for Mississippi, not on the grounds of the Party rules, but because the official Mississippi delegation had been elected by a Jim Crow primary. The party's liberal leaders supported an even division of the seats between the two delegations; Johnson was concerned that, while the regular Democrats of Mississippi would probably vote for Goldwater anyway, rejecting them would lose him the South. Eventually, Hubert Humphrey. Walter Reuther and the black civil rights leaders including Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King, and Bayard Rustin worked out a compromise: the MFDP took two seats; the regular Mississippi delegation was required to pledge to support the party ticket; and no future Democratic convention would accept a delegation chosen by a discriminatory poll. Joseph Rauh, the MFDP's lawyer, initially refused this deal, but they eventually took their seats. Many white delegates from Mississippi and Alabama refused to sign any pledge, and left the convention; any many young civil rights workers were offended by any compromise. [1] Johnson carried the South as a whole in the election, but lost the white vote in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina.
[edit] General election
[edit] Campaign
Although Goldwater had been successful in rallying conservatives, his charisma seemed to be inadequate for the general election. Shortly before the Republican convention, he had alienated most Republicans by his vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which Johnson championed and signed into law. Goldwater argued that it was a matter for the individual states rather than federal legislation. Earlier comments followed Goldwater throughout his campaign. Once he called the Eisenhower administration “a dime store New Deal”, and the former president never fully forgave him. In December 1961, he told a news conference that “sometimes I think this country would be better off if we could just saw off the Eastern Seaboard and let it float out to sea.” That comment came back to haunt him, in the form of a Johnson television commercial, as did remarks about making Social Security voluntary and selling the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Eisenhower’s strong backing could have been an asset to the Goldwater campaign, but instead its absence was clearly noticed. When questioned about the Presidential capabilities of the former President's younger brother, university administrator Milton S. Eisenhower, in July 1964, Goldwater replied, “One Eisenhower in a generation is enough.” The former president did, however, agree to appear in one Goldwater television advertisement[1].
Johnson positioned himself as a moderate, and succeeded in portraying Goldwater as an extremist. Goldwater had a habit of making blunt statements about war, nuclear weapons, and economics that could be turned against him. Most famously, the Johnson campaign broadcast a television commercial on September 7 dubbed the “Daisy Girl” ad, which featured a little girl picking petals from a daisy in a field, counting the petals, which then segues into a launch countdown and a nuclear explosion. The ads were in response to Goldwater's advocacy of “tactical” nuclear weapons use in Vietnam. Another Johnson ad, “Confessions of a Republican”, tied Goldwater to the Ku Klux Klan. Voters increasingly viewed Goldwater as a right wing fringe candidate—his slogan “In your heart, you know he's right” was successfully parodied by the Johnson campaign into “In your guts, you know he's nuts,” or “In your heart, you know he might.” (some cynics wore buttons saying "Even Johnson is better than Goldwater!")
The Johnson campaign's greatest concern may have been voter complacency leading to low turnout in key states. To counter this, all of Johnson's broadcast ads concluded with the line: “Vote for President Johnson on November 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home.” The Democratic campaign used two other slogans, “All the way with LBJ.” and “LBJ for the USA.”
The election campaign was disrupted on October 20, 1964, with the passing of former president Herbert Hoover, because it was considered disrespectful to be campaigning during a time of mourning.
[edit] Results
The election was held on November 3, 1964. Johnson crushed Goldwater in the general election, winning over 61 percent of the popular vote, the largest percentage since the popular vote first became widespread in 1824. In the end, Goldwater won only his native state of Arizona and five Deep South states that had been increasingly alienated by Democratic civil rights policies. Because states like Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia had not voted Republican in any presidential election since Reconstruction, this was a major transition point for the South, and an important step in the process by which the Democrats' former “Solid South” became a Republican bastion. Nonetheless, Johnson still managed to eke out a bare popular majority of 51%–49% (6.307 to 5.993 million) in the eleven former Confederate states.
The Johnson landslide defeated many conservative Republican congressmen, giving him a majority that could overcome the Conservative coalition.
(This is the first election to have participation of the District of Columbia as the "51st State" under the 23rd Amendment to the US Constitution.)
| Presidential Candidate | Party | Home State | Popular Vote | Electoral Vote | Running Mate | Running Mate's Home State |
Running Mate's Electoral Vote |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | |||||||
| Lyndon Baines Johnson | Democratic | Texas | 43,127,041 | 61.1% | 486 | Hubert Horatio Humphrey | Minnesota | 486 |
| Bartholomew Morris Goldwater | Republican | Arizona | 27,175,754 | 38.5% | 52 | William Edward Miller | New York | 52 |
| (unpledged electors) | Democratic | (n/a) | 210,732 | 0.3% | 0 | (n/a) | (n/a) | 0 |
| Other | 125,757 | 0.2% | 0 | Other | 0 | |||
| Total | 70,639,284 | 100.0% | 538 | Total | 538 | |||
| Needed to win | 270 | Needed to win | 270 | |||||
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1964 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (August 7, 2005).
Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (August 7, 2005).
[edit] Consequences
While losing quite badly in the 1964 election, Goldwater laid the foundation for the conservative revolution to follow. Ronald Reagan's speech on Goldwater's behalf, grassroots organization, and the conservative takeover of the Republican party would all help to bring about the "Reagan Revolution" of the 1980s. Indeed, many of today's leading conservatives first entered politics to work for Goldwater.
Johnson went from his victory in the 1964 election to launch the Great Society program at home, signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and starting the War on Poverty. He also escalated the Vietnam War, which corroded his popularity. By 1968, Johnson was so unpopular that he had to withdraw as a candidate. Moreover, his domestic policies helped split union members and Southerners away from Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic New Deal Coalition, which would lead to the phenomenon of the "Reagan Democrat". Of the ten presidential elections that followed, Democrats would win only three times. Columnist George Will had this to say about the lasting effects of the 1964 election, "It took 16 years to count the votes, and Goldwater won."
[edit] Trivia
- The 1964 election was the only time in American history where all of the outer southern states (Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia) went for one political party and all of the deep southern states (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina) went for the other political party.
- This was the first election in which the District of Columbia participated in the electoral college. There were 538 electors, compared to 537 in 1960; included were 3 electors for the District of Columbia, but this was offset by the U.S. House of Representatives membership going from 437 back to 435 when it was reapportioned in accordance with the 1960 census.
- 1964 would be the last time in which any candidate from the two major parties would receive at least 80% of the popular vote in a statewide contest (excluding the District of Columbia). Johnson took 81% of the Rhode Island popular vote, and Goldwater took 87% of the Mississippi popular vote.
- Johnson received 63% of the popular vote in his home state of Texas. That would be the only southern state in which he would receive a higher percentage of the popular vote than his national average (61%).
- Despite the assassination of John F. Kennedy being a catalyst for the Democrat landslide in 1964, Robert Kennedy received only 54% of the popular vote in his US Senate campaign in New York. Meanwhile, Lyndon Johnson received a whopping 69% of the popular vote in his Presidential campaign in New York.
- Of the 19 states that voted for John Kerry in 2004, Johnson received at least 60% of the popular vote in 17 of those states. California and Illinois which are now Democratic strongholds were the only two of these 19 states that Johnson did not receive at least 60% of the popular vote.
- The 1964 election was the only election between 1952 and 1988 in which the Democratic Presidential candidate carried the state of California. Many credit the Democrats' failure in California to the fact that Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were on the Presidential ticket seven times in those ten elections. Since 1988 California has voted for the Democratic candidate four consecutive times by double digits.
- Most notably, 1964 was the last time a Democratic Presidential candidate received a majority of white voters.
[edit] See also
- American Conservatism
- History of the United States (1964–1980)
- History of the United States Democratic Party
- History of the United States Republican Party
- United States Senate election, 1964
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Books
- (1972) in George H. Gallup (ed.): The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971, 3 vols., Random House.
- (1990) in Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle (ed.): The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930–1980.
- (2001) in Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. (ed.): History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2000.
- Barone, Michael; Grant Ujifusa (1967). The Almanac of American Politics 1966: The Senators, the Representatives and the Governors: Their Records and Election Results, Their States and Districts.
- Brennan, Mary C. (1995). Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the G. O. P.. University of North Carolina Press.
- Dallek, Robert (2004). Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President.
- Donaldson, Gary (2003). Liberalism's Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964. M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 0-7656-1119-8.
- Rowland Evans and Robert Novak; Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power (1966) online
- Goldberg, Robert Alan (1995). Barry Goldwater.
- Hamby, Alonzo (1992). Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush.
- Hodgson, Godfrey (1996). The World Turned Right Side Up: A History of the Conservative Ascendancy in America. Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Jensen, Richard (1983). Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854–1983.
- Kolkey, Jonathan Martin (1983). The New Right, 1960–1968: With Epilogue, 1969–1980.
- Ladd, Everett Carll, Jr.; Charles D. Hadley (1978). Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s, 2nd ed..
- Lesher, Stephan (1995). George Wallace.
- Matthews, Jeffrey J. (1997). "To Defeat a Maverick: The Goldwater Candidacy Revisited, 1963–1964". Presidential Studies Quarterly 27 (4): 662+.
- McGirr, Lisa (2002). Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right.
- Perlstein, Rick (2002). Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus.
- Rae, Nicol C. (1994). Southern Democrats. Oxford University Press.
- Sundquist, James L. (1983). Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States.
- White, Theodore (1965). The Making of the President: 1964.
[edit] Web
- ^ Unger and Unger; LBJ; a Life (1999) pp. 325-6; Dallek Flawed Giant, p. 164; Evans and Novak (1966) 451-56 claim that the MFDP fell under the influence of "black radicals" and rejected their seats.
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