1968 United States presidential election

For related races, see 1968 United States elections.

1968 United States presidential election

← 1964 November 5, 1968 1972 →
538 members of the Electoral College 270 electoral votes needed to win
Opinion polls
Turnout	62.5%[1] 0.3 pp
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey George Wallace Party Republican Democratic[c] American Independent[d] Home state New York[a] Minnesota Alabama Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie Curtis LeMay[e] Electoral vote 301[b] 191 46[b] States carried 32 13 + DC 5 Popular vote 31,783,783 31,271,839 9,901,118 Percentage 43.4% 42.7% 13.5%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew, blue denotes those won by Humphrey/Muskie, and orange denotes those won by Wallace/LeMay, including a electoral votes cast by each state.
President before election Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic Elected President Richard Nixon Republican

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1968. Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace.

Incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson had been the early frontrunner for the Democratic Party's nomination but withdrew from the race after only narrowly winning the New Hampshire primary. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert F. Kennedy emerged as the three major candidates in the Democratic primaries until Kennedy was assassinated. His death after midnight on June 6, 1968, continued a streak of high-profile assassinations in the 1960s. Humphrey edged out anti-Vietnam war candidate McCarthy to win the Democratic nomination, sparking numerous anti-war protests. Nixon entered the Republican primaries as the front-runner, defeating liberal New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, conservative California governor Ronald Reagan, and other candidates to win his party's nomination.

The election year was tumultuous and chaotic. It was marked by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in early April, and the subsequent 54 days of riots across the nation, by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in early June, and by widespread opposition to the Vietnam War across university campuses. Vice President Humphrey won and secured the Democratic nomination, with Humphrey promising to continue Johnson's war on poverty and to support the civil rights movement.

The Johnson administration's support for civil rights led to an erosion of Humphrey's support in the South. This prompted a run by Wallace on the ticket of the newly-formed American Independent Party. Wallace campaigned in favor of racial segregation on the basis of "states' rights". His American Independent Party attracted socially conservative voters throughout the South, and drew further support from white working-class voters in the Industrial North and Midwest who were attracted to Wallace's economic populism and anti-establishment rhetoric. In doing so, Wallace split the New Deal coalition, winning over Southern Democrats, as well as former Barry Goldwater supporters who preferred him over Nixon.

Nixon chose to take advantage of Democratic infighting by running a more centrist platform aimed at attracting moderate voters as part of his "

ultraconservative viewpoints of Wallace; however, Nixon also employed coded language to combat Wallace in the Upper South, where the electorate was less extreme on the segregation issue. Nixon sought to restore law and order to the nation's cities and provide new leadership in the Vietnam War

.

During most of the campaign, Humphrey trailed Nixon significantly in polls taken from late August to early October, with some polls predicting a margin of victory of as high as 16% as late as August. In the final month of the campaign, Humphrey managed to narrow Nixon's lead after Wallace's candidacy collapsed and Johnson suspended bombing in the Vietnam War to appease the anti-war movement; the election was considered a tossup by election day. Nixon managed to secure a close victory in the popular vote on election day, with just over 500,000 votes (0.7%) separating him and Humphrey. In the Electoral College, Nixon's victory was larger; he carried the tipping point state of Ohio by over 90,000 votes (2.3%), and his overall margin of victory in the Electoral College was 110 votes. This election was the first presidential election after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which began restoring voting rights to Black Americans in the South, where most had been disenfranchised since the early 20th century.^[4]

This was the last election until 2024 in which the incumbent president was eligible to run again but was not the eventual nominee of their party. Humphrey was the last nominee who did not participate in the primaries as a presidential candidate until Kamala Harris, also in 2024. Nixon also became the first non-incumbent vice president to be elected president, something that would not happen again until 2020, when Joe Biden was elected president.^[5] As of 2024, this is the most recent election in which a third-party candidate won pledged electoral votes that did not come from faithless electors. It is also the most recent election in which a Republican was elected president without winning Texas.

Background

In the

Black Power movement exacerbated social and cultural clashes between classes, generations, and races. Adding to the national crisis, on April 4, 1968, civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, igniting riots of grief and anger across the country. In Washington, D.C., rioting took place within a few blocks of the White House, and the government stationed soldiers with machine guns on the Capitol steps to protect it.^[6][7]

The

1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, because it could not guarantee his safety.^[9]

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1968 Republican Party presidential primaries

This article is part of a series about Richard Nixon
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v t e

1968 Republican Party ticket
Richard Nixon	Spiro Agnew
for President	for Vice President
36th Vice President of the United States (1953–1961)	55th Governor of Maryland (1967–1969)
Campaign

Other major candidates

The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks, were listed in publicly published national polls, or ran a campaign that extended beyond their flying home delegation in the case of favorite sons.

Nixon received 1,679,443 votes in the primaries.

Candidates in this section are sorted by date of withdrawal from the nomination race
Ronald Reagan	Nelson Rockefeller	Harold Stassen	George W. Romney
Governor of California (1967–1975)	Governor of New York (1959–1973)	Former president of the University of Pennsylvania (1948–1953)	Governor of Michigan (1963–1969)
Campaign	Campaign		Campaign
Lost nomination: August 8, 1968 1,696,632 votes	Lost nomination: August 8, 1968 164,340 votes	Lost nomination: August 8, 1968 31,665 votes	Withdrew: February 28, 1968 4,447 votes

Primaries

The front-runner for the Republican nomination was former Vice President Richard Nixon, who formally began campaigning in January 1968.^[10] Nixon had worked behind the scenes and was instrumental in Republican gains in Congress and governorships in the 1966 midterm elections. Thus, the party machinery and many of the new congressmen and governors supported him. Still, there was caution in the Republican ranks over Nixon, who had lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy and then lost the 1962 California gubernatorial election. Some hoped a more "electable" candidate would emerge. The story of the 1968 Republican primary campaign and nomination may be seen as one Nixon opponent after another entering the race and then dropping out. Nixon was the front runner throughout the contest because of his superior organization, and he easily defeated the rest of the field.

Nixon's first challenger was Michigan Governor George W. Romney. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Nixon with 39%, followed by Romney with 25%. After a fact-finding trip to Vietnam, Romney told Detroit talk show host Lou Gordon that he had been "brainwashed" by the military and the diplomatic corps into supporting the Vietnam War; the remark led to weeks of ridicule in the national news media. Turning against American involvement in Vietnam, Romney planned to run as the anti-war Republican version of Eugene McCarthy.^[11] Following his "brainwashing" comment, Romney's support faded steadily; with polls showing him far behind Nixon, he withdrew from the race on February 28, 1968.^[12] Senator Charles Percy was considered another potential threat to Nixon, and had planned on waging an active campaign after securing a role as Illinois's favorite son. Later, however, Percy declined to have his name listed on the ballot for the Illinois presidential primary, as he no longer sought the presidential nomination.^[13]

Nixon won a resounding victory in the important New Hampshire primary on March 12, with 78% of the vote. Anti-war Republicans wrote in the name of New York governor

Jacob Javits, the favorite son, either in preparation of a presidential campaign or to secure him the second spot on the ticket. As Rockefeller warmed to the idea of entering the race, Javits shifted his effort to seeking a third term in the Senate.^[14] Nixon led Rockefeller in the polls throughout the primary campaign—though Rockefeller defeated Nixon and Governor John Volpe in the Massachusetts

primary on April 30, he otherwise fared poorly in state primaries and conventions. He had declared too late to get his name placed on state primary ballots.

By early spring, California Governor Ronald Reagan, a leader of the Republican Party's conservative wing, had become Nixon's chief rival. In the Nebraska primary on May 14, Nixon won with 70% of the vote to 21% for Reagan and 5% for Rockefeller. While this was a wide margin for Nixon, Reagan remained Nixon's leading challenger. Nixon won the next primary of importance, Oregon, on May 15 with 65% of the vote, and won all the following primaries except for California (June 4), where only Reagan appeared on the ballot. Reagan's victory in California gave him a plurality of the nationwide primary vote, but his poor showing in most other state primaries left him far behind Nixon in the delegate count.

Total popular vote:^{[clarification needed]}

Ronald Reagan: 1,696,632 (37.93%) Richard Nixon: 1,679,443 (37.54%) James A. Rhodes : 614,492 (13.74%) Nelson Rockefeller: 164,340 (3.67%) Unpledged: 140,639 (3.14%) Eugene McCarthy (write-in): 44,520 (1.00%) Harold Stassen: 31,655 (0.71%) John Volpe : 31,465 (0.70%) Others: 21,456 (0.51%) George Wallace (write-in): 15,291 (0.34%)

Robert F. Kennedy (write-in): 14,524 (0.33%) Hubert Humphrey (write-in): 5,698 (0.13) Lyndon B. Johnson (write-in): 4,824 (0.11%) George W. Romney: 4,447 (0.10%) Raymond P. Shafer: 1,223 (0.03%) William Scranton: 724 (0.02%) Charles H. Percy: 689 (0.02%) Barry Goldwater: 598 (0.01%) John Lindsay: 591 (0.01%)

Republican Convention

Main article: 1968 Republican National Convention

See also: 1968 Miami riot

As the 1968 Republican National Convention opened on August 5 in

Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in Nixon's administration. With Vietnam a key issue, Nixon had strongly considered tapping his 1960 running mate, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a former U.S. senator, ambassador to the UN, and ambassador twice to South Vietnam

.

The Republican Convention Tally^[17]

President	(before switches)	(after switches)	Vice President	Vice-Presidential votes
Richard Nixon	692	1238	Spiro Agnew	1119
Nelson Rockefeller	277	93	George W. Romney	186
Ronald Reagan	182	2	John V. Lindsay	10
James A. Rhodes	55	—	Massachusetts senator Edward Brooke	1
Michigan governor George W. Romney	50	—	James A. Rhodes	1
Clifford Case	22	—	not voting	16
Kansas senator Frank Carlson	20	—	—
Arkansas governor Winthrop Rockefeller	18	—	—
Hawaii senator Hiram Fong	14	—	—
Harold Stassen	2	—	—
New York City mayor John V. Lindsay	1	—	—

As of the 2020 presidential election, 1968 was the last time that two siblings (Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller) ran against each other in a presidential primary.

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries

1968 Democratic Party ticket
Hubert Humphrey	Edmund Muskie
for President	for Vice President
38th Vice President of the United States (1965–1969)	U.S. Senator from Maine (1959–1980)
Campaign

Other major candidates

The following candidates were frequently interviewed by major broadcast networks, were listed in publicly published national polls, or ran a campaign that extended beyond their home delegation in the case of favorite sons. Humphrey received 166,463 votes in the primaries.

Candidates in this section are sorted by date of withdrawal from the nomination race
Eugene McCarthy	George McGovern	Channing E. Phillips	Lester Maddox	Robert F. Kennedy	Lyndon B. Johnson
U.S. senator from Minnesota (1959–1971)	U.S. senator from South Dakota (1963–1981)	Reverend at Lincoln Temple from Washington, D.C.	Governor of Georgia (1967–1971)	U.S. senator from New York (1965–1968)	36th President of the United States (1963–1969)
Campaign	Campaign	Campaign		Campaign	Campaign
Lost nomination: August 29, 1968 2,914,933 votes	Lost nomination: August 29, 1968 0 votes	Lost nomination: August 29, 1968 0 votes	Withdrew and endorsed George Wallace: August 28, 1968 0 votes	Assassinated: June 5, 1968 2,305,148 votes	Withdrew and endorsed Hubert Humphrey: March 31, 1968 383,590 votes

Enter Eugene McCarthy

Because Lyndon B. Johnson had been elected to the presidency only once, in 1964, and had served less than two full years of the term before that, the Twenty-second Amendment did not disqualify him from running for another term.^[18] As a result, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that President Johnson would run for another term, and that he would have little trouble winning the Democratic nomination.

Despite growing opposition to Johnson's policies in Vietnam, it appeared that no prominent Democratic candidate would run against a sitting president of his own party. It was also accepted at the beginning of the year that Johnson's record of domestic accomplishments would overshadow public opposition to the Vietnam War and that he would easily boost his public image after he started campaigning.

hippie movement

among younger Americans and violent unrest on college campuses was not helping their cause.

1968 Democratic National Convention, also preferred either Johnson or Humphrey over any other candidate, and stated that Kennedy had met him the week before, and that he was unsuccessful in his attempt to win over Daley's support.^[21]

In time, only Senator

New Hampshire primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Since New Hampshire was the first presidential primary of 1968, McCarthy poured most of his limited resources into the state. He was boosted by thousands of young college students, led by youth coordinator Sam Brown,^[22]

who shaved their beards and cut their hair to be "Clean for Gene". These students organized get-out-the-vote drives, rang doorbells, distributed McCarthy buttons and leaflets, and worked hard in New Hampshire for McCarthy. On March 12, McCarthy won 42 percent of the primary vote, to Johnson's 49 percent, a shockingly strong showing against an incumbent president, which was even more impressive because Johnson had more than 24 supporters running for the Democratic National Convention delegate slots to be filled in the election, while McCarthy's campaign organized more strategically. McCarthy won 20 of the 24 delegates. This gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum. Sensing Johnson's vulnerability, Senator Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy four days after the New Hampshire primary on March 16. Thereafter, McCarthy and Kennedy engaged in a series of state primaries.

Johnson withdraws

Main article: Withdrawal of Lyndon B. Johnson from the 1968 United States presidential election

On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primary and Kennedy's entry into the election, the president made a televised speech to the nation and said that he was suspending all bombing of North Vietnam in favor of peace talks. After concluding his speech, Johnson announced,

"With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties, other than the awesome duties of this office — the presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

Not discussed publicly at the time was Johnson's concern that he might not survive another term – Johnson's health was poor, and he had already suffered a serious heart attack in 1955.^[23] He died on January 22, 1973, two days after the end of the new presidential term. Bleak political forecasts also contributed to Johnson's withdrawal; internal polling by Johnson's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to hold a primary election, showed him trailing badly.^[24] This was the second and until Joe Biden's withdraw from the 2024 race most recent time an incumbent US president eligible to run withdrew from the presidential election.^[25]

Historians have debated why Johnson quit a few days after his weak showing in New Hampshire. Jeff Shesol says Johnson wanted out of the White House, but also wanted vindication; when the indicators turned negative, he decided to leave.^[26] Lewis L. Gould says that Johnson had neglected the Democratic party, was hurting it by his Vietnam policies, and under-estimated McCarthy's strength until the last minute, when it was too late for Johnson to recover.^[27] Randall Bennett Woods said Johnson realized he needed to leave, for the nation to heal.^[28] Robert Dallek writes that Johnson had no further domestic goals, and realized that his personality had eroded his popularity. His health was poor, and he was pre-occupied with the Kennedy campaign; his wife was pressing for his retirement, and his base of support continued to shrink. Leaving the race would allow him to pose as a peace-maker.^[29] Anthony J. Bennett, however, said Johnson "had been forced out of a re-election race in 1968 by outrage over his policy in Southeast Asia".^[30]

In 2009, an AP reporter said that Johnson decided to end his re-election bid after CBS News anchor

WBAP television station in Fort Worth, Texas, when Cronkite's editorial aired, acknowledged reports that the president saw the editorial's original broadcast were inaccurate,^[35] but claimed the president was able to watch a taping of it the morning after it aired and then made the remark.^[35] However, Johnson's January 27, 1968, phone conversion with Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley revealed that the two were trying to feed Robert Kennedy's ego so he would stay in the race, convincing him that the Democratic Party was undergoing a "revolution".^[21] They suggested he might earn a spot as vice president.^[21]

After Johnson's withdrawal, the Democratic Party quickly split into four factions.

• The first faction consisted of labor unions and big-city party bosses (led by Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley). This group had traditionally controlled the Democratic Party since the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and they feared loss of their control over the party. After Johnson's withdrawal, this group rallied to support Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's Vice President; it was also believed that Johnson himself was covertly supporting Humphrey, despite his public claims of neutrality.
• The second faction, which rallied behind Senator Eugene McCarthy, was composed of college students, intellectuals, and upper-middle-class urban whites who had been the early activists against the war in Vietnam; they perceived themselves as the future of the Democratic Party.
• The third group was primarily composed of African Americans and Hispanic Americans, as well as some anti-war groups; these groups rallied behind Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
• The fourth group consisted of white Southern Democrats. Some older voters, remembering the New Deal's positive impact upon the rural South, supported Vice President Humphrey. Many would rally behind the third-party campaign of former Alabama Governor George Wallace as a "law and order" candidate.

Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Democratic Party, and Johnson had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Democrats, Johnson believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Republicans. However, by withdrawing from the race, he could avoid the stigma of defeat, and he could keep control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, who had been a loyal vice-president.^[36] Milne (2011) argues that, in terms of foreign-policy in the Vietnam War, Johnson at the end wanted Nixon to be president rather than Humphrey, since Johnson agreed with Nixon, rather than Humphrey, on the need to defend South Vietnam from communism.^[37] However, Johnson's telephone calls show that Johnson believed the Nixon camp was deliberately sabotaging the Paris peace talks. He told Humphrey, who refused to use allegations based on illegal wiretaps of a presidential candidate. Nixon himself called Johnson and denied the allegations. Dallek concludes that Nixon's advice to Saigon made no difference, and that Humphrey was so closely identified with Johnson's unpopular policies that no last-minute deal with Hanoi could have affected the election.^[38]

Contest

Lyndon Johnson

  Eugene McCarthy

Political historians still debate whether Kennedy could have won the Democratic nomination, had he lived. Some historians, such as Theodore H. White and Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., have argued that Kennedy's broad appeal and famed charisma would have convinced the party bosses at the Democratic Convention to give him the nomination.^[42] Jack Newfield, author of RFK: A Memoir, stated in a 1998 interview that on the night he was assassinated, "[Kennedy] had a phone conversation with Mayor Daley of Chicago, and Mayor Daley all but promised to throw the Illinois delegates to Bobby at the convention in August 1968. I think he said to me, and Pete Hamill: 'Daley is the ball game, and I think we have Daley.'"^[43] However, other writers such as Tom Wicker, who covered the Kennedy campaign for The New York Times, believe that Humphrey's large lead in delegate votes from non-primary states, combined with Senator McCarthy's refusal to quit the race, would have prevented Kennedy from ever winning a majority at the Democratic Convention, and that Humphrey would have been the Democratic nominee, even if Kennedy had lived.^[44] The journalist Richard Reeves and historian Michael Beschloss have both written that Humphrey was the likely nominee,^[45] and future Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien wrote in his memoirs that Kennedy's chances of winning the nomination had been slim, even after his win in California.^[46]

At the moment of RFK's death, the delegate totals were:

• Hubert Humphrey – 561
• Robert F. Kennedy – 393
• Eugene McCarthy – 258

Total popular vote:^[47]

Robert Kennedy's death altered the dynamics of the race. Although Humphrey appeared the presumptive favorite for the nomination, thanks to his support from the traditional power blocs of the party, he was an unpopular choice with many of the

When the

The publicity from the anti-war riots crippled Humphrey's campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered. Before 1968 the city of Chicago had been a frequent host for the political conventions of both parties; since 1968 only two national conventions have been held there: the Democratic convention of 1996, which nominated Bill Clinton for a second term, and the Democratic convention of 2024, which nominated Kamala Harris.^[48]

Source: Keating Holland, "All the Votes... Really", CNN^[49]

Hubert Humphrey

• President Lyndon B. Johnson
• Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago
• Former President Harry S. Truman
• Singer/actor Frank Sinatra

Robert F. Kennedy

• Senator Abraham Ribicoff from Connecticut^[50]
• Senator George McGovern from South Dakota^[51]
• Senator Vance Hartke from Indiana^[52]
• Labor Leader Cesar Chavez
• Writer Truman Capote^[53]
• Writer Norman Mailer
• Actress Shirley MacLaine^[53]
• Actress Stefanie Powers
• Actor Robert Vaughn
• Actor Peter Lawford
• Singer Bobby Darin^[54]

Eugene McCarthy

• Representative Don Edwards from California
• Actor Paul Newman
• Actress Tallulah Bankhead^[53]
• Playwright Arthur Miller^[53]
• Writer William Styron^[53]

George McGovern (during convention)

• Senator Abraham Ribicoff from Connecticut
• Governor
  Harold E. Hughes of Iowa

1968 American Independent Party ticket
George Wallace	Curtis LeMay
for President	for Vice President
Governor of Alabama (1963–1967)	Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force (1961–1965)
Campaign

The

Wallace's position of withdrawing from Vietnam, if the war was "not winnable within 90 days",[60] was overshadowed by LeMay, implying he would use nuclear weapons to win the war.^[61]

Also on the ballot in two or more states were black activist

[63]

The following graph depicts the standing of each candidate in the poll aggregators from April 1968 to Election Day.

Nixon developed a "

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.

After the Democratic Convention in late August, Humphrey trailed Nixon by double digits in most

In October, Humphrey—who was rising sharply in the polls due to the decline of Wallace 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 a vote for Humphrey in late October after previously refusing to do so, and by election day the polls were reporting a dead heat.[98]

The Nixon campaign had anticipated a possible "

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.^[103]

Nixon asked Anna Chennault to be his "channel to Mr. Thieu" to advise him to refuse participation in the talks, in what is sometimes described as the "Anna Chennault Affair".^[104] Thieu was promised a better deal under a Nixon administration.^[105][104] Chennault agreed and periodically reported to John Mitchell that Thieu had no intention of attending a peace conference. On November 2, Chennault informed Bùi Diễm, 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."^[106] In 1997, Chennault admitted that, "I was constantly in touch with Nixon and Mitchell".^[107] 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".^[108]

Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort because the NSA was intercepting communications in Vietnam.^[109] In response, Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign.^[110] He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to "shock America" with the revelation,^[111] nor reveal that the NSA was intercepting communications in Vietnam.^[112] 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.^[113] The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations.^[114] A promising "peace bump" ended up in "shambles" for the Democratic Party.^[112] The claim of sabotage of peace talks between the United States and South Vietnam from Nixon has been disputed by historian Luke Nichter in his 2023 book The Year That Broke Politics: Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968.^[115]

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. 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 much 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.^[116]

Richard Nixon was able to win the Electoral College, dominating several regions in the

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 Nixon again in 1968, although Nixon would carry them four years later 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. 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 2024.[117] This is also the first time since 1916 that Minnesota voted for the candidate who did not eventually win.^[118]

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.^[116][117] Four of the fives states won by Wallace had voted for Goldwater.^[119] 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.^[116] 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."^[120]

Nixon's victory is often considered a

The election was a seismic event in the long-term realignment in Democratic Party support, especially in the South.[122] 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.^[123] 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. Some estimates suggest that Humphrey won less than ten percent of the white vote in the former Confederacy,^[124] although other sources have placed this figure closer to twenty percent.^[125][126] Nevertheless, there is little doubt that a majority of Humphreyʼs support in the former Confederacy came from black voters, who were now voting in full force.

From 1968 until 2004, only two Democrats were elected president, both native Southerners – Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas, both of whom won several states in the region. Other Democratic presidential candidates since 1968 have performed very poorly in former confederate states. Outside of Virginia, which Carter and Clinton both lost twice but Democrats have won every time since 2008, all other Democratic Presidential candidates since 1968 combined have only won Florida twice and North Carolina, Indiana, Georgia, and Arizona once. The elections in which Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden won these states are also the only other times the party has won the Presidency since 1968.^[117][127]

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.^[128]

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 until

This is one of two times in American history that a former vice president and an incumbent vice president were major party nominees, after 1800. As of 2024[update], this is the last time that all 50 states and the District of Columbia would vote under a winner-take-all system. Maine would begin allocating its electoral votes by congressional district in 1972 and Nebraska would begin doing the same in 1992. This election was the last time until 1992 that the Democratic nominee won Connecticut, Maine, and Michigan and the last until 1988 that Washington voted Democratic, and the last time a Republican won the presidency without winning Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.^[117] It was also the first time since 1888 that bellwether Coös County, New Hampshire did not support the winning candidate.^[129]

Nixon became the first Republican to win without Minnesota, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Maine. Minnesota had not voted for the losing candidate since 1916. This was the first time since 1928 that North Carolina voted for a Republican, and the first since 1912 (only the second and final time since 1852) that Maine and Vermont did not support the same party. Similarly, it is the second of two times that Oregon and Washington did not support the same party since 1920 (the other being in 1948). By losing New York, Nixon became the third victorious candidate to lose his home state, which also occurred in 1844, 1916, and 2016. This election and 1916 are the only times a winning presidential and vice-presidential each lost their home states. 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

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1968 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 7, 2005. Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 7, 2005.

• 
  Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote
• 
  Results by district, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

• 
  Presidential election results by county
• 
  Republican presidential election results by county
• 
  Democratic presidential election results by county
• 
  American Independent presidential election results by county
• 
  "Other" presidential election results by county
• 
  Cartogram of presidential election results by county
• 
  Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county
• 
  Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county
• 
  Cartogram of American Independent presidential election results by county
• 
  Cartogram of "Other" presidential election results by county

Source:^[132]

• Alaska
• California
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Florida
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Utah
• Virginia
• Vermont
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

• Georgia
• Louisiana
• Alabama
• Mississippi

• Arkansas

States where margin of victory was less than 5 percentage points (223 electoral votes):

States where margin of victory was more than 5 percentage points, but less than 10 percentage points (155 electoral votes):

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.^[133]

In North Carolina one Nixon Elector cast his ballot for George Wallace (President) and Curtis LeMay (Vice President).^[134]

^[132]

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)

1. Hooker County, Nebraska 87.94%
2. Jackson County, Kentucky 84.09%
3. McIntosh County, North Dakota 82.65%
4. McPherson County, South Dakota 80.34%
5. Sioux County, Iowa 80.04%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)

1. Duval County, Texas 88.74%
2. Jim Hogg County, Texas 82.06%
3. Washington, D.C. 81.82%
4. Webb County, Texas 79.65%
5. Suffolk County, Massachusetts 75.62%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (American Independent)

1. Geneva County, Alabama 91.73%
2. George County, Mississippi 91.20%
3. Lamar County, Alabama 88.25%
4. Calhoun County, Mississippi 87.80%
5. Holmes County, Florida 87.21%

Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. "Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote" XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.

Source: Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report. "Group Analysis of the 1968 Presidential Vote", XXVI, No. 48 (November 1968), p. 3218.

Out of the entire population, the Census Bureau in October 1968 estimated that 121.5 million people would be eligible to vote, including those in the military regardless of whether they were serving domestically or abroad. When including the civilian and military population, which were residing in the United States, it was estimated to be 120 million people. With the civilian population, it was estimated to be 118.5 million people would be eligible to vote.^[136]

• 1968 United States House of Representatives elections
• 1968 United States Senate elections
• 1968 United States gubernatorial elections
• History of the United States (1964–1980)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• List of presidents of the United States
• First inauguration of Richard Nixon

• White, Theodore H. (1970). The Making of the President 1968. Pocket Books.