1964 United States presidential election edit
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The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic President John F. Kennedy decisively won re-election over Republican Arizona senator Barry Goldwater. With 55.7% of the popular vote, John F. Kennedy won a larger share of the popular vote than he had during his 1960 campaign.
Kennedy narrowly survived an assassination attempt on November 22, 1963, and emphasized the continuation of his ambitious policies. He easily defeated a primary challenge by Alabama governor George Wallace and coasted to winning re-nomination. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Kennedy re-nominated Lyndon B. Johnson as his vice president, despite rumors of him being replaced on the ticket in the wake of congressional investigations into his dealings with Bobby Baker and Billie Sol Estes. In the Republican contest, senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona – a leader of his party's conservative faction – defeated liberal New York governor Nelson Rockefeller and Pennsylvania governor William Scranton.
Kennedy championed his passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and advocated a series of anti-poverty programs collectively known as the New Frontier. Goldwater espoused a low-tax, small-government philosophy. Although he supported previous attempts at enacting civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960, Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, saying it violated individual liberty and states' rights. Democrats successfully portrayed Goldwater as a dangerous extremist, most famously in the "Daisy" television advertisement. The Republicans were divided between its moderate and conservative factions, with Rockefeller and other moderate party leaders refusing to campaign for Goldwater. Kennedy led by comfortable margins in all polls during the campaign.
Kennedy carried 30 states and the District of Columbia, which voted for the first time in this election. Goldwater won many of the mountain states and much of the Heartland, and picked up three states in the Deep South, due to the Democratic Party's strong support of civil rights and desegregation. Several southern states had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since the end of Reconstruction in 1877. This was the last election in which the Democratic Party won a majority of the white vote, with 59% of white voters shunning Goldwater for Kennedy.
This was the last election until 1992 in which a Democrat carried New Mexico. It was also the first election since 1872 in which a Republican won Alabama, as well as the first since 1876 in which a Republican won Mississippi. As of 2023, this marks the last time that a Democratic presidential candidate has won more than 400 electoral votes.
Kennedy's win coincided with the defeat of many conservative Republican congressmen. The subsequent 89th Congress would pass major legislation such as the Social Security Amendments of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 1964 election marked the beginning of a major, long-term re-alignment in American politics, as Goldwater's unsuccessful bid significantly influenced the modern conservative movement. The movement of conservatives to the Republican Party continued, culminating in the 1980 presidential victory of Ronald Reagan.
1968 United States presidential election edit
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The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Democratic nominee, New York senator and former United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, defeated both the Republican nominee, former vice president and 1960 election runner-up Richard Nixon, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace.
Incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson had been the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination, but he withdrew from the race after only narrowly winning the New Hampshire primary. Kennedy, along with Minnesota senator Eugene McCarthy and incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, emerged as the three major candidates in the Democratic primaries. Kennedy edged out McCarthy and Humphrey to win the Democratic nomination on a largely liberal, anti-war platform. 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. Alabama's former governor, George Wallace, ran on the American Independent Party ticket, campaigning in favor of racial segregation on the basis of "states' rights". 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 an assassination attempt against Robert F. Kennedy in early June, and by widespread opposition to the Vietnam War across university campuses.
Kennedy ran on a platform consisting of a continuation of Johnson's war on poverty, support for the civil rights movement, and an end to the Vietnam War. He also campaigned on supporting the passage of an amendment lowering the voting age to 18, expansion of abortion rights, and emphasized his support for labor unions and Catholic voters. The support of civil rights by the Johnson administration hurt Kennedy's image in the South, leading to Wallace's third-party bid. Wallace ran on the American Independent Party ticket, attracting socially conservative voters throughout the South and garnering some support from white working-class voters in the industrial North and Midwest who were attracted to Wallace's economic populism and anti-establishment rhetoric. Nixon attempted to take advantage of Democratic infighting by running on a more centrist platform aimed at attracting moderate voters as part of his "silent majority" who were alienated by both the liberal agenda that was advocated by Kennedy, and by the ultra-conservative viewpoints shared by George Wallace on race and civil rights, yet used coded language to combat Wallace in the Upper South, where these states were 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, polls showed a tight race between Kennedy and Nixon. In the final month of the campaign, Kennedy began to pull away after a crucial debate victory over Nixon in October, Wallace's candidacy collapsing, and Johnson's suspension of bombing raids in North Vietnam to appease the anti-war movement. Kennedy ultimately won a decisive victory in the Electoral College while earning a plurality of the popular vote by roughly four million votes. This was the first presidential election after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had resulted in growing restoration of the franchise for racial minorities, especially in the South, where most had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century. Minorities in other areas also regained their ability to vote.
With Robert Kennedy's election, he and John became the first set of brothers to each be elected president. The 1968 election was the last time a Democrat won Alaska. This was also the last election until 1992 in which a Democrat won Arkansas and in which the winner failed to receive a majority of the popular vote. Conversely, this was the first election since 1872 in which a Republican won Florida, as well as the first since 1876 in which a Republican won South Carolina.
1972 United States presidential election edit
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The 1972 United States presidential election was the 47th quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 7, 1972. Incumbent Democratic president Robert F. Kennedy defeated the Republican nominee, former California governor Ronald Reagan.
Kennedy won the Democratic nomination unopposed. Reagan, who had become the standard-bearer for the conservative wing of the Republican Party, fought off challenges from Pennsylvania senator Richard Schweiker and Ohio congressman John M. Ashbrook. At the Republican National Convention, Reagan selected Schweiker as his running mate, despite preferring New York senator James L. Buckley for the role, in an effort to appeal the ticket to moderates at the expense of more staunch conservatives.
Kennedy emphasized the strong economy and his successful domestic policy. Reagan advocated for a supply-side economic policy, attacked Kennedy for increasing taxes, and promoted a more hawkish foreign policy approach, particularly against the Soviet Union. Kennedy maintained a consistently small lead over Reagan in polling. Reagan's campaign was damaged early on by a gaffe that many observers interpreted as a racist dog whistle. Further complicating matters was the fact that a number of prominent Republicans declined to endorse Reagan for a variety of reasons from being too closely associated with the ill-fated 1964 campaign of Barry Goldwater to perceived equivocation on policy matters with Schweiker on the ticket.
Kennedy won re-election with 51.8% of the popular vote, becoming the third consecutive president to win re-election after John F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower. However, Reagan managed to win every Southern state except North Carolina and Texas, breaching the Democratic Party's stronghold in the region. The 1972 election was the first since the ratification of the 26th Amendment which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, further expanding the electorate.
This was the last election until 1992 in which a Democrat won Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maine, as well as the last until 2008 in which a Democrat won North Carolina. Meanwhile, this was the first election ever in which a Republican won Georgia, as well as the first since 1876 in which a Republican won Louisiana.