1964 United States Presidential election (TNO Jam's headcanon)

The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. The NPP nominee, Alabama governor George Wallace defeated Wallace F. Bennet, the Democratic Republican nominee.

John W. McCormack took office on June 14, 1964, following the assassination of his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. McCormack, already reluctant to serve as president, declined to run in the election, leaving competition in place for his party's nominee. Alabama governor George Wallace of the NPP's far-right wing defeated Robert F. Kennedy of New York, despite the grievances towards his deceased brother. United States Senator Wallace F. Bennet of Utah, a leader of his party's Democrat faction, defeated Republican Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas at the 1964 Democratic-Republican National Convention.

The election year was infested with issues; it was marked by the resignation of President Richard Nixon, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in early June, and widespread opposition to the South African War across university campuses. Wallace ran on a campaign to restore segregation to the country and provide new leadership in the South African War. Bennet promised to strengthen the U.S. dollar with a silver standard and preserve the civil rights bill that Nixon introduced.

Wallace carried 31 states. Bennet won his home state and picked up some of the states of the Eastern seaboard and Rockies. This was the first ever and only election before 1992 in which the Democrats carried Vermont, and the first election since 1912 in which the Democrats carried Maine.

Wallace's victory marked the start of a period of a threatening NPP general elections, as the NPP finally rebounded from an embarrassing defeat in 1960 and a state of limbo in the 50's.

Assassination of President John F. Kennedy
While on the first stop of his 1964 reelection campaign, President Kennedy was assassinated on June 14, 1964 in Dallas, Texas. Supporters were shocked and saddened by the loss of the charismatic President, while opposition candidates were put in the awkward position of running against the policies of a slain political figure.

During the following period of mourning, NPP leaders called for a political moratorium, so as not to appear disrespectful. At the time, most political pundits saw Kennedy's assassination as leaving the nation politically unsettled.

Nominations
National Progressive Party nomination

The National Progressive Party, which was established in 1957 by George Timmerman Jr. and Harold Stassen, nominated former Alabama Governor George Wallace – whose pro-racial segregation policies had been rejected by the mainstream of the Republican-Democratic Party – as the party's candidate for president. The impact of the Wallace campaign was substantial, winning the electoral votes of several states all over the nation. He appeared on the ballot in all fifty states, but not the District of Columbia. Wallace was the most popular 1968 presidential candidate among young men. Wallace also proved to be popular among blue-collar workers in the North and Midwest, and he took many votes which might have gone to Bennet.

Wallace also faced trouble from Robert F. Kennedy, President Kennedy's younger brother and the U.S. Attorney General. Kennedy and Wallace, who are almost opposite politically, despised each other, despite never even commenting on one another. Wallace's running mate was retired four star General Curtis LeMay.

Prior to deciding on LeMay, Wallace gave serious consideration to former U.S. senator, governor, and Baseball Commissioner A.B. Happy Chandler of Kentucky as his running mate. Chandler and Wallace met a number of times; however, Chandler said that he and Wallace were unable to come to an agreement regarding their positions on racial matters. Paradoxically, Chandler supported the segregationist States' rights party in the 1948 presidential elections. However, after being reelected Governor of Kentucky in 1955, he used National Guard troops to enforce school integration.

LeMay embarrassed Wallace's campaign in the fall by suggesting that nuclear weapons could be used in South Africa.

Democratic-Republican party nomination

Primaries

The Democratic-Republican Party (DR) was badly divided in 1964 between its conservative and liberal factions. Former President Richard Nixon, who had resigned after several scandals, of course didn't run. Nixon, a moderate with ties to both wings of the DR, had been able to unite the factions in 1960; in his absence the way was clear for the two factions to engage in a hard-fought campaign for the nomination. Wallace F. Bennet, a Senator from Utah, a hybrid between the two factions, a liberal conservative. The conservatives had historically been based in the American Midwest, but beginning in the 1950s they had been gaining in power in the South and West. The conservatives favored a low-tax, small federal government which supported individual rights and business interests and opposed social welfare programs. The conservatives also favored an internationalist and hawkish foreign policy and resented the dominance of the GOP's moderate wing, which was based in the Northeastern United States. Since 1940, the Eastern moderates had defeated conservative presidential candidates at the GOP's national conventions. The conservatives believed the Eastern Republicans were little different from liberal Democrats in their philosophy and approach to government. Bennet's chief opponent for the Democratic-Republican nomination was Lyndon B. Johnson, a senator from Texas and a longtime leader from the party's liberal faction.

In the first primary, in New Hampshire, both Johnson and Bennet were considered to be the favorites, but the voters instead gave a surprising victory to the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., a former Massachusetts senator. Lodge was a write-in candidate. He went on to win the Massachusetts and New Jersey primaries before withdrawing his candidacy because he had finally decided he did not want the Republican nomination.[11]

Despite his defeat in New Hampshire, Bennet pressed on, winning the Illinois, Texas, and Indiana primaries with little opposition, and Nebraska's primary after a stiff challenge from a draft-Nixon movement. Bennet also won a number of state caucuses and gathered even more delegates. Meanwhile, Lyndon B. Johnson won the Maryland and Oregon primaries against Goldwater, and William Scranton won in his home state of Pennsylvania. Both Johnson and Scranton also won several state caucuses, mostly in the Northeast.

The final showdown between Bennet and Johnson was in the California primary. Bennet won the primary by a narrow 51–48% margin, thus eliminating Johnson as a serious contender and all but clinching the nomination. With Johnson's elimination, the party's moderates and liberals turned to William Scranton, the Governor of Pennsylvania, in the hopes that he could stop Bennet. However, as the Democratic-Republican Convention began Bennet was seen as the heavy favorite to win the nomination. This was notable, as it signified a shift to a more conservative-leaning Democratic-Republican Party.