1964 United States presidential election (The Mandate)

The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic United States President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee, in a landslide. With 70.2% of the popular vote, Lyndon B. Johnson won the largest share of the popular vote of any candidate since the largely uncontested 1820 election, which no candidate of either party has been able to match since.

Johnson took office on November 22, 1963 and emphasized the continuation of his assassinated predecessor, John F. Kennedy. He easily defeated a primary challenge by Governor George Wallace of Alabama, to win the nomination to a full term. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Johnson selected Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate. In the Republican contest Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a leader of his party's conservative faction, defeated liberal Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York and Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania.

Johnson championed his passage of the Civil Rights Act, and advocated a series of anti-poverty programs collectively known as the Great Society. 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. After the Declaration of War against North Vietnam, Democrats successfully portrayed Goldwater as a dangerous extremist who couldn't handle the Vietnam War, 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. Johnson led by incredibly wide margins in all polls during the campaign.

Johnson carried 48 states and the District of Columbia, which voted for the first time in this election. Goldwater only won Mississippi and Alabama, which had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since the end of Reconstruction in 1877. This was one of the last elections in which the Democratic Party won a majority of the white vote, with 64% of white voters shunning Goldwater for Johnson.

Johnson's landslide victory 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. Johnson was the first president to serve during a declared war in 19 years, the last being Harry S. Truman in 1945.