1968 United States Presidential Election (Red Dawn)

The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The American Party nominee and governor of Alabama George Wallace won in an upset as the first elected president that was not a Democrat or a Republican since Zachary Taylor in 1884, defeating governor of Michigan George Romney and the senator from South Dakota George McGovern after they split the pro-civil rights vote between them. Due to the coincidence that all three major party candidates were named "George" as their first name, the election is sometimes humorously refered by historians as "The Battle of the Georges"

Incumbent president Nelson Rockerfeller initially intended to run for a third term, however he decided against it due to his polling numbers dropping to as low as 20% as the Vietnam War became increasingly unpopular.The Democratic Party had a slew of issues itself, as the chaotic the Democratic primaries seemingly accentuated the conservative/liberal split.Robert Kennedy innitially emerged as the front runner however his run was cut short by his assassination. In the tumultuous convention George McGovern won the nomination by a slim margin, sparking numerous conservative defections, which led to George Wallace announcing his third party run with his newly founded American Party. Romney entered the Republican primaries with low expectations however he managed to defeat his conservative challengers such as the former Governor of California Ronald Reagan and the moderate Vice-President Richard Nixon, among other candidates to win his party's nomination.

The election year was tumultuous; it was marked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in early April and subsequent riots across the nation, the assassination of Robert Kennedy in early June, and widespread social strife in regards to the Vietnam War across university campuses. Senator George McGovern won the Democratic nomination, promising to continue Rockerfeller's war on poverty and to support the civil rights movement. Such ideas hurt McGovern's image in the South, leading prominent conservative Democratic governor of Alabama, George Wallace, to mount a third-party challenge against his own party to subtly defend racial segregation, while also campaigning against the seemingly extremist liberal ideas McGovern represented. Wallace led the populistic hard right American Party attracting socially conservative and Midwest working class voters throughout the country. In doing so, Wallace split the New Deal Coalition, winning over Southern Democrats and a good portion of former socially conservativeReuther supporters who preferred Wallace to McGovern. At the time the pervasive sentiment shared with a majority of the american public was that the two parties we're unable to deal with the major problems of the day, being too focused on petty issues, a sentiment that Wallace readily took advantage off. The Democratic Republican infighting by offered Wallace a platform attracting nationalist, rural, dissilutioned, middle class, poor or working class voters as part of his "silent majority" who were alienated by the liberal agenda that was advocated by George McGovern, and the percieved inefectual viewpoints shared by George Romney. Wallace sought to restore law and order to the nation's cities, and provide new decisive leadership in the Vietnam War. During most of the campaign, Wallace trailed significantly in polls taken by late August, but narrowed down significantly after Wallace managed to moderate his extremist image in contrast to McGovern and Romney's candidacy collapsed after sigma around his faith began to be overbearing on his campaign and the republican conservative faction led by Ronald Reagan endorsed him. During a last-minute attempt to raise his poll numbers Wallce was able to surpass both McGovern and Romney in the final days of the campaign, winning the Electoral College by 23 votes, as well as the popular vote by a very narrow margin, with his small victories in the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey propelling him to electoral victory.