1968 United States Presidential Election (Midnight)



The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Democratic nominee, South Dakotan Senator George McGovern, and the Republican nominee, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, were the primary contenders for the presidency. The election was also marked by the third party candidacy of Virginia Governor George Lincoln Rockwell, who won a number of Southern states, as well as a considerable percentage of the popular vote for a third party candidate.

Incumbent president Barry Goldwater had been the early front-runner for the Republican Party's nomination, but he withdrew from the race after losing the New Hampshire primary. George Romney, Nelson Rockefeller, and William Miller emerged as the three major candidates in the Republican primaries. Rockefeller edged out anti-Vietnam war candidate Romney, and the conservative Vice President Miller, to win the Republican nomination. McGovern entered the Democratic primaries as the underdog, eventually defeating Senator Hubert Humphrey, conservative governor of Texas John Connally, and other candidates to win his party's nomination. Virginia's governor, George Lincoln Rockwell, ran on the Traditional American Party ticket, campaigning in favor of racial separation and Law and Order. The election year was tumultuous and chaotic. It was marked by an assassination attempt again Martin Luther King, Jr. in early April, and the subsequent 54 days of riots across the nation, and by widespread opposition to the Vietnam War across university campuses. Senator George McGovern won and secured the Democratic nomination, with McGovern promising to renew Johnson's war on poverty, to support the civil rights movement, and to withdraw from Vietnam.

The Goldwater administration's enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, passed under Lyndon B. Johnson's administration, devastated his once lustrous reputation in the South, leading to the prominent Traditional American governor of Virginia, George Rockwell, to mount a third-party challenge in favor of defending and expanding racial segregation. Rockwell led a far-right campaign, attracting socially conservative voters throughout the south, and encroaching further support from fiscal conservatives in the West who were disappointed by Rockefeller's moderate positions. With both major-party candidates attracting a similar, liberal demographic, Rockwell managed to garner significant support despite his racial extremism. His candidacy was largely ignored by the two major-parties, however he attracted significant attention following his polling-spike in late October. McGovern took advantage of the Republican infighting by running a more liberal campaign, favoring a withdrawal from the Vietnam war, a return to Johnson's Great Society, and an expansion of Civil Rights Laws, with his goal being to unite what he called the "hopeful majority" of the nation. Meanwhile, Rockefeller made little attempts to win over the Conservative wing of the party, something that is speculated to have contributed towards his loss in the election.

During most of the campaign, Rockefeller trailed McGovern significantly in polls taken from late August to early October. In the final month of the campaign, Rockefeller narrowed McGovern's lead considerably after McGovern made a number of comments regarding Rockefeller's running mate, Hubert Humphrey, and a protest turned riot devastated the reputation of both McGovern and the anti-war movement. In the end, no candidate was unable to reach an electoral majority on election day, with Rockwell's victories in the South deadlocking the election by just seven votes. This was the third presidential election, and the first since the election of 1824, to end in such a controversial fashion. Protests, specifically among young liberals in the nation's major cities, swept the nation, which only gave further credibility to Rockwell's Law and Order message.

Most, especially Rockwell's fired-up supporters, expected the election to be forced into the House of Representatives. In such a scenario, Rockwell could be able to broker a deal with one of the major candidates, handing them the Presidency in exchange for an end to desegregation. However, this never came to fruition, as in a shocking turn of events, McGovern and Rockefeller announced that they had made a deal with each other, cutting Rockwell out of the process. On December 16nth, when the Electoral College met, they cast their votes overwhelmingly for McGovern for President, and for Rockefeller for Vice President. While overwhelmingly popular on a national-scale, the event enraged both Rockwell and his supporters, resulting in further radicalization and acts of extremism among Southern Conservatives.

Background
In the election of 1964, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater won one of the narrowest victories in U.S. presidential election history over the incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite Johnson winning the popular vote by over five percent. During the presidential term that followed, Goldwater's already poor popularity quickly plummeted, although he was able to achieve many political successes, including Social Security reforms, a reduction of the tax rate, and cuts for various domestic programs. Despite these moves being popular with Conservatives, they were severely unpopular with most of the nation. While his administration enforced the Civil Rights Act of 1964, upsetting the south, he vetoed any new civil rights legislation, and the country endured large-scale race riots in the streets of its larger cities, along with a generational revolt of young people and violent debates over foreign policy. The emergence of the hippie counter-culture, the rise of New Left activism, and the emergence of 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 leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was shot and subsequently paralyzed 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, an event some consider a prelude to the 1968 Percy Riot.

The Vietnam War was the primary reason for the precipitous decline of President Goldwater's popularity. He had greatly escalated U.S. commitment that by late 1967, over 700,000 American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam. Draftees made up 46 percent of the military in Vietnam, but suffered 63% of the casualties, as nearly 2000 Americans a month were killed, and many more were injured. Resistance to the war rose as success seemed ever out of reach. The national news media began to focus on the high costs and ambiguous results of escalation, despite Goldwater's repeated efforts to downplay the seriousness of the situation.

In early January 1968, Secretary of Defense Lucius Clay said the war would be winding down, claiming that the North Vietnamese were losing their will to fight. But, shortly thereafter, the North Vietnamese launched the Tet Offensive, in which they and Communist forces of Vietcong undertook simultaneous attacks on all government strongholds across South Vietnam. Though the uprising ended in a U.S. military victory, the scale of the Tet offensive led many Americans to question whether the war could be "won", or was worth the costs to the U.S. In addition, voters began to mistrust the government's assessment and reporting of the war effort. The Pentagon called for sending several hundred thousand more soldiers to Vietnam. Goldwater's approval ratings fell below 20%. The Secret Service refused to let the president visit American colleges and universities, and prevented him from appearing at the 1968 Republican National Convention in Cincinnati, because it could not guarantee his safety.

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.

McGovern received 6,086,026 votes in the primaries.

Primaries
The front-runner for the Democratic nomination was Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, who formally began campaigning in January 1968. Humphrey had ran for President in 1960, and more notably, he was Former President Lyndon Johnson's running mate in the 1964 Presidential Election, a race the two just barely lost. Humphrey had the support of the party machine and the labor unions, but his record of losing caused wariness in the Democratic ranks, and many hoped a more "electable" candidate would emerge. Still, Humphrey led the early pre-primary polls by double digits, and he was expected by most to win the nomination.

Humphrey's primary challenger was South Dakotan Senator George McGovern. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Humphrey with 43%, followed by McGovern with 21%. McGovern had led a commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of 1964. However, the new rules angered many prominent Democrats whose influence was marginalized, and those politicians refused to support McGovern's campaign (in the general election, some even supported Rockefeller.) Despite opposition from the party establishment, McGovern was able to pull significant support from the anti-war and broader New-Left movements. Grassroots support, combined with intimate knowledge of a primary system he helped design, allowed him to close the polling gap heading into the primaries.

Senator Eugene McCarthy and Governor John Connally were both considered other potential threats to Humphrey. McCarthy appeared to be a formidable opponent early on, but with McGovern winning over the hearts of anti-war movement, McCarthy was left with little support. Connally banked his hopes on support from Lyndon Johnson and the Conservative Wing of the party, and while the latter gave him considerable resources, the former President opted instead to support Humphrey, a more electable candidate who he ran with in 1964.

The New Hampshire primary on March 12 represented a turning point in the campaign. Humphrey, who was expected to win a resounding victory, just barely defeated McGovern, 42%-39%. From then on, McGovern and Humphrey fought a tight, back and forth race. McGovern won the Pennsylvania and Massachusetts primaries, while Indiana, Nebraska, and Oregon went for Humphrey. Meanwhile, Connally swept the Southern primaries, though they netted him few delegates. Going into the June 4 California primary, both major candidates were neck and neck, though Humphrey had a slight edge in the polls. In what has been called a spectacular blunder, Humphrey agreed to debate McGovern one-on-one just a few days before the primary. Using lofty rhetoric and inspirational words, McGovern was considered the victory in the debate, and on June 4 he won the California primary. California's winner take all rules dictated that all the state's delegates were pledged to McGovern, even though his margin of victory was only a few percent. Had Humphrey won the primary, it's likely he would have won the nomination.

Total popular vote:


 * George McGovern: 6,086,026 (36.3%)
 * Hubert Humphrey: 6,070,907 (36.2%)
 * John Connally: 2,482,028 (14.8%)
 * Eugene McCarthy: 1,897,060 (10.3%)
 * Robert F. Kennedy (write-in): 326,257 (2.2%)
 * Others: 28,963 (0.2%)

Democratic Convention
As the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened on August 5 in New York, New York, the Associated Press estimated that McGovern had 1,498 delegate votes – 11 short of the number he needed to win the nomination. Humphrey and Connally were his only remaining opponents and they planned to unite their forces in an "Anybody-but-McGovern" movement.

Such an effort ultimately failed to stop McGovern's nomination, who went on to be nominated on the first ballot by just three votes. Humphrey, who had grown a personal distaste for McGovern over the course of primary campaign, walked out of the convention upon hearing the news that he was not being considered as a possible Vice-Presidential running mate for McGovern.

Most polls showed McGovern running well ahead of his presumptive opponent, Nelson Rockefeller. However, hypothetical polls showed such a lead increasing significantly when McGovern was paired with former Attorney General Robert Kennedy. McGovern and his campaign brain trust lobbied Kennedy heavily to accept the bid to be McGovern's running mate, but he continually refused their advance. Offers were then made to Eugene McCarthy, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, and Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, all of whom turned it down. Finally, the vice presidential slot was offered to Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, who accepted the offer.

With hundreds of delegates displeased with McGovern, the vote to ratify Morse's candidacy was chaotic, with at least three other candidates having their names put into nomination and votes scattered over 70 candidates. A grassroots attempt to displace Morse in favor of Texas politician Don Yarborough gained significant traction, though was ultimately unable to change the outcome of the vote.

The vice-presidential balloting went on so long that McGovern and Morse were forced to begin making their acceptance speeches at around 2 am, local time.

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.

Rockefeller received 1,966,019 votes in the primaries.

Enter George Romney
Seeing as he had only served a single term, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that President Goldwater would run for another term, and that he would have little trouble winning the Republican nomination.

Despite growing opposition to Goldwater's policies in Vietnam, it appeared that no prominent Republican candidate would run against a sitting president of his own party. It was also accepted by many Conservative economists that the recession would end going into the election, boosting the public image of the President. Such a recovery never came to fruition. Even Governor Nelson Rockefeller from New York, an outspoken critic of Goldwater's policies, with a large base of support, publicly declined to run against Goldwater in the primaries. Poll numbers also suggested that a large share of Americans who opposed the Vietnam War felt the growth of the anti-war hippie movement among younger Americans and violent unrest on college campuses was not helping their cause. On January 30, however, claims by the Goldwater administration that a recent troop surge would soon bring an end to the war were severely discredited when the Tet Offensive broke out. Although the American military was eventually able to fend off the attacks, and also inflict heavy losses among the communist opposition, the ability of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong to launch large scale attacks during the Tet Offensive's long duration greatly weakened American support for the military draft and further combat operations in Vietnam.

In time, only Governor George Romney from Michigan proved willing to challenge Johnson openly. Running as an anti-war candidate in the New Hampshire primary, Romney hoped to pressure the Republicans into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Since New Hampshire was the first presidential primary of 1968, Romney poured most of his limited resources into the state. Romney was boosted by thousands of young and middle aged liberal Republicans, who organized get-out-the-vote drives, rang doorbells, distributed Romney buttons and leaflets, and worked hard in New Hampshire for Romney. On March 12, Romney won 47 percent of the primary vote, to Johnson's 44 percent, a shocking victory against an incumbent president. Immediatly, donations came flooding into Romney's campaign, and overnight he became the new front-runner.

Sensing Goldwater's vulnerability, Governor Nelson Rockefeller announced his candidacy two weeks after the New Hampshire primary. Reportedly, he was tapped to run by former Vice President Richard Nixon, who himself was speculated as a possible candidate. Thereafter, Romney and Rockefeller engaged in a series of state primaries. Despite Rockefeller's high profile, Romney had an early advatnage thanks to the established organization of his campaign.

Goldwater withdraws
On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primary and Rockefeller's entry into the election, the president made a televised speech to the nation and said that he was escalating the bombing of North Vietnam. After concluding his speech, Goldwater announced, "'With America's sons in the field far away, sacrificing their lies for the good cause of freedom, with our hopes and the world's hopes for liberty 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 Goldwater's concern that he might not survive another term — there had been a number of political assassination over the past few years, notably the assassination of President Kennedy, and with his historically low approval rating, there was genuine concern he could be killed. Bleak political forecasts also contributed to Goldwater's withdrawal; internal polling by Goldwater's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to hold a primary election, showed the President trailing badly.

Historians have debated why Goldwater quit a few days after his loss in New Hampshire. Jeff Shesol says Goldwater wanted out of the White House, but also wanted vindication; when the indicators turned negative, he decided to leave. Lewis L. Gould says that Goldwater had neglected the Republican party, was hurting it by his Vietnam policies, and under-estimated Romney's strength until the last minute, when it was too late for Johnson to recover. Randall Bennett Woods said Goldwater realized he needed to leave, in order for the nation to heal. Anthony J. Bennett, however, said Goldwater "had been forced out of a re-election race in 1968 by outrage over his policy in Southeast Asia."

In 2009, an AP reporter said that Goldwater decided to end his re-election bid after CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, who was influential, turned against the president's policy in Vietnam. During a CBS News editorial which aired on February 27, Cronkite recommended the US pursue peace negotiations. After watching Cronkite's editorial, Goldwater allegedly exclaimed: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America. This quote by Goldwater has been disputed for accuracy. But, Cronkite and CBS News correspondent Bob Schieffer defended reports that the remark had been made. They said that members of Goldwater's inner circle, who had watched the editorial with the president, later confirmed the accuracy of the quote to them.

After Goldwater's withdrawal, the Republican Party quickly split into three factions.
 * The first group were the Conservatives. They were Goldwater's base, and although some of his more liberal social policies had alienated them somewhat, they could all get behind his economic and foreign policies. While disappointed by the selection of candidates, this group stuck with the party.
 * The second faction, were the Arch-conservatives. One could consider this a subset of the first group, but an important distinction is that this was the only group to completely break from the party. Throughout Goldwater's term, they had become increasingly upset with his enforcement of the Civil Rights Act, and when faced with a selection of moderate to liberal candidates, many opted instead to support Governor Rockwell.
 * The third group was primarily composed of liberals and progressives. This group was overjoyed when Goldwater dropped out, as he had been an anathema to them ever since the 1964 Republican Primary. Many in this group had considered joining the Democratic Party over Goldwater's term. This group tended to support George Romney, and they were concentrated in the North-east and West-coast.
 * The fourth group consisted of moderates and some liberals. Similar to the third faction, Goldwater was unpopular with this group, and they were happy to see him drop out. This group originally supported George Romney, but shifted towards Nelson Rockefeller upon his entry into the race. This group was concentrated throughout the country, but particularly in the North-east, West-Coast, and Midwest.

Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Republican Party, and Goldwater had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Republicans, Goldwater believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Democrats. 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 Miller, who had been a loyal vice-president.

despite his fierce enforcement of Civil Rights Act, many had accused Goldwater over the years of backing down to Southern Segregationists. This was because of his notably unpopular stance against any new equality legislation, Goldwater going as far as to veto a Voting Rights Bill in 1966. As an extension of this, some argued that Goldwater was secretly a support of Rockwell. However, Goldwater's telephone calls show that he believed the Rockwell camp was deliberately instigating race riots, and possibly the Percy Riot. Over the next few years, Goldwater was an open critic of Rockwell, the Traditional American Party, and White Separationists.

Contest
After Goldwater's withdrawal, Vice President William Miller announced his candidacy. While Romney had an easy victory in Wisconsin, the primary there was barely contested by Rockefeller, who was just beginning his campaign. The primary in Pennsylvania was another turning point in the race, as Rockefeller managed to win decisively. Some believe this was due to Rockefeller bringing to attention Romney's "brainwashing" comments. Miller competed directly in primaries with both Rockefeller and Romney, and he easily won over support from Conservatives. Miller, untainted by some of the administration's more liberal social policies, was even more popular among right-wingers than Goldwater was. As such, he easily won the primaries, in Indiana, Nebraska, Kansas, and Florida. Meanwhile, he also focused on gaining the support of favorite-sons and delegates from non-primary states. In the end, it was Miller who put up the greatest fight against Rockefeller, with Romney coming in a somewhat distant third place, by the end of things.

Republican Convention and conservative protests
Rockefeller had won a landslide in the primaries, with easy victories in Illinois, California, and other states, he was all but guaranteed the nomination. Vice President Miller attempted to sway over uncommitted delegates, but was ultimately unsuccessful. After the delegates nominated Rockefeller, the convention then turned to selecting a vice-presidential nominee. The main candidates for this position were Senator Mark Hatfield from Oregon, Governor Claude R. Kirk Jr. of Florida, and even Governor Ronald Reagan from California, though Reagan rejected the idea completely.

In an absolutely shocking turn of events, Rockefeller asked Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, a liberal Democrat and George McGovern's primary rival for the Democratic nomination, to be his running mate. Deeply displeased and still bitter by McGovern's nomination, Humphrey agreed. When news broke, the Convention exploded in shock. There was talk of a Conservative walk-out, while even moderate Republicans were hesitant about the idea of a joint party ticket. Meanwhile, liberals were pleased, and moderate Democrats alienated by McGovern were overjoyed, though the latter had little impact on the convention itself. It is speculated that Vice President Miller's surprise endorsement of Rockefeller is the only thing that stopped a riot from breaking out on the convention floor.

For a while, it seemed as if Humphrey would actually fail to be nominated, which would've been a historic occurrence. There was talk of "Draft-Ford" movement, in which the moderate Congressman from Michigan, Gerald Ford, would be placed on the ticket as a compromise between the Conservatives, Rockefeller's wishes, and Romney supporters. In the end, Humphrey was just barely nominated on the first ballot. In the aftermath of the Convention, Rockefeller's approval plummeted among Conservatives, but his cross-party support simultaneously skyrocketed.

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.

Traditional American Party nomination
The Traditional American Party, which was established in 1959 by George Lincoln Rockwell, nominated it's founder as the party's candidate for president. The impact of the Rockwell campaign was decisive, winning the electoral votes of several states in the Deep South, as well as Arkansas, Tennessee, and Rockwell's home state of Virginia. With these victories, he succeeded in preventing either major candidate from winning an electoral majority on election day. He appeared on the ballot in all fifty states, but not the District of Columbia. Although he did not come close to winning any states outside the South, Rockwell was the 1968 presidential candidate who most disproportionately drew his support from among young men.

Rockwell was not expected to win the election – his strategy was to prevent either major party candidate from winning a preliminary majority in the Electoral College. Although Rockwell put considerable effort into mounting a serious general election campaign, his presidential bid was also a continuation of Southern efforts to elect unpledged electors that had taken place in every election from 1956 – he had his electors promise to vote not necessarily for him but rather for whomever he directed them to support – his objective was not to move the election into the U.S. House of Representatives where he would have had little influence, but rather to give himself the bargaining power to determine the winner. Rockwell's running mate was the former Governor of Alabama, and infamous segregationist George Wallace, whom himself had considered running as a third party candidate.

Prior to deciding on Wallace, Rockwell gave serious consideration to former Arch-conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly of Missouri as his running mate. Rockwell and Schlafly met a number of times; however, Schlafly said that she and Rockwell were unable to come to a compromise regarding their positions on racial matters. Previously, at the 1960 Republican National Convention, Schlafly had led a revolt of "moral conservatives" who opposed Richard Nixon's stance "against segregation and discrimination." However, she was turned off by Rockwell's separationist ideology.

With Alabama solidly in Rockwell's column even before the announcement of his running mate, Wallace added little to his campaign, though he didn't detract much support either.

Other parties and candidates
Also on the ballot in two or more states were black activist Eldridge Cleaver (who was ineligible to take office, as he would have only been 33 years of age on January 20, 1969) for the Peace and Freedom Party; Henning Blomen for the Socialist Labor Party; Fred Halstead for the Socialist Workers Party; E. Harold Munn for the Prohibition Party; and Charlene Mitchell – the first African-American woman to run for president, and the first woman to receive valid votes in a general election – for the Communist Party. Comedians Dick Gregory and Pat Paulsen were notable write-in candidates. A facetious presidential candidate for 1968 was a pig named Pigasus, as a political statement by the Yippies, to illustrate their premise that "one pig's as good as any other."

Campaign strategies
McGovern rejected suggestions to move towards the center, himself instead adopting a strategy of appealing to his anti-war base of energized young progressives. He succeeded in driving turnout, but many of his most fervent supporters were not old enough vote, as the Twenty-Sixth Amendment to the Constitution, which allowed eighteen to twenty years olds vote, had not yet proposed or ratified. McGovern ran almost a single issue campaign, with most of his attention focused on the Vietnam War, the issue he was most personally passionate about.

Since he was well behind McGovern in the polls as the campaign began, Rockefeller opted for a slashing, fighting campaign style. He flew around the country, doing short, energized campaign stops where he spoke to and took questions directly from the American people. He often compared his campaign to the successful underdog effort of President Harry Truman, another candidate who had trailed in the polls, in the 1948 presidential election. In an effort to combat this, McGovern attempted to court the endorsement of Truman, but the former President declined, embarrassing McGovern's campaign. Rockefeller predicted that he, like Truman, would surprise the experts and win an upset victory.

Though his electoral support was localized almost entirely within the Deep South, Rockwell appeared to be running a national campaign, with grand appearances across the country states. He drew significant support from Western Arch-conservatives upset with Rockefeller's moderate and liberal positions, and thus possibly split states like Oregon and Montana. His racial rhetoric and hawkish stances appealed greatly to Blue-Collar Union Workers in the North, who were otherwise loyal to the Democrats.

Campaign themes
McGovern promised to restore the Great Society welfare programs started by President Johnson and ended by President Goldwater, and to renew 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, all these issues paled in comparison to the importance of the Vietnam War. McGovern's primary appeal was that he promised a quick and immediate withdrawal of all American forces from Vietnam, regardless of such a move's consequences for the South Vietnamese Government. In return, the North Vietnamese would hand over all American Prisoners of War.

Rockefeller campaigned on themes of hope, optimism, and renewal. He and his running mate, Hubert Humphrey, were partners on the campaign trail, flying around the country and speaking directly to groups of Americans. He took moderately liberal positions on the issues of the day, campaigning in favor of Civil Rights expansion, a fair peace deal in Vietnam, and strengthening social security, which had been cut under the Goldwater administration. Near the end of the campaign, he released a detailed platform detailing his proposals one by one, which netted him a boost in the polls. He also campaigned on somewhat of a "Law and Order" platform, focusing on increasing penalties for violent crimes, including support for the death penalty, as well as cracking down on the drug trade.

Rockwell ran a far-right campaign, which, while energizing his base, limited his national support. He called for a massive crackdown on crime, which appealed to many voters angry with the hundreds of violent riots that had taken place across the country in the previous few years. Following the assassination attempt against Martin Luther King in April 1968, there was massive rioting in inner city areas. The police were overwhelmed and President Goldwater decided to call out the U.S. Army. Rockwell opposed desegregation, and advocated in favor of Separation, which hurt nationally, but netted him some interesting support from Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. As the campaign went on, he quieted down on the racial issue. He supported escalating the Vietnam War, and maintaining the economic policies of the incumbent administration.

Rockefeller's comeback
After the Republican Convention in late August, Rockefeller trailed McGovern by double digits in most polls, and his chances seemed hopeless. Many within Rockefeller's campaign saw their real goal as avoiding the potential humiliation of finishing behind Rockwell in the electoral college vote (if not necessarily the popular vote), rather than having any serious chance of defeating McGovern. According to Time magazine, "The Republican coalition was disintegrating, with untold numbers of conservatives responding to Rockwell's blandishments, and many more willing to sit out the election all together. The war chest was almost empty, and the party's machinery, neglected by Barry Goldwater, creaked in disrepair." His running mate calling for "the politics of joy", and using the still-numerous liberal Republicans as his base, Rockefeller fought back.

Rockefeller attacked Rockwell as a racist bigot who appealed to the darker impulses of Americans. Rockwell had been rising in the polls as a result of tailoring his message to audiences outside of his southern strongholds by using anti-establishment rhetoric and attacks on "concentrated wealth", with Rockwell's polling numbers peaking at 13% nationally in late September and early October. However, Rockwell's momentum went into reverse after the New York times released an article alleging that Rockwell's party had ties to various Neo-Nazi groups. The article also alleged that Rockwell himself had praised Hitler during his time in the Navy. This was expected to destroy his campaign, but Rockwell successfully deflected, calling out the lack of evidence present in the article. Still, this greatly hurt his campaign outside the deep south, likely resulting in his narrow loss in North Carolina. As election day approached and Rockwell's support in the North, Midwest and West began to wane, Rockefeller finally began to climb in the polls.

In October, the feud between George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey came to a climax when Humphrey accused McGovern's economic platform of "bordering on Communism." While a somewhat unpopular statement, it was overshadowed by McGovern's response, who called Humphrey a "sore loser, and a member of the party’s obsolete establishment wing." McGovern apologized for the statement, saying that he had said it off-the-cuff after a stressful day of campaigning. His words were condemned by many moderate Democrats, including Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, and more notably, former President Johnson. With how close the end result was, the gaffe likely cost him a victory on election night.

The Percy Riot
The Nixon campaign had anticipated a possible "October surprise", a peace agreement produced by the Paris negotiations; as such an agreement would be a boost to Humphrey, Nixon thwarted any last-minute chances of a "Halloween Peace". Nixon told campaign aide and his future White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman to put a "monkey wrench" into an early end to the war. Johnson was enraged and said that Nixon had "blood on his hands", and that Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen agreed with Johnson that such action was "treason". Defense Secretary Clark Clifford considered the moves an illegal violation of the Logan Act. A former director of the Nixon Library called it a "covert action" which "laid the skulduggery of his presidency".

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.

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

Johnson learned of the Nixon-Chennault effort because the NSA was intercepting communications in Vietnam. In response, Johnson ordered NSA surveillance of Chennault and wire-tapped the South Vietnamese embassy and members of the Nixon campaign. He did not leak the information to the public because he did not want to "shock America" with the revelation, nor reveal that the NSA was intercepting communications in Vietnam. 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. The South Vietnamese government withdrew from peace negotiations, and Nixon publicly offered to go to Saigon to help the negotiations. A promising "peace bump" ended up in "shambles" for the Democratic Party.

Election
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 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.

Richard Nixon was able to win the Electoral College, dominating several regions in the Western United States, Midwest, Upland South, and portions of the Northeast, while winning the popular vote by a relatively small 511,944 votes over Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey. Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey performed relatively well in the Northeast and Upper Midwest. Wallace finished last with five states in the Deep South; he is the most recent third-party candidate to win any states. This is the first time that the Republican popular vote margin was under 5 points since 1896.

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; while Nixon carried 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 2020. This is also the first time since 1916 that Minnesota voted for the candidate who did not eventually win.

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. Four of the fives states won by Wallace had voted for Goldwater.

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.

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."

Results
Nixon's victory is often considered a realigning election in American politics. From 1932 to 1964, the Democratic Party was undoubtedly the majority party, winning seven out of nine presidential elections, and their agenda influenced policies undertaken by the Republican Eisenhower administration. The 1968 election reversed the situation completely. From 1968 until 2004, Republicans won seven out of ten presidential elections, and its policies clearly affected those enacted by the Democratic Clinton administration via the Third Way.

The election was a seismic event in the long-term realignment in Democratic Party support, especially in the South. 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. 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. In 1968, Humphrey won less than ten percent of the white Southern vote, with two-thirds of his vote in the region coming from blacks, who now voted in full strength. From 1968 until 2004, only two Democrats were elected president, both native Southerners – Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Not until 2008 did a Northern Democrat, Barack Obama of Illinois, again win a presidential election. In 2020, another Northern Democrat, Joe Biden of Delaware, won a presidential election.

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.

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 to win his party's nomination without having directly competed in the primaries. Interestingly, this remains the most recent presidential election in which the incumbent president was not nominated for a presidential term despite being eligible, and the only such election to occur after the Twenty-second Amendment came into effect. It is also the last election in which any third-party candidate won an entire state's electoral votes, with Wallace carrying five states. This is one of two times in American history that two former or current Vice President were major party nominees, after 1800. , 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. It was also the first time since 1888 that bellwether Coös County, New Hampshire did not support the winning candidate.

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 last time that Oregon and Washington did not support the same party, meaning the two neighboring states have only voted for different candidates twice in 100 years. 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 Bayh–Celler amendment in Congress, which would have replaced the Electoral College with a direct election of the presidency. The effort was not successful and the Electoral College is still in force.

Results
Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

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


 * 1) Missouri, 1.13% (20,488 votes)
 * 2) Texas, 1.27% (38,960 votes)
 * 3) Maryland, 1.64% (20,315 votes)
 * 4) Washington, 2.11% (27,527 votes)
 * 5) New Jersey, 2.13% (61,261 votes)
 * 6) Ohio, 2.28% (90,428 votes) (tipping point state for Nixon win)
 * 7) Alaska, 2.64% (2,189 votes)
 * 8) Illinois, 2.92% (134,960 votes) (tipping point state for Humphrey win)
 * 9) California, 3.08% (223,346 votes)
 * 10) Delaware, 3.51% (7,520 votes)
 * 11) Pennsylvania, 3.57% (169,388 votes)
 * 12) Wisconsin, 3.62% (61,193 votes)
 * 13) Tennessee, 3.83% (47,800 votes)

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


 * 1) Kentucky, 5.14% (64,870 votes)
 * 2) Connecticut, 5.16% (64,840 votes)
 * 3) New York, 5.46% (370,538 votes)
 * 4) South Carolina, 5.79% (38,632 votes)
 * 5) Oregon, 6.05% (49,567 votes)
 * 6) Michigan, 6.73% (222,417 votes)
 * 7) Arkansas, 7.64% (46,565 votes)
 * 8) Nevada, 8.17% (12,590 votes)
 * 9) New Hampshire, 8.17% (24,314 votes)
 * 10) North Carolina, 8.25% (131,004 votes)
 * 11) West Virginia, 8.82% (66,536 votes)
 * 12) Montana, 9.01% (24,718 votes)
 * 13) Colorado, 9.14% (74,171 votes)
 * 14) Vermont, 9.22% (14,887 votes)
 * 15) Florida, 9.60% (210,010 votes)