1964 United States Presidential Election

The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee, in one of the closest Presidental elections ever. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in 1963, Johnson took office. He pledged to carry on Kennedy's legacy, especially when it came to Civil Rights. In 1964, Johnson succeeded by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, this led to a conservative backlash, as many state rights groups viewed it as undermining state authority. Groups like the John Birch Society and the KKK protested the act. Almost instantly, the deep Southern States like Georgia, Louisana, Alabama, and Mississippi rejected this act, and southern Democrats began to switch to the Republican party, most notably Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. The election was also plagued with fears about the Vietnam War. After the Gulf of Tonkin incident, Johnson passed a resolution that sent US troops overseas to support South Vietnam. The Democratic party was divided on this issue, as Kennedy tried to keep them out of the conflict, but others in the party like segregationist George Wallace advocated escalation. Republicans were also divided, and Goldwater infamously said he would use nuclear weapons. Both parties' primaries were stricken with division. Johnson narrowly edged out Kennedy's brother, Robert F. Kennedy, and Governor George Wallace. The Republican nomination was also convoluted, as the liberal part of the party backing candidates like New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller was defeated by the more fringe conservative part of the party. Johnson positioned himself as a moderate and succeeded in portraying Goldwater as an extremist. CIA Director William Colby asserted that Tracy Barnes instructed the CIA to spy on the Goldwater campaign and the Republican National Committee, to provide information to Johnson's campaign; E. Howard Hunt, later implicated as a ringleader in the Watergate scandal, disputed this, instead claiming the operation had been ordered by the White House. . As the election became more close, scandals from both sides began to come out. Most notably, the Warren Commission, established to investigate Kennedy´s assassination, revealed late in the race that Lee Harvey Oswald may have had ties to the ¨Current executive administration¨. While it did not implicate Johnson, it highly implied that he might have had something to do with Kennedy´s death. Johnson denied these rumors, while Goldwater and Robert F. Kennedy called for Johnson to resign. This scandal would have a lasting impact on Johnson´s Presidency. In the end, due to a late surge in the polls over Johnsons' Great Society programs, Johnson was able to defeat Goldwater. However, Johnson lost all the midwest and southern states, showing how impactful the scandal was.