Presidential election in the United States in 1964

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
‹  1960  •  USA flag •  1968 ›
45th presidential election
3rd November 1964
37 Lyndon Johnson 3x4.jpg
 Democratic Party
Lyndon B. Johnson / Hubert Humphrey
electors 486  
be right 43.127.041  
  
 61.1%
Barry Goldwater.jpg
 Republican Party
Barry Goldwater / William Miller
electors 52  
be right 27.175.754  
  
 38.5%
Election results by state
Map of election results by state
  44 states + DC  
Johnson / Humphrey
  6 states  
Goldwater / Miller
President of the United States

The 1964 presidential election in the United States took place on November 3, 1964 and was the 45th election for the President of the United States . The Democratic Party candidate was incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson , who had only moved into the White House a year earlier after the assassination attempt on his predecessor John F. Kennedy . For the Republican Party which came Senator Barry Goldwater on.

The main topics of the election campaign in the course of the civil rights movement were the civil rights of African Americans , the incipient American involvement in Vietnam and the international role of the USA during the Cold War . Lyndon B. Johnson won the election very clearly. Only in a few southern states and his home state of Arizona , where Johnson's friendly policy towards African Americans met with rejection, Goldwater succeeded in gaining a majority of votes. In all other states, the incumbent won a majority of the electorate and was re-elected as US president for a full term. Measured by the popular vote , the total vote of the population, Johnson received 61.1 percent of the vote - the highest victory to date since the establishment of the two-party system in 1820. Johnson received 486 votes in the decisive electoral body , Goldwater 52. Johnson's co- candidate Hubert H. Humphrey was elected vice president.

Elections to the Senate and the House of Representatives took place in parallel . Here, too, Johnson's Democratic Party was able to post massive gains. A large majority in both chambers of Congress enabled the re-elected Johnson to carry on and expand his extensive Great Society social program in the years that followed.

Starting position

In January 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson (right) meets Senator Barry Goldwater at the White House
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 , the desegregation act, exposed one of the greatest differences between the candidates

Previous election and assassination of President Kennedy

In the previous election in 1960 , John F. Kennedy , the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts , was elected president, who narrowly prevailed against incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon . Kennedy, who was the youngest directly elected president at the age of 43, advocated domestic political reforms and the equality of African Americans and other minorities. In terms of foreign policy, in his inaugural address of January 20, 1961, he admonished the United States to remain united and demanded that the United States use all means to protect its interests vis-à-vis the Communist Eastern Bloc led by the USSR . He had also shown himself to be a level-headed leader in situations like the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when it came to preventing a military exchange of blows with the Soviet Union. Together with Kennedy, the Texas Senator and Democratic Group leader Lyndon B. Johnson was elected US Vice President. Johnson himself had claimed the Democratic presidential candidacy for himself in 1960, but was only second after Kennedy at the party congress for the election. In order to increase his election chances, Kennedy decided to declare his former rival Johnson as a runner-up candidate. Both Johnson's Texas origins , where Kennedy was less popular, and his greater political experience (Johnson was nine years older than Kennedy) made him an attractive running mate . With Johnson's participation in the 1960 election campaign, Kennedy actually succeeded in gaining a majority of votes and thus the electorate of these states in some southern states and especially in the populous Texas. Kennedy won the election, if only narrowly.

President John F. Kennedy planned to run for a second term in the 1964 election. His 1960 opponent Richard Nixon was also re-listed as a Republican Party candidate for the 1964 election . In November 1963, exactly one year before the election, Kennedy traveled to Texas with his deputy Lyndon B. Johnson to improve his popularity there, which was low due to his sympathy with the colored civil rights movement. On November 22, 1963, however, Kennedy was shot and killed in an assassination attempt while driving through Dallas . According to the American Constitution, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as President on board Air Force One that same day in Dallas . According to the constitution, if the president is eliminated, the vice president takes over the office of president for the remainder of the term of office, i.e. becomes the next US president.

Political developments after Kennedy's murder

After taking office, Johnson set about implementing the reforms that Kennedy had sought. Kennedy had not yet succeeded in desegregation. A corresponding law was discussed in the US Congress, but at the time of Kennedy's death, it was still a long way off. Just a few days after taking office, Johnson made it clear that he would continue Kennedy's commitment. Already here a clear difference between Johnson and conservative politicians like Barry Goldwater became apparent. Goldwater had not rejected the civil rights movement under Martin Luther King per se, but he kept in particular the competence of the federal government. Under heavy pressure on the Senators and MPs, Johnson managed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . This historically very important law, which President Johnson signed on July 2, 1964, abolished national segregation and gave blacks more civil rights. The president had been so pro-Afro-American that the public expected him to receive few votes in the upcoming presidential election from the conservative southern states. Johnson and Goldwater also took opposing positions on other social policy issues. For example, Johnson had launched numerous poverty eradication programs, while Goldwater denigrated Johnson's domestic policy for believing that Johnson was too meddling in state and popular affairs.

In terms of foreign policy, Johnson had largely maintained the course of his predecessor. During the Cold War he stood for peaceful coexistence with the USSR. In the US engagement in South Vietnam, which was massively promoted by Kennedy (which threatened to be taken over by the communist north), he had so far adhered to the strategy of providing military advice to the US ally South Vietnam. The Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater openly criticized Johnson for his “too soft” stance in the conflict, which, however, did not interest many people in the American public. In early August 1964, as the election campaign began to intensify, two armed attacks on a US reconnaissance ship by Communist speedboats were reported in the Gulf of Tonkin within two days . Despite the partly unclear state of affairs in the second incident (which, as has since been proven, did not take place at all and was therefore a false report to the US government), President Johnson initially decided on limited retaliation by the US armed forces by launching the bombing ranged from the air on military targets in North Vietnam . He also asked Congress for a resolution giving the President the right to respond militarily to such incidents without further legislative approval. Although Johnson, in contrast to Goldwater, has so far rejected an extended war, the course for the future Vietnam War was set. Nevertheless, the so-called Tonkin resolution , which was passed in the House of Representatives with no votes against and in the Senate with two votes against, was also seen as an electoral maneuver by Johnson to demonstrate that the ruler in the White House was “under control” of Congress.

Candidates

Democrats

The following people requested nomination by the Democratic Party :

Democratic Party Conference in Atlantic City, Nov. 24-27 August 1964
Robert F. Kennedy (left) with Lyndon B. Johnson campaigning in New York on October 15, 1964
Hubert H. Humphrey , Johnson's candidate for the vice presidency

Primaries

At the beginning of the year, the nomination of incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson was considered certain. The Democratic Party saw itself with the ruling head of state since November 1963 in the tradition of John F. Kennedy , whose name had meanwhile developed into a myth. Johnson had continued and expanded the reform program of his predecessor, succeeding in getting significantly more bills through Congress than his predecessor. Domestically, he stood for the interests of the middle class, the working class and the poor. His pro-Afro-American policies also found support within the party in many northern states. Nonetheless, there were also conservative voices criticizing Johnson's commitment to African Americans in particular. Therefore, the Conservative Governor of Alabama, George Wallace , decided to challenge Johnson in the party primaries . Although Wallace was surprisingly more popular than expected in the north, he was clearly inferior to the incumbent nationwide. In the few states that carried out state-wide primary elections, predominantly regionally known politicians (favorite sons) who ran as front men for Johnson were able to prevail . Of the primaries in 15 states, Lyndon B. Johnson had won seven without even campaigning for himself. Pat Brown , the governor of that state but supported President Johnson, received many votes in California . It has therefore been speculated that Johnson would declare Brown a runner-up for the presidency .

Nomination party conference and running for vice presidency

In the run-up to the nomination party congress, some Democratic politicians raised the possibility of Robert F. Kennedy's candidacy as vice president. The US media also suspected that the younger brother of John F. Kennedys and acting attorney general in the Johnson cabinet could possibly be set up as a candidate for the vice presidency. Since Robert Kennedy had tried to prevent Johnson from running for vice-president of his brother in 1960, the president was not interested in placing him as a co-candidate. Robert Kennedy, on the other hand, had ambitions for this office in order to possibly run for president himself if Johnson ended his political career. Johnson biographer Robert Dallek described it as the "Bobby Problem" because Johnson knew of the public's enthusiasm for Robert Kennedy but refused to accept him as Vice President because of their mutual dislike. Before the party conference, Johnson surprisingly announced that no member of his cabinet would be eligible for the vice position, as this would disrupt the work of the government. Johnson also managed to ensure that Robert Kennedy would only give his party congress speech to the delegates after the election of the two candidates, in order to prevent Kennedy's spontaneous nomination as a running mate. At the party convention, he, Kennedy, was actually cheered with 20-minute applause, which in his opinion was more aimed at his deceased brother. After Johnson had excluded Robert Kennedy's co-candidacy, the latter resigned as attorney general and instead opted for a candidacy for Senator in New York State . The president explicitly supported Robert Kennedy's Senate candidacy, as Johnson also had an interest in removing incumbent Republican Senator Kenneth Keating . In October both completed several campaign appearances in New York. Kennedy actually prevailed on election day and was elected Senator. In his memoirs, Johnson later wrote that he wanted to select a fellow candidate from the Midwest in order to secure many votes from that part of the country. In the run-up to the election, Goldwater was seen as strong, particularly in the more rural areas of the Midwest.

His decision for the vice presidential nomination announced Johnson until the beginning of the Congress ( Democratic National Convention ) , of between 24 and 27 August in Atlantic City in the Boardwalk Hall took place. George Wallace had already stopped his campaign in advance due to a lack of support. On August 27, Johnson's 56th birthday, the incumbent was unanimously nominated for re-election for president by acclamation . As a candidate for the office of vice president, he selected the left-wing liberal Senator Hubert H. Humphrey from Minnesota .

A disagreement over the official Mississippi State delegation caused a stir on the fringes of the Democratic party convention , as some African Americans complained about the inadequate implementation of the civil rights laws that President Johnson had signed a few weeks earlier. In addition to the official white delegation, some colored people put together their own African American delegation, who also demanded voting rights at the party congress. The democratic party leadership initiated a compromise so that the group of African American people was not recognized as an official delegation of their state, but was given the right to vote at the convention. The nominations of Johnson and Humphrey as candidates were nevertheless unanimous, especially since there were no more serious opponents to the incumbent.

republican

The following people tried to nominate the Republican Party :

Interior view of Cow Palace in San Francisco , home of the 1964 Republican Congress
Goldwaters Vice Presidential Candidate William E. Miller

Starting position with the Republicans

The Republican Party was at the beginning of the year with the start of the primaries ( Primary split) into two camps: a moderate liberal wing politicians and conservative wing in particular the African-American civil rights movement faced suspicious. Liberal tendencies of the party were from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller stated, while the conservative forces the candidacy of Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona forward exaggerated. Both Rockefeller and Goldwater had tried to get their party's top candidacy back in 1960, but at that time they clearly failed because of Richard Nixon , the incumbent vice-president of the outgoing Eisenhower government. Nixon, who succumbed to John F. Kennedy in a narrow decision in 1960, was long considered by the US public as a potential candidate for the 1964 presidency, although he had announced the end of his political career after his defeat in the California gubernatorial election in 1962. In 1963, Nixon repeatedly denied publicly that he would run in the 1964 election. Nevertheless, Nixon was considered a possible candidate in the media for a long time, especially since he was not clearly attributable to either of the two wings. He presented himself as conservative externally, but represented moderate positions in many domestic political issues.

Primaries

After suspicions about participation in the election arose in 1963, Barry Goldwater announced his candidacy for the Republican Party on January 3, 1964. Conservative circles in the South and the Midwest in particular supported Goldwater's candidacy because he was committed to massive tax cuts and the interests of large companies. Although a few other candidates ran for the Republican Party nomination, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller quickly emerged as Goldwater's fiercest rival. All other applicants were considered underdogs and were unable to win more than one of the 16 primary elections. Only Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. surprisingly won the first primary in New Hampshire . Lodge also defeated Rockefeller and Goldwater in New Jersey and Massachusetts until he announced that he would not run for president. As a result, Goldwater clearly won several primaries, including Texas , Illinois and Indiana . Meanwhile, Rockefeller won the West Virginia and Oregon primaries . Rockefeller had also won some local caucus area codes in states without primaries, mostly in the northeastern United States, which was more liberal than more rural states and thus preferred Rockefeller to Goldwater. The other candidates did not succeed in expanding their support nationwide, so that their nomination was ruled out as early as the spring of 1964. In some states, as in the case of the Democratic Party, local personalities were entered on the ballot papers and they had also won an area code in their respective state, but here too none of them succeeded in gaining national approval in the Republican Party.

The state of California brought about the decisive turning point in the Republican primary . Governor Rockefeller was initially able to lead the polls in the west coast state, but then quickly lost ground to Goldwater. On June 2, 1964, Goldwater won the California area code by a thin margin, especially since he was also supported by local Republican forces. He united 51 percent of the vote there, for Rockefeller 49 percent spoke out. Goldwater secured the 86 party congress delegates that the state had to allocate and, after the primary victory in Texas, achieved a de facto majority at the Republican nomination party convention. The main cause of Rockefeller's defeat in the primary elections is seen less because of his political views, but more particularly because of his divorce and rapid remarriage to a woman 15 years his junior the year before.

Nomination party conference and running for vice presidency

The Republican nominating convention ( Republican National Convention ) took place from 13 to 16 July 1964 in San Francisco , California instead. Goldwater achieved a clear majority: 883 of the 1,308 delegates voted for him, Rockefeller received just 114 votes. Most of the remaining votes were divided among candidates who had not actively participated in the primary elections and who only had regional primary victories. In his speech at the party, Goldwater said that “extremism is not a disgrace in defending freedom,” which was seen in a less favorable light by liberal and more moderate forces in the party in particular. Some observers already saw this as a fear that Goldwater might lose the election. The fact that the party congress was accompanied by protests by the civil rights movement also caused displeasure, as African-Americans in particular criticized Goldwater's stance on the desegregation and his vote in the Senate against the Civil Rights Act.

Goldwater selected the little-known William E. Miller , who chaired the Republican National Committee and was a member of the House of Representatives , to run for the run up to the presidency .

Other parties

Smaller party candidates were Eric Hass of the Socialist Labor Party , Clifton DeBerry of the Socialist Workers Party , E. Harold Munn of the Prohibition Party, and John Kasper of the National States' Rights Party . However, none of them played an important role either in the election campaign or in the outcome of the election, and they were also not mentioned in the US media.

Election campaign

Domestic dispute

Johnson / Humphrey campaign logo
Goldwater / Miller campaign logo
Lyndon B. Johnson signs autograph on a campaign tour in Illinois , October 1964
Campaign appearance by Barry Goldwater (left) and his supporter Ronald Reagan (at the desk)

Goldwater focused early on, during the primaries, on attacks against President Johnson's domestic politics. He spoke out in favor of a drastic dismantling of social programs and called for more individual responsibility on the part of the citizens as well as more competences for the individual states and thus less power for the federal government. Goldwater and his team tried primarily with the help of commercials , which were broadcast nationwide from September 1964, to stir up fear in the public that the Washington government would interfere too much in the interests of the citizens among the ruling Democrats and regulate the economy too tightly. In particular in the agricultural sector, according to Goldwater's ideas, all market interventions should be abolished in order to enable free competition. Many of his domestic political beliefs were based on the laissez-faire policies of the republican governments in the 1920s. However, when it became clear that this particular thesis was unpopular with farmers in the Midwest , Goldwater partially corrected his position at this point, as the Republican election campaign team had come to believe that Goldwater only had a chance of winning the election a good result in the states of the Midwest is possible. His late departure from this political thesis, however, was largely viewed as untrustworthy by the US public. The top Republican candidate also campaigned for a cut in subsidies and spoke out against the welfare programs planned by Johnson, especially in the areas of education and health. Goldwater considered such programs to be too much of an expansion of state activity and instead advocated private welfare for citizens and greater responsibility for the individual states. He also warned against a bureaucratic and oversized state apparatus in Washington that goes hand in hand with the democratic programs. Many Republicans therefore called for a lean state and said that Johnson's policy stood for the uncontrolled expansion of a bureaucratic welfare state. In terms of domestic politics, Goldwater made it his goal to reverse the social policy of the past four years under Kennedy and Johnson. Another central aspect of the Goldwater campaign was the call for substantial tax cuts. These should particularly benefit business people and the upper income bracket. Goldwaters and its ultra-conservative supporters are convinced that this would create incentives for more investments and thus more jobs for companies. Here, too, clear parallels to the republican government policy of the 1920s can be seen.

While Goldwater wanted to limit the role of the federal government, particularly in the domestic political arena, Johnson campaigned for the Great Society's reform program, which was started at the beginning of the year . This envisaged an expansion of the welfare state and greater responsibility for the federal government in Washington. According to President Johnson's ideas, social programs in the areas of education and health should particularly benefit poorer classes and minorities, especially people of color. Johnson was planning a large-scale " War on Poverty " (War on Poverty) . In his opinion, this should not only improve living conditions, but also give more people a chance on the job market through better educational opportunities . As early as the summer of 1964, the president had signed several laws that provided federal and local governments with funding for local poverty reduction.

Johnson's campaign also attacked Goldwater for his stance on civil rights. Goldwater has been portrayed as a racist in numerous Democratic commercials as the Arizona senator voted against the civil rights bill passed in July to desegregate him. Goldwater's reservations, however, were not racist in nature; he had questioned the jurisdiction of the national government. Goldwater publicly advocated equality for Americans of color, but it was the responsibility of the states to implement it. President Johnson, however, criticized Goldwater for his stance and took the position that the situation of African Americans in many states (especially the southern states ) was unsatisfactory and that the authority of the federal government was therefore required. At the same time, however, he appealed to both the states and all US citizens to promote equality in general.

Foreign policy dispute

The well-known daisy ad from the Johnson election campaign

In foreign policy, Goldwater criticized the attitude of Johnson, who stood for a peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Goldwater attacked above all Johnson's actions in the Vietnam conflict and accused him of a policy of appeasement . If necessary, US interests can also be implemented by force. Goldwater had already made this stance clear at the nomination convention by saying that "extremism in the defense of freedom is not a shame". Johnson and his campaign team countered by branding Goldwater as an unpredictable extremist who, willy-nilly , could embroil the US in a nuclear war. This was specifically intended to stir up fear of Goldwater as president, while Johnson was portrayed as a level-headed statesman who also carried on the foreign policy of his predecessor Kennedy.

In the emerging television age, the medium of TV played a crucial role in the 1964 election campaign. Both Johnson and his challenger Goldwater also deliberately discredited their political opponents through election advertisements that were broadcast nationwide from September 1964. The Daisy Ad of the Johnson election campaign , which was first broadcast on September 7, attracted particular attention . In it you can see a little girl with a flower in her hand, who is facing the explosion of an atomic bomb. The voice of Goldwater can be heard in the background, counting down to the point of detonation. After the explosion, Lyndon B. Johnson can be heard appealing: "We have to learn to love one another or we will all die." Even without Goldwater's name, this commercial made a lasting impression on the US public the Republican candidate as extremists. The commercial was designed by Tony Schwartz , a so-called Spin Doctor , and was ultimately very successful. Republican foreign policy commercials have repeatedly highlighted the Democrats' perceived weakness. They accused the president and his administration of deliberately misleading the American public on foreign policy matters (particularly in the Vietnam conflict). Furthermore, the ruling Democrats have been shown to have a lack of courage in asserting American interests on the world political stage.

public perception

Both Johnson and Goldwater have received support from numerous prominent figures, both inside and outside politics. The well-known African-American civil rights activist Martin Luther King spoke out against Goldwater in public, although King himself emphasized that he would not make any public election recommendations. However, many other colored civil rights activists supported Lyndon B. Johnson's re-election. The unions, too, saw Johnson’s policy as representing the interests of ordinary citizens and workers, while Goldwater seemed to represent the interests of big business people.

For the first time, the actor Ronald Reagan from California , who was involved in the election campaign for Barry Goldwater in the context of public speeches, was publicly noticed . In contrast to Goldwater, Reagan was considered a good speaker and accordingly his appearances left a lasting impression in the public and the media. His speech under the title A Time for Choosing (in German about a time to choose (between alternatives) ) achieved national fame. At this appearance, Reagan spoke out in foreign policy for the liberation of "millions of people, enslaved behind the Iron Curtain " and domestically for the extensive suppression of state influence, with which he sharply attacked the domestic policy of the president. Many saw Reagan's speech as the best of the Goldwater campaign. Reagan was then to be elected California governor in 1966 and president himself in 1980.

The active election campaign fell silent for a few days when the former President Herbert Hoover (term of office 1929 to 1933) died on October 20, 1964 . He had previously spoken out in favor of Barry Goldwater.

The vice-presidential candidates and the wives of the two opponents also played a subordinate role in the election campaign. Lady Bird Johnson , who also raised funds for her husband's election campaign, also made campaign appearances. So she toured the country with the Lady Bird Special , a train, and campaigned for her husband's confirmation in office.

Since the first time there was a TV speech duel between the candidates in the 1960 election campaign , the US public and the media questioned whether there would be such a public debate on TV in 1964. President Johnson turned down a speech duel with Goldwater in the summer of 1964, as he saw no benefit in his election campaign with a TV duel given his lead in the polls. In September 1964, a Gallup poll showed that he was well ahead of 65 percent versus 29 percent.

Results and analysis

Election result

Lyndon B. Johnson voting in Texas on Election Day, November 3, 1964
President Johnson watches the results on election night on television

The presidential election fell on November 3, 1964. President Johnson won the election by a very large margin over his Republican challenger. In the popular election, the incumbent had 61.1 percent, around 43 million votes, of the vote, while only 38.5 percent gave Goldwater their vote. A total of 70,639,284 votes were cast, bringing the turnout to 61.9 percent, a decrease of around one percent compared to 1960. With the exception of five southern states and Goldwater's home state of Arizona , Lyndon B. Johnson had obtained a majority of votes in all of the other 44 states, thereby securing all electors in these states. In the Electoral Board , where all electoral votes go to candidates with a majority of the state's votes, Johnson received 486 of the 538 votes. Goldwater secured 52 votes, with 270 required for the election to president. The result of the vote for the election of the Vice President was the same, Humphrey received 486 votes and Miller 52. In English one speaks of a landslide victory , a landslide victory.

In the polls for the election in 1964, Johnson had always had a comfortable lead.

The 61.1 percent share of the vote is the highest in US history to date and even exceeded the result of the 1936 election , when Franklin D. Roosevelt won 60.8 percent of all voters. The result at Electoral College was also one of the best in American history. In the 20th century it was only surpassed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and Richard Nixon in 1972 and twice by Ronald Reagan ( 1980 and 1984 ), but none of these elections achieved a higher percentage of the popular vote. Also, since 1964, no Democratic presidential candidate has topped Lyndon B. Johnson's election on the electoral panel.

Demographic balance of power

The African Americans , the most significant difference in the election results showed. Since the Civil War , colored people were more inclined to the Republicans, as they were still identified with the liberation of slaves under Abraham Lincoln . Even with social programs such as the New Deal under President Roosevelt in the 1930s and President Truman's demand for equality for blacks (abolition of racial segregation in the armed forces), people of color began to turn to the Democrats. By the time President Kennedy advocated African-American civil rights even more clearly, and after the racial segregation was finally overturned in July 1964 under President Johnson's leadership, blacks had turned almost completely from Republicans to Democrats. Johnson won more than 95 percent of the African American vote in the election. Four years earlier it was a good two thirds at Kennedy. In all subsequent elections, Democratic candidates always received over 80 percent of the African American vote. However, since African Americans were only a minority, the overall result was only affected by around two percent by Johnson's strong performance in this population group. With white voters, he received 59 percent of the vote, Goldwater achieved a share of 41 percent.

The distribution by gender reflected the final result with few deviations: While Johnson performed slightly better among women with 62 percent, his share of 60 percent among men was slightly below the overall result. Accordingly, Goldwater had received slightly more male votes in percentage terms than overall, namely 40 percent. In the case of women, it came to 37 percent, in other words a little less than all votes.

Johnson achieved a majority in all age groups, but his share of the vote decreased as the voters got older. For example, 64 percent of those under 30 (minimum age 21) voted for him, and 59 percent of those over 50. Goldwater, on the other hand, was more successful with older voters than younger voters.

Geographical balance of power

Geographically, Johnson received the most votes in the northeastern United States and on the west coast. But he was also able to win a clear majority of the votes in his home state of Texas in the south. Johnson achieved his best result alongside Washington, DC with 85 percent in the state of Rhode Island , where 80 percent of the vote went to him. Surprisingly, the incumbent was also able to assert himself in the more rural, conservative states of the Midwest. Goldwater only achieved clear majorities in the states of the deep south , which rejected Johnson's friendly policy of colored people. In addition, Goldwater could only win in his home state of Arizona. There, however, he was only one percent ahead, with Johnson's lead in Florida and Idaho also only about two percent.

For the first time, the election reflected a significant reversal in the geographic balance of power in the USA. So far, the northern states, especially on the coast, have been Republican, while the southern states have been more inclined to the Democrats. Since the racial problems were most pronounced in the southern states and many citizens of this region openly opposed the desegregation, this led to a turn away from the Democratic Party, whose top politicians advocated equality for colored people and took appropriate measures. This process of turning away from the Democrats in the southern states had already begun in 1948, when President Harry S. Truman spoke out in favor of more rights for blacks and desegregated the armed forces through a presidential decree a few months before the election . At that time, a splinter group of southerners from the Democratic Party had even formed its own presidential candidate. Even after Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, he expressed fear to confidants that the Democrats had just ceded the southern states to the Republicans for a very long time. After 1964, only Jimmy Carter could actually win the 1976 presidential election in the southern US states.

As the residents of the northern states could identify more with liberal and progressive positions, these regions turned more towards the Democrats. In 1964, Johnson was the first Democrat to win in Vermont .

The table below shows the distribution of votes in the states. The candidate with the most votes will automatically receive all of the electors that state has to offer. The number of electors per state depends on its population, with the electors being simply added up at the end.

Legend:

  • State: State concerned (the District of Columbia (Washington) is not a state, but the federal district)
  • Johnson: Lyndon B. Johnson percentage of the vote
  • Goldwater: Barry Goldwater percentage of the vote
  • Johnson Electors: Number of state electors that Johnson has
  • Goldwater Electors: Number of the state's electoral votes for Goldwater

Missing 100 percent: Other candidates or invalid votes

State Johnson (D) Goldwater (R) Electors
Johnson 		Electors
Goldwater
Alabama 30.55 69.45 0 10
Alaska 65.91 34.09 3 0
Arizona 49.45 50.45 0 5
Arkansas 56.06 43.41 6th 0
Colorado 61.27 38.19 6th 0
Connecticut 67.81 32.09 8th 0
Delaware 60.95 38.78 3 0
District of Columbia 85.50 14.50 3 0
Florida 51.15 48.85 14th 0
Georgia 45.87 54.12 0 12
Hawaii 78.76 21.24 4th 0
Idaho 50.92 49.08 4th 0
Illinois 59.47 40.53 26th 0
Indiana 55.98 43.46 13 0
Iowa 61.88 37.92 9 0
California 59.11 40.79 40 0
Kansas 54.09 45.06 7th 0
Kentucky 64.01 35.65 9 0
Louisiana 43.19 56.81 0 10
Maine 68.84 31.16 4th 0
Maryland 65.47 34.53 10 0
Massachusetts 76.19 23.44 14th 0
Michigan 66.70 33.10 21st 0
Minnesota 63.76 36.00 10 0
Mississippi 12.86 87.14 0 7th
Missouri 64.05 35.95 12 0
Montana 58.95 40.57 4th 0
Nebraska 52.61 47.39 5 0
Nevada 58.58 41.42 3 0
New Hampshire 63.64 36.36 4th 0
New Jersey 65.61 33.86 17th 0
New Mexico 59.22 40.24 4th 0
new York 68.56 31.31 43 0
North Carolina 56.15 43.85 13 0
North Dakota 57.97 40.88 4th 0
Ohio 62.94 37.06 26th 0
Oklahoma 55.75 44.25 8th 0
Oregon 63.72 35.96 6th 0
Pennsylvania 64.92 34.70 29 0
Rhode Island 80.87 19.13 4th 0
South carolina 41.10 58.89 0 8th
South Dakota 55.61 44.39 4th 0
Tennessee 55.50 44.49 11 0
Texas 63.62 36.49 25th 0
Utah 54.86 45.14 4th 0
Vermont 66.30 33.69 3 0
Virginia 53.54 46.18 12 0
Washington 61.97 37.37 9 0
West Virginia 67.94 32.06 7th 0
Wisconsin 62.09 37.74 12 0
Wyoming 56.56 43.44 3 0
total 61.05 38.47 486 52

analysis

Counties voting results, counties colored red voted for Goldwater, blue for Johnson. The darker the color, the greater the respective lead in votes

Historians justify the reasons for Goldwater's so clear defeat with several factors: On the one hand, the nation was still under the shock of the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, who had become something of an icon since his death, and Lyndon B's domestic policy Johnsons who, rather than Goldwater's program, seemed to aim at creating more justice and solidarity in society. On the other hand, Johnson was not only able to present himself as a worthy follower of Kennedy politics, he also seemed better able to maintain world peace in times of East-West conflict in terms of foreign policy. Analyzes of the 1964 presidential election unanimously come to the conclusion that the democratic election campaign depicting Goldwater as an extremist was very successful. At the same time, the Republican campaign also met with various campaign strategies primarily on rejection: So Goldwater served the ambiguous slogans In your heart you know he's right , with the English right here both relate "right" can and "right" in the political spectrum in Based on Goldwater's right-wing conservative positions. The only positive memory was the charismatic speech A time for choosing by Ronald Reagan. But Reagan, previously known as an actor and not a politician, was less enthusiastic about Goldwater than himself. On the other hand, his positions also opposed those President Johnson's and his predecessor, who enjoyed great popularity in 1964. Throughout the year, Johnson's approval ratings in polls were over 70 percent.

Political observers and historians took the debacle for Goldwater as an indication that presidential elections in the USA could not be won by ideologically very exposed candidates. This thesis was also confirmed eight years later in the 1972 election , when Richard Nixon, then incumbent president, defeated his very left-wing challenger George McGovern with a result similar to that of Johnson Goldwater. However, this thesis has been disproved since the 1980 election of the declared conservative Ronald Reagan. Today the prevailing opinion is that in 1964 Johnson probably would not have been beaten by any Republican, although the aforementioned factors made Goldwater's defeat excessive. The Johnson biographer Robert Dallek also explains that the election result was more the product of an “anti-Goldwater” than a “pro-Johnson” mood. One year after the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, the country was simply not ready for a third president in this short time and therefore chose political continuity with the incumbent.

Effects and aftermath

January 20, 1965: Chief Justice Earl Warren takes the oath of office from winner Johnson for a further term
Inaugural Address on the occasion of Lyndon B. Johnson's swearing-in

After winning the election, Johnson was sworn in for the second time as President of the USA on January 20, 1965, while Hubert H. Humphrey took over the position of Vice President, which had been vacant since the Kennedy assassination.

In addition to the high election victory of Lyndon B. Johnson, his democrats were also able to record great successes in the congressional elections taking place in parallel and thus further expand their already clear majorities. In the House of Representatives , the Democrats won 295 seats and the Republicans 140. In the Senate , 68 seats were occupied by Democrats and 32 by Republicans. This gave the president's party a two-thirds majority in both chambers of congress . After his election victory and a friendly congress, President Johnson initiated his reform program with the title Great Society . This envisaged reforms in the education sector, poverty reduction, strengthening of the rights of colored people and other minorities as well as environmental protection measures. The New York Times spoke of an "avalanche of social legislation".

While Johnson was able to achieve many successes in the domestic field, he increased the military engagement in the Vietnam War in the following years . However, this military involvement by the USA met with growing resistance from around 1967 due to lack of success and increasing losses and led to an increasing polarization of society. This was accompanied by a loss of political credibility for the Johnson administration. For the 1968 presidential election , President Johnson declined to run again, although this would have been eligible, as he had completed less than half of Kennedy's remaining term. He was succeeded by the Republican Richard Nixon , who was less conservative than Goldwater and who just won the election against Johnson's Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Lyndon B. Johnson, who justified his surprising waiver of another term on the grounds of his increasingly deteriorating health, resigned from office in January 1969. He died in 1973.

Barry Goldwater, who did not seek re-election in the Senate in 1964, ran again for the Senate in 1968 due to his popularity in Arizona, to which he was a member until 1987 after three re-elections before he died in 1998. Goldwater no longer applied for the presidential candidacy, which he had already announced after his defeat.

Despite Goldwater's drastic defeat, many saw his candidacy as laying the foundation for a revival of conservatism in the 1970s and 1980s. Its central figure was Goldwater's supporter and confidante Ronald Reagan, who was elected California governor in 1966, when the Republicans also won seats in the mid-term elections to Congress . Moderate forces in the Republican Party lost influence when President Nixon, who saw himself as a conservative but continued many of the Great Society programs and even expanded in some areas such as environmental protection, resigned in the wake of the Watergate affair . Nixon's successor Gerald Ford , who was also considered less conservative, was only just able to win the presidential candidacy in 1976 despite his status as incumbent against Reagan . Reagan, elected president in 1980 and sustained in 1984, relied on Goldwater in many policy areas. Under his leadership, under the catchphrase Reaganomics, the financing of numerous social programs from the times of the Great Society and the New Deal was massively cut, while spending on armaments was increased and tax cuts were implemented for upper income groups, which generated a record budget deficit.

particularities

This election was the first since the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution that gave residents of the District of Columbia the right to vote in presidential elections. The district voted for Johnson and has since voted in every election, usually with an overwhelming majority, for the Democratic candidate.

literature

  • Mary C. Brennan: Turning Right in the Sixties. The Conservative Capture of the GOP. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill NC u. a. 1995, ISBN 0-8078-2230-2 .
  • Robert Dallek : Lyndon B. Johnson. Portrait of a President. Oxford University Press, Oxford u. a. 2004, ISBN 0-19-515921-7 .
  • Donald Richard Deskins, Hanes Walton, Sherman C. Puckett: Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2010, ISBN 978-0-472-11697-3 , pp. 428-437 (= Chapter 47: Lyndon B. Johnson's Election. ).
  • Garry Donaldson: Liberalism's last hurray. The presidential campaign of 1964. Sharpe, Armonk NY et al. a. 2003, ISBN 0-7656-1119-8 .
  • Karl Hess: In a Cause That Will Triumph. The Goldwater Campaign and the Future of Conservatism. Doubleday, Garden City NY 1967.
  • Lyndon Baines Johnson: The Vantage point. Perspectives of the Presidency. 1963-1969. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, New York NY u. a. 1971, ISBN 0-03-084492-4 (In German: My years in the White House. Präger, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-7796-8020-3 ).
  • Christof Mauch (Ed.): The American Presidents. 44 historical portraits from George Washington to Barack Obama. 6th, continued and updated edition. CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-58742-9 , pp. 361-370.
  • Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. Harper Perennial Political Classics, New York NY 2010, ISBN 978-0-06-190061-7 .

Web links

Commons : 1964 US Presidential Election  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ mit.edu: United States Presidential Elections ( Memento June 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ A b Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 175 ff.
  3. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 35 ff.
  4. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, 55 ff.
  5. ↑ a b AmericanPresident.org (Miller Center of Public Affairs): Campaigns and Elections of Lyndon B. Johnson ( Memento of November 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 171 ff.
  7. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 174 f.
  8. ↑ Lyndon Baines Johnson: My Years in the White House. 1972, p. 95 ff.
  9. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, 256 ff.
  10. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 173 f.
  11. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, 280 ff.
  12. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, pp. 104-105.
  13. ^ The Nevada Daily Mail: Rockfeller challanges Goldwater
  14. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 113 ff.
  15. ↑ The Deseret News: California GOP endorses Goldwater
  16. ^ The Palm Beach Post: Barry got the Delegates
  17. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, pp. 202 ff.
  18. ↑ 1964 Republican Convention: Revolution From the Right , smithsonianmag.com
  19. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 332 f.
  20. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 335.
  21. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, pp. 339 ff.
  22. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 365 f.
  23. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 175 ff.
  24. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 372 ff.
  25. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 379 ff.
  26. ↑ Reagan's speech ( Memento of August 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); English
  27. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 353.
  28. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 393 f.
  29. ^ A Brief History of the Modern Presidential Debate ( Memento of September 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  30. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 188 f.
  31. ↑ a b c USA-election Atlas 1964 presidential election statistics
  32. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 351.
  33. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 181 f.
  34. ↑ a b c Gallup: US Presidential election center ( Memento of October 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  35. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 398 ff.
  36. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, pp. 401 ff.
  37. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 184.
  38. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 172.
  39. ^ Robert Dallek: Lyndon B. Johnson. 2004, p. 187 f.
  40. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 410 ff.
  41. ↑ Christof Mauch: The American Presidents. 6th, continued and updated edition. 2013, pp. 365-367.
  42. ↑ Christof Mauch: The American Presidents. 6th, continued and updated edition. 2013, pp. 366-367.
  43. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 400 f.
  44. ^ Theodore H. White: The Making of the President 1964. 2010, p. 421 f.
  45. ^ Blaine T. Browne, Robert C. Cottrell: Modern American Lives. Individuals and Issues in American History Since 1945. Sharpe, Armonk NY et al. a. 2008, ISBN 978-0-7656-2222-8 , p. 164.
  46. ↑ Christof Mauch: The American Presidents. 6th, continued and updated edition. 2013, p. 382.
Presidential election in the United States

1789 • 1792 • 1796 • 1800 • 1804 • 1808 • 1812 • 1816 • 1820 • 1824 • 1828 • 1832 • 1836 • 1840 • 1844 • 1848 • 1852 • 1856 • 1860 • 1864 • 1868 • 1872 • 1876 • 1880 • 1884 • 1888 • 1892 • 1896 • 1900 • 1904 • 1908 • 1912 • 1916 • 1920 • 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1940 • 1944 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008 • 2012 • 2016 • 2020

United States flag