United States presidential election in Alabama, 1964

United States presidential election in Alabama, 1964
November 3, 1964 (1964-11-03)

 
Nominee Barry Goldwater Unpledged electors
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Arizona —
Running mate William E. Miller —
Electoral vote 10 0
Popular vote 479,085 210,732
Percentage 69.5% 30.5%
County Results
President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

 Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

The 1964 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 3, 1964. Alabama voters chose ten representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice-President.

Background

The early 1960s had seen Alabama as the epicenter of the black Civil Rights movement, highlighted by numerous black church bombings by the Ku Klux Klan in "Bombingham" (the city of Birmingham),[1] Birmingham city official Eugene "Bull" Connor's use of attack dogs against protesters opposed to racial discrimination in residential land use, and first-term Governor George Wallace's "stand in the door" against the desegregation of the University of Alabama. During the primaries for selecting Democratic presidential electors, there was bitter fighting in all five Deep South states; however, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina all chose electors pledged to President Lyndon B. Johnson.[2]

However, in Alabama, the May 5, 1964 primary chose a set of unpledged Democratic electors,[2] by a margin of five-to-one,[3] whilst Governor George Wallace refused totally President Johnson's civil rights and desegregation legislation via the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[4] Unlike in Mississippi with the MFDP, no effort to challenge this Wallace-sponsored slate with one loyal to the national party was attempted.[5] Consequently, Johnson would become the third winning president-elect to not appear on the ballot in Alabama, following on from Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Harry S. Truman in 1948.

Under Wallace's guidance the Alabama Democratic Party placed this slate of unpledged Democratic electors on the ballot,[6][7] against the advice of some legal scholars,[8] but after planning to run for president himself (as he would do in 1968) decided against this in July.

Initially it was expected that this slate – the only option for mainstream Democrats in Alabama – would be pledged to Wallace himself, but the Governor released them from pledges to vote for him if elected.[9] Once campaigning began, Wallace supported Republican nominee Barry Goldwater[10] and did nothing to support the unpledged slate against the Arizona Senator, although he did campaign for Democratic candidates for state and local offices.[11]

Popularity of Goldwater among white voters

Republican Barry Goldwater, viewed as a dangerous right-wing extremist in the older Northeastern heartland of the Republican Party,[12] was thrashed there as had been uniformly predicted before the poll, with Texas Governor John Connally saying Goldwater would win only Alabama and Mississippi.[13]

Nevertheless, his opposition to the pending Civil Rights Act and Medicare[14] plus his ability to unite white Alabamians of different classes meant Goldwater could capture the "black belt" counties[15] that were historically the basis of Alabama's limited-suffrage single-party politics, at a time when 77 percent of blacks still had not registered to vote.[16]

Goldwater did equally well in those Appalachia counties where Republicans had been competitive in presidential elections even at the height of the "Solid South".[15] Only in the North Alabama counties of Lauderdale, Colbert, Limestone, Jackson and Cherokee – hostile to Goldwater's proposal to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority[17] – and in Macon County, home of Tuskegee University, did Goldwater not obtain a majority. Even with powerful opposition to TVA privatization, those northern counties voting against Goldwater did so by no more than twelve percent in Limestone County.[18]

Milestones

As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last election in which Sumter County, Greene County, Wilcox County, Lowndes County, and Bullock County voted for the Republican candidate, as well as the last time that Macon County did not vote for the national Democratic candidate.

This was the third occasion when a Republican nominee carried Alabama, but the first outside of Reconstruction elections in 1868 and 1872, when Ulysses S. Grant carried the state. Despite Johnson's landslide victory that year, winning 61.1 percent of the popular vote, the highest percentage to date, he also lost to Goldwater in four other previously solidly Democratic Southern states – Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Georgia.

With 69.45% of the popular vote, Alabama would prove to be Goldwater's second strongest state in the 1964 election after neighboring Mississippi.[19]

Results

Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote		 Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Barry Goldwater Republican Arizona 479,085 69.45% 10 William E. Miller New York 10
Unpledged electors Unpledged Democratic — 210,732 30.55% 0 — — 0
Total 689,817 100% 10 10
Needed to win 270 270

Results by county

Barry Morris Goldwater
Republican		 Unpledged Electors
Unpledged Democratic		 Margin Total votes cast
County # % # % # % #
Autauga 2,969 85.83% 490 14.17% 2,479 71.67% 3,459
Baldwin 10,870 81.12% 2,530 18.88% 8,340 62.24% 13,400
Barbour 3,853 79.76% 978 20.24% 2,875 59.51% 4,831
Bibb 2,623 83.94% 502 16.06% 2,121 67.87% 3,125
Blount 4,442 64.67% 2,427 35.33% 2,015 29.33% 6,869
Bullock 1,516 57.64% 1,114 42.36% 402 15.29% 2,630
Butler 4,002 80.44% 973 19.56% 3,029 60.88% 4,975
Calhoun 10,635 63.13% 6,210 36.87% 4,425 26.27% 16,845
Chambers 4,630 64.42% 2,557 35.58% 2,073 28.84% 7,187
Cherokee 1,893 49.70% 1,916 50.30% -23 -0.60% 3,809
Chilton 5,202 75.97% 1,645 24.03% 3,557 51.95% 6,847
Choctaw 2,497 85.81% 413 14.19% 2,084 71.62% 2,910
Clarke 4,460 82.84% 924 17.16% 3,536 65.68% 5,384
Clay 2,815 70.13% 1,199 29.87% 1,616 40.26% 4,014
Cleburne 2,156 76.24% 672 23.76% 1,484 52.48% 2,828
Coffee 4,910 80.19% 1,213 19.81% 3,697 60.38% 6,123
Colbert 5,267 48.59% 5,573 51.41% -306 -2.82% 10,840
Conecuh 2,782 81.32% 639 18.68% 2,143 62.64% 3,421
Coosa 1,978 72.77% 740 27.23% 1,238 45.55% 2,718
Covington 7,554 82.33% 1,621 17.67% 5,933 64.66% 9,175
Crenshaw 3,008 78.66% 816 21.34% 2,192 57.32% 3,824
Cullman 7,152 58.33% 5,110 41.67% 2,042 16.65% 12,262
Dale 4,970 83.77% 963 16.23% 4,007 67.54% 5,933
Dallas 5,888 89.12% 719 10.88% 5,169 78.24% 6,607
DeKalb 6,746 57.69% 4,948 42.31% 1,798 15.38% 11,694
Elmore 6,363 83.77% 1,233 16.23% 5,130 67.54% 7,596
Escambia 5,623 74.47% 1,928 25.53% 3,695 48.93% 7,551
Etowah 12,894 59.06% 8,939 40.94% 3,955 18.11% 21,833
Fayette 3,203 71.34% 1,287 28.66% 1,916 42.67% 4,490
Franklin 4,025 56.41% 3,110 43.59% 915 12.82% 7,135
Geneva 4,502 80.74% 1,074 19.26% 3,428 61.48% 5,576
Greene 1,124 65.69% 587 34.31% 537 31.39% 1,711
Hale 1,898 77.60% 548 22.40% 1,350 55.19% 2,446
Henry 2,896 83.10% 589 16.90% 2,307 66.20% 3,485
Houston 10,353 87.93% 1,421 12.07% 8,932 75.86% 11,774
Jackson 2,730 46.47% 3,145 53.53% -415 -7.06% 5,875
Jefferson 100,756 72.57% 38,082 27.43% 62,674 45.14% 138,838
Lamar 2,734 72.42% 1,041 27.58% 1,693 44.85% 3,775
Lauderdale 5,978 47.55% 6,593 52.45% -615 -4.89% 12,571
Lawrence 1,809 50.01% 1,808 49.99% 1 0.03% 3,617
Lee 5,914 78.69% 1,602 21.31% 4,312 57.37% 7,516
Limestone 2,377 43.99% 3,027 56.01% -650 -12.03% 5,404
Lowndes 1,548 83.32% 310 16.68% 1,238 66.63% 1,858
Macon 1,858 38.46% 2,973 61.54% -1,115 -23.08% 4,831
Madison 14,279 51.93% 13,217 48.07% 1,062 3.86% 27,496
Marengo 3,677 82.33% 789 17.67% 2,888 64.67% 4,466
Marion 3,966 69.42% 1,747 30.58% 2,219 38.84% 5,713
Marshall 5,712 56.33% 4,428 43.67% 1,284 12.66% 10,140
Mobile 49,493 70.72% 20,488 29.28% 29,005 41.45% 69,981
Monroe 3,870 81.37% 886 18.63% 2,984 62.74% 4,756
Montgomery 23,015 75.47% 7,482 24.53% 15,533 50.93% 30,497
Morgan 7,013 56.64% 5,368 43.36% 1,645 13.29% 12,381
Perry 2,046 79.73% 520 20.27% 1,526 59.47% 2,566
Pickens 3,416 82.08% 746 17.92% 2,670 64.15% 4,162
Pike 4,373 84.49% 803 15.51% 3,570 68.97% 5,176
Randolph 3,127 62.65% 1,864 37.35% 1,263 25.31% 4,991
Russell 4,877 76.04% 1,537 23.96% 3,340 52.07% 6,414
St. Clair 4,813 70.76% 1,989 29.24% 2,824 41.52% 6,802
Shelby 6,037 75.65% 1,943 24.35% 4,094 51.30% 7,980
Sumter 1,653 80.32% 405 19.68% 1,248 60.64% 2,058
Talladega 8,946 70.67% 3,712 29.33% 5,234 41.35% 12,658
Tallapoosa 5,530 76.14% 1,733 23.86% 3,797 52.28% 7,263
Tuscaloosa 13,227 68.67% 6,036 31.33% 7,191 37.33% 19,263
Walker 8,582 58.41% 6,110 41.59% 2,472 16.83% 14,692
Washington 2,803 70.18% 1,191 29.82% 1,612 40.36% 3,994
Wilcox 1,789 91.93% 157 8.07% 1,632 83.86% 1,946
Winston 3,438 71.19% 1,391 28.81% 2,047 42.39% 4,829
Totals479,08569.45%210,73130.55%268,35438.90%689,816

References

  1. ↑ Bullock, Charles S. and Gaddie, Ronald Keith; The Triumph of Voting Rights in the South, pp. 41-42 ISBN 0806185309
  2. 1 2 Congressional Quarterly, Incorporated; CQ Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, vol. 25 (1967), p. 1121
  3. ↑ McDannald, Alexander Hopkins; Yearbook of the Encyclopedia Americana (1965), p. 63
  4. ↑ Frederick, Jeff; Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace; pp. 96-99 ISBN 0817315748
  5. ↑ Cleghorn, Reece; 'Who Speaks for Mississippi' The Reporter, August 13, 1944, pp. 31-33
  6. ↑ "Alabama Expected To Choose Electors Backed by Wallace". The New York Times. 1964-05-03. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  7. ↑ Denton, Herbert H. (October 21, 1964). "Flowers Attacks Wallace Democrats". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  8. ↑ "Unpledged Votes Are Held Illegal". The New York Times. 1964-06-14. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-12-09.
  9. ↑ Carlson, Jody; George C. Wallace and the Politics of Powerlessness: The Wallace Campaigns for the Presidency, 1964-76, p. 41 ISBN 1412824494
  10. ↑ Grimes, Roy; 'Look Away, Look Away...', The Victoria Advocate, October 11, 1964, p. 4A
  11. ↑ Cleghord, Reece; 'Aftermath in Alabama'; The Reporter, December 3, 1964, p. 34
  12. ↑ Leopold, Les; The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labour; ISBN 1933392630
  13. ↑ 'At Southern Governors' Meet: Approval of Wallace Proposal Is Unlikely'; The Dispatch, October 14, 1964, p. 1
  14. ↑ Lubell, Samuel (October 13, 1964). "Medicare Vote Hurt Goldwater". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved December 9, 2017.
  15. 1 2 Havard, William C. (editor); The Changing Politics of the South; pp. 440-441 ISBN 0807100463
  16. ↑ Havard (editor); The Changing Politics of the South; p. 21
  17. ↑ McMahon, Kevin J.; Rankin, David M.; Beachler, Donald W. and White, John Kenneth; Winning the White House, 2008, p. 107 ISBN 0230607683
  18. ↑ David Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; 1964 Presidential General Election Data Graphs – Alabama
  19. ↑ "1964 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
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