United States presidential election in New York, 1968

United States presidential election in New York, 1968
November 5, 1968

 
Nominee Hubert Humphrey Richard Nixon George Wallace
Party Democratic Republican Courage
Home state Minnesota New York[1] Alabama
Running mate Edmund Muskie Spiro Agnew Curtis LeMay
Electoral vote 43 0 0
Popular vote 3,378,470 3,007,932 358,864
Percentage 49.76% 44.30% 5.29%
County Results
  Humphrey—70-80%
  Humphrey—60-70%
  Humphrey—50-60%
  Humphrey—<50%
  Nixon—<50%
  Nixon—50-60%
  Nixon—60-70%
President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

 Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

Vice President Hubert Humphrey at a campaign rally in New York City, 1968.

The 1968 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 5, 1968. All fifty states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. New York voters chose forty three electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

New York was won by incumbent Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who was running against former Republican Vice President Richard Nixon. Hubert Humphrey ran with Maine Senator Edmund Muskie for vice president, and Nixon ran with Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew. Former and future Alabama Governor George Wallace ran a strong third-party insurgent campaign as a Southern populist with his American Independent Party.

Humphrey took 49.76 percent of the vote to Nixon's 44.30%, a victory margin of 5.46 percent. Wallace, a mostly Southern-oriented candidate, came in a distant third, with 5.29 percent. He did best in suburban and exurban counties around New York, and reached double figures in some wholly Italian-American precincts.[2] In these, Wallace's pro-segregation stance was popular due to African-Americans taking over the national Democratic Party locally;[3] however in the inner cities and upstate counties his views were seen as repugnant.

New York weighed in for this election as seven percentage points more Democratic than the national average.

The presidential election of 1968 was a very multi-partisan election for New York, with almost six percent of the electorate voting for Third Parties.[4] In typical form for the time, the highly populated centers of New York City, Buffalo, and Albany, voted Democratic, while the smaller counties in New York turned out for Nixon as the Republican candidate.

Despite Nixon winning a strong majority of the state's counties, Humphrey's dominant performance in massively populated New York City provided him with his statewide victory, receiving 60.6% of the vote in the five boroughs to Nixon's 33.9 percent, a 26.7 percent Democratic victory margin in the City of New York amounting to a raw vote advantage for Humphrey of 695,722 votes, providing all of Humphrey's 370,538 statewide vote advantage.

Humphrey won the election in New York with a strong 5 percentage point margin. The election results in New York represent a trend in the national mentality towards progressive politics, resulting from nationwide emergence of the hippie counterculture, the riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., numerous demonstrations in opposition to the Vietnam War, and the violent confrontation between police and protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Humphrey was seen by many as promising to continue the reformist legacy of President Johnson,[5] and this garnered him much support by liberal voters across America.

Nationwide, the election of 1968 was very contentious across the United States. Nixon, running on a largely socially conservative agenda, was able to attain victory nationwide with less than 1% popular lead on Humphrey, while the historically one-party Democratic stronghold of the Deep South turned out en masse for their own George Wallace, who was spearheading the new American Independent Party.

As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last election where New York had the most number of electoral votes.

Results

United States presidential election in New York, 1968
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Hubert Humphrey 3,066,848 45.17%
Liberal Hubert Humphrey 311,622 4.59%
Total Hubert Humphrey 3,378,470 49.76% 43
Republican Richard Nixon 3,007,932 44.30% 0
American Independent[lower-alpha 1] George Wallace 358,864 5.29% 0
Peace and Freedom Dick Gregory 24,517 0.36% 0
Socialist Workers Fred Halstead 11,851 0.17% 0
Socialist Labor Henning Blomen 8,432 0.12% 0
Totals 6,790,066 100.0% 43

Results by county

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr.
Democratic		 Richard Milhous Nixon
Republican		 George Corley Wallace
Courage		 Various candidates
Other parties		 Margin Total votes cast
County # % # % # % # % # % #
Albany 80,724 57.93% 52,948 38.00% 5,025 3.61% 654 0.47% 27,776 19.93% 139,351
Allegany 4,986 29.08% 11,222 65.45% 851 4.96% 86 0.50% -6,236 -36.37% 17,145
Bronx 277,385 62.40% 142,314 32.02% 21,950 4.94% 2,868 0.65% 135,071 30.39% 444,517
Broome 37,451 41.93% 46,872 52.48% 4,618 5.17% 370 0.41% -9,421 -10.55% 89,311
Cattaraugus 12,733 40.88% 16,594 53.27% 1,674 5.37% 147 0.47% -3,861 -12.40% 31,148
Cayuga 14,604 44.71% 16,167 49.49% 1,826 5.59% 69 0.21% -1,563 -4.78% 32,666
Chautauqua 26,431 45.18% 28,561 48.82% 3,273 5.59% 242 0.41% -2,130 -3.64% 58,507
Chemung 15,820 40.00% 20,693 52.32% 2,807 7.10% 233 0.59% -4,873 -12.32% 39,553
Chenango 5,706 30.92% 11,785 63.86% 887 4.81% 77 0.42% -6,079 -32.94% 18,455
Clinton 10,153 43.82% 11,951 51.58% 931 4.02% 133 0.57% -1,798 -7.76% 23,168
Columbia 7,762 33.62% 13,857 60.03% 1,372 5.94% 94 0.41% -6,095 -26.40% 23,085
Cortland 5,791 34.47% 10,209 60.76% 720 4.29% 81 0.48% -4,418 -26.30% 16,801
Delaware 5,360 28.36% 12,366 65.44% 1,121 5.93% 51 0.27% -7,006 -37.07% 18,898
Dutchess 31,025 37.80% 45,032 54.87% 5,662 6.90% 348 0.42% -14,007 -17.07% 82,067
Erie 250,054 55.18% 167,853 37.04% 33,402 7.37% 1,856 0.41% 82,201 18.14% 453,165
Essex 5,218 33.98% 9,377 61.07% 701 4.57% 59 0.38% -4,159 -27.09% 15,355
Franklin 6,678 42.80% 8,314 53.29% 544 3.49% 66 0.42% -1,636 -10.49% 15,602
Fulton 8,871 40.66% 11,895 54.52% 989 4.53% 63 0.29% -3,024 -13.86% 21,818
Genesee 9,533 41.18% 12,418 53.64% 1,141 4.93% 58 0.25% -2,885 -12.46% 23,150
Greene 5,499 30.56% 10,954 60.87% 1,421 7.90% 123 0.68% -5,455 -30.31% 17,997
Hamilton 762 24.96% 2,123 69.54% 163 5.34% 5 0.16% -1,361 -44.58% 3,053
Herkimer 10,940 39.54% 15,192 54.91% 1,455 5.26% 78 0.28% -4,252 -15.37% 27,665
Jefferson 13,438 40.59% 18,552 56.03% 1,016 3.07% 103 0.31% -5,114 -15.45% 33,109
Kings (Brooklyn) 489,174 63.12% 247,936 31.99% 33,563 4.33% 4,296 0.55% 241,238 31.13% 774,969
Lewis 3,205 34.91% 5,524 60.17% 430 4.68% 21 0.23% -2,319 -25.26% 9,180
Livingston 6,989 35.82% 11,659 59.75% 775 3.97% 90 0.46% -4,670 -23.93% 19,513
Madison 7,056 32.06% 13,819 62.79% 1,053 4.78% 82 0.37% -6,763 -30.73% 22,010
Monroe 141,437 47.66% 143,233 48.27% 10,875 3.66% 1,210 0.41% -1,796 -0.61% 296,755
Montgomery 11,449 45.33% 12,566 49.75% 1,147 4.54% 95 0.38% -1,117 -4.42% 25,257
Nassau 278,599 43.31% 329,792 51.27% 30,860 4.80% 3,944 0.61% -51,193 -7.96% 643,195
New York (Manhattan) 370,806 70.04% 135,458 25.59% 12,958 2.45% 10,170 1.92% 235,348 44.46% 529,392
Niagara 41,999 47.77% 38,796 44.12% 6,617 7.53% 513 0.58% 3,203 3.64% 87,925
Oneida 44,685 43.07% 52,875 50.96% 5,666 5.46% 535 0.52% -8,190 -7.89% 103,761
Onondaga 83,576 44.02% 95,806 50.46% 9,459 4.98% 1,024 0.54% -12,230 -6.44% 189,865
Ontario 11,719 38.94% 17,114 56.86% 1,180 3.92% 85 0.28% -5,395 -17.92% 30,098
Orange 28,122 35.09% 44,955 56.09% 6,473 8.08% 599 0.75% -16,833 -21.00% 80,149
Orleans 4,786 34.13% 8,509 60.67% 696 4.96% 33 0.24% -3,723 -26.55% 14,024
Oswego 14,636 39.72% 20,041 54.39% 1,962 5.33% 206 0.56% -5,405 -14.67% 36,845
Otsego 7,981 35.16% 13,543 59.67% 1,091 4.81% 81 0.36% -5,562 -24.51% 22,696
Putnam 8,472 34.84% 13,293 54.67% 2,388 9.82% 161 0.66% -4,821 -19.83% 24,314
Queens 410,546 53.60% 306,620 40.03% 44,198 5.77% 4,548 0.59% 103,926 13.57% 765,912
Rensselaer 30,232 44.02% 34,674 50.49% 3,461 5.04% 314 0.46% -4,442 -6.47% 68,681
Richmond (Staten Island) 34,770 35.18% 54,631 55.28% 9,112 9.22% 311 0.31% -19,861 -20.10% 98,824
Rockland 36,948 44.35% 40,880 49.07% 5,028 6.04% 451 0.54% -3,932 -4.72% 83,307
St. Lawrence 15,662 41.29% 20,982 55.31% 1,178 3.11% 111 0.29% -5,320 -14.02% 37,933
Saratoga 17,766 38.69% 25,658 55.87% 2,220 4.83% 278 0.61% -7,892 -17.19% 45,922
Schenectady 34,786 48.31% 33,687 46.79% 3,246 4.51% 283 0.39% 1,099 1.53% 72,002
Schoharie 3,883 36.03% 6,166 57.21% 689 6.39% 39 0.36% -2,283 -21.18% 10,777
Schuyler 2,034 30.38% 4,105 61.31% 522 7.80% 35 0.52% -2,071 -30.93% 6,696
Seneca 5,222 40.15% 7,083 54.46% 635 4.88% 65 0.50% -1,861 -14.31% 13,005
Steuben 12,229 31.61% 24,189 62.52% 2,194 5.67% 78 0.20% -11,960 -30.91% 38,690
Suffolk 122,590 32.71% 218,027 58.18% 31,304 8.35% 2,846 0.76% -95,437 -25.47% 374,767
Sullivan 10,860 44.88% 11,657 48.17% 1,487 6.15% 194 0.80% -797 -3.29% 24,198
Tioga 5,336 31.47% 10,441 61.58% 1,127 6.65% 52 0.31% -5,105 -30.11% 16,956
Tompkins 10,343 40.97% 13,446 53.26% 1,236 4.90% 223 0.88% -3,103 -12.29% 25,248
Ulster 20,886 34.59% 34,798 57.62% 4,183 6.93% 520 0.86% -13,912 -23.04% 60,387
Warren 6,460 31.85% 12,963 63.92% 807 3.98% 50 0.25% -6,503 -32.07% 20,280
Washington 6,806 33.09% 12,694 61.71% 930 4.52% 139 0.68% -5,888 -28.63% 20,569
Wayne 8,907 32.17% 17,470 63.09% 1,211 4.37% 101 0.36% -8,563 -30.93% 27,689
Westchester 173,954 43.40% 201,652 50.31% 22,115 5.52% 3,086 0.77% -27,698 -6.91% 400,807
Wyoming 4,477 32.52% 8,459 61.45% 799 5.80% 30 0.22% -3,982 -28.93% 13,765
Yates 2,158 26.59% 5,482 67.54% 440 5.42% 37 0.46% -3,324 -40.95% 8,117
Totals3,378,47049.76%3,007,93244.30%358,8645.29%44,8000.66%370,5385.46%6,790,066

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ New York law forbids the use of the word "American" in a party's name, and so the American Independent Party was named as the "Courage Party" on the ballot in New York State.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Although he was born in California and he served as a U.S. Senator from California, in 1968 Richard Nixon's official state of residence was New York, having moved there to practice law after his defeat in the 1962 California gubernatorial election. During his first term as president, Nixon re-established his residency in California. Consequently, most reliable reference books list Nixon's home state as New York in the 1968 election and his home state as California in the 1972 (and 1960) election.
  2. ↑ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 69-70 ISBN 9780691163246
  3. ↑ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 10
  4. ↑ "1968 Presidential General Election Results — New York". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-01-09.
  5. ↑ Lewis L. Gould (2010). 1968: The Election That Changed America. Government Institutes. pp. 16–18.
  6. ↑ "Courage Party in State Wants Wallace on Ballot". The New York Times. 18 June 1972. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
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