1968 United States presidential election in California

The 1968 United States presidential election in California took place on November 5, 1968 as part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose 40 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1968 United States presidential election in California

November 5, 1968
Turnout	85.75% (of registered voters) 2.63 pp 62.34% (of eligible voters) 3.66 pp [1]
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey George Wallace Party Republican Democratic American Independent Home state New York[lower-alpha 1] Minnesota Alabama Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie Curtis LeMay Electoral vote 40 0 0 Popular vote 3,467,664 3,244,318 487,270 Percentage 47.82% 44.74% 6.72%
County Results Nixon   40-50%   50-60%   60-70% Humphrey   40-50%   50-60%
President before election Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic Elected President Richard Nixon Republican

California narrowly voted for the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon of New York, over the Democratic nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. The American Independent Party candidate, former Alabama governor George Wallace, performed rather well in California despite being miles away from his base in the Deep South.

Although Nixon was born and raised California, he had moved to New York following his failed 1962 gubernatorial bid, and thus identified New York as his home state in this election. After he won the election, Nixon moved his residency back to California.

Nixon had previously defeated John F. Kennedy in the Golden State in 1960 and would later win the state again against George McGovern in 1972. Had Humphrey or Wallace come out victorious in California, Nixon would have earned only 261 electoral votes, and thus the election would have been sent to the United States House of Representatives.

Nixon is the last Republican candidate to carry Santa Cruz County by a majority of the popular vote, although Republicans in 1972 and 1980 carried the county by plurality, whilst Humphrey is the last Democrat to carry Kings County.[2] Nixon also became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Santa Clara County since Ulysses Grant in 1868, and the first to do so without carrying San Mateo County since Abraham Lincoln in 1860.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election where California did not have the highest number of electoral votes.

Results

1968 United States presidential election in California[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Richard Nixon	3,467,664	47.82%	40
	Democratic	Hubert Humphrey	3,244,318	44.74%	0
	American Independent	George Wallace	487,270	6.72%	0
	Peace and Freedom	Eldridge Cleaver	27,707	0.38%	0
	No party	Eugene McCarthy (write-in)	20,721	0.29%	0
	No party	Dick Gregory (write-in)	3,230	0.04%	0
	No party	Henning A. Blomen (write-in)	341	0.00%	0
	No party	Charlene Mitchell (write-in)	260	0.00%	0
	No party	E. Harold Munn (write-in)	59	0.00%	0
	No party	Write-ins	17	0.00%	0
Invalid or blank votes					—
Totals			7,251,587	100.00%	40
Voter turnout					—

Results by county

County	Richard Milhous Nixon Republican		Hubert Horatio Humphrey Democratic		George Corley Wallace American Independent		Various candidates Other parties		Margin
	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Mono	64.28%	1,130	26.45%	465	8.87%	156	0.40%	7	37.83%	665
Orange	63.14%	314,905	29.85%	148,869	6.62%	33,034	0.38%	1,899	33.29%	166,036
Sutter	59.57%	8,665	31.79%	4,624	8.44%	1,228	0.19%	28	27.78%	4,041
Alpine	59.29%	150	32.81%	83	7.91%	20	0.00%	0	26.48%	67
Butte	56.68%	22,225	32.87%	12,887	9.92%	3,891	0.53%	208	23.81%	9,338
San Diego	56.26%	261,540	36.07%	167,669	7.17%	33,340	0.50%	2,314	20.19%	93,871
Inyo	54.45%	3,641	34.60%	2,314	10.68%	714	0.27%	18	19.85%	1,327
Glenn	53.91%	3,848	34.55%	2,466	11.32%	808	0.22%	16	19.36%	1,382
Imperial	52.91%	10,818	36.59%	7,481	10.27%	2,100	0.23%	47	16.32%	3,337
Calaveras	52.16%	3,042	36.59%	2,134	11.03%	643	0.22%	13	15.57%	908
Riverside	52.90%	83,414	38.78%	61,146	7.88%	12,432	0.43%	678	14.12%	22,268
Modoc	52.43%	1,713	38.69%	1,264	8.69%	284	0.18%	6	13.74%	449
Santa Barbara	53.59%	50,068	40.21%	37,565	5.44%	5,083	0.75%	704	13.38%	12,503
Tulare	52.17%	29,314	39.47%	22,180	8.15%	4,580	0.20%	115	12.70%	7,134
Nevada	51.39%	6,061	39.06%	4,607	9.14%	1,078	0.41%	48	12.33%	1,454
Colusa	51.58%	2,361	40.59%	1,858	7.52%	344	0.31%	14	10.99%	503
Mariposa	49.92%	1,496	39.61%	1,187	10.08%	302	0.40%	12	10.31%	309
Ventura	51.35%	59,705	41.11%	47,794	7.08%	8,234	0.45%	528	10.24%	11,911
San Bernardino	50.07%	111,974	39.99%	89,418	9.47%	21,187	0.46%	1,037	10.08%	22,556
Santa Cruz	50.79%	25,365	41.03%	20,492	6.94%	34,65	1.25%	622	9.76%	4,873
San Luis Obispo	51.27%	19,420	41.78%	15,828	6.38%	2,416	0.57%	217	9.49%	3,592
El Dorado	49.00%	7,468	39.72%	6,054	11.00%	1,676	0.28%	43	9.28%	1,414
Yuba	48.17%	5,371	40.01%	4,461	11.62%	1,296	0.20%	22	8.16%	910
Monterey	50.16%	33,670	42.10%	28,261	7.15%	4,800	0.59%	393	8.06%	5,409
Lake	49.00%	4,464	41.46%	3,777	9.20%	838	0.35%	32	7.54%	687
Marin	50.05%	41,422	43.84%	36,278	4.59%	3,801	1.52%	1,254	6.21%	5,144
Tehama	47.26%	5,198	41.50%	4,565	11.06%	1,216	0.18%	20	5.76%	633
Sonoma	48.79%	38,088	43.03%	33,587	7.53%	5,875	0.65%	509	5.76%	4,501
San Joaquin	47.97%	47,293	42.68%	42,073	9.05%	8,923	0.30%	300	5.29%	5,220
Tuolumne	47.48%	4,330	42.91%	3,913	9.49%	865	0.12%	11	4.57%	417
Kern	46.61%	53,990	42.55%	49,284	10.63%	12,309	0.21%	249	4.06%	4,706
Del Norte	46.19%	2,387	43.27%	2,236	9.58%	495	0.97%	50	2.92%	151
San Benito	47.54%	2,961	45.10%	2,809	7.18%	447	0.19%	12	2.44%	152
Mendocino	46.39%	8,305	44.32%	7,935	8.68%	1,554	0.61%	110	2.07%	370
Los Angeles	47.65%	1,266,480	46.02%	1,223,251	5.68%	151,050	0.65%	17,201	1.63%	43,229
Humboldt	46.17%	16,719	45.50%	16,476	7.62%	2,759	0.72%	260	0.67%	243
Siskiyou	46.13%	6,334	45.59%	6,260	7.92%	1,088	0.36%	50	0.54%	74
Trinity	43.12%	1,426	43.33%	1,433	13.06%	432	0.48%	16	-0.21%	-7
Sierra	45.93%	548	46.86%	559	7.12%	85	0.08%	1	-0.93%	-11
Napa	43.76%	14,270	45.27%	14,762	10.66%	3,476	0.32%	104	-1.51%	-492
Contra Costa	44.53%	97,486	46.44%	101,668	8.37%	18,330	0.65%	1,433	-1.91%	-4,182
Stanislaus	45.45%	29,573	48.13%	31,316	6.11%	3,973	0.31%	201	-2.68%	-1,743
Santa Clara	45.61%	163,446	48.42%	173,511	5.23%	18,754	0.74%	2,656	-2.81%	-10,065
Amador	42.10%	2,269	45.27%	2,440	12.24%	660	0.39%	21	-3.17%	-171
San Mateo	43.72%	98,654	47.20%	106,519	6.52%	14,720	2.56%	5,775	-3.48%	-7,865
Fresno	43.60%	59,901	47.42%	65,153	8.22%	11,292	0.76%	1,050	-3.82%	-5,252
Kings	43.07%	7,796	47.75%	8,643	9.06%	1,640	0.12%	22	-4.68%	-847
Madera	43.55%	6,229	48.47%	6,932	7.83%	1,120	0.15%	22	-4.92%	-703
Placer	42.64%	12,427	48.21%	14,050	8.83%	2,574	0.32%	93	-5.57%	-1,623
Lassen	41.06%	2,553	47.12%	2,930	11.45%	712	0.37%	23	-6.06%	-377
Shasta	40.44%	11,821	49.64%	14,510	9.63%	2,815	0.29%	84	-9.20%	-2,689
Sacramento	41.66%	97,177	50.92%	118,769	6.98%	16,269	0.44%	1,031	-9.26%	-21,592
Merced	40.90%	11,595	50.98%	14,453	7.93%	2,248	0.19%	53	-10.08%	-2,858
Plumas	37.37%	2,097	52.77%	2,961	9.43%	529	0.43%	24	-15.40%	-864
Yolo	38.41%	11,123	54.67%	15,833	6.02%	1,742	0.90%	262	-16.26%	-4,710
Alameda	37.63%	153,285	53.90%	219,545	6.98%	28,426	1.50%	6,093	-16.27%	-66,260
Solano	34.71%	17,683	53.52%	27,271	11.40%	5,810	0.37%	188	-18.81%	-9,588
San Francisco	33.66%	100,970	59.18%	177,509	5.78%	17,332	1.38%	4,136	-25.52%	-76,539

References

1. https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/sov/2018-general/sov/04-historical-voter-reg-participation.pdf
2. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
3. "1968 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved 2008-08-25.

Notes

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, because he 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.