1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi

The 1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 5, 1968. Mississippi voters chose 7 electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice-President.

1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi

November 5, 1968

Nominee George Wallace Hubert Humphrey Richard Nixon Party American Independent Democratic Republican Home state Alabama Minnesota New York[lower-alpha 1] Running mate Curtis LeMay Edmund Muskie Spiro Agnew Electoral vote 7 0 0 Popular vote 415,349 150,644 88,516 Percentage 63.46% 23.02% 13.52%

County Results Wallace   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90%   90-100% Humphrey   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%

President before election Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic Elected President Richard Nixon Republican

Background

During the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement dictated Mississippi's politics, with effectively the entire white population vehemently opposed to federal policies of racial desegregation and black voting rights.[1][2] In 1960, the state had been narrowly captured by a slate of unpledged Democratic electors[lower-alpha 2] but in 1964 universal white opposition to the Civil Rights Act and "War on Poverty" and zero or negligible black voter registration[lower-alpha 3] meant that white Mississippians – apart from a small number in the northeastern red clay hills who feared loss of public works[3] – turned almost unanimously to Republican Barry Goldwater. Goldwater's support for "constitutional government and local self-rule"[4] meant that the absence from the ballot of "states' rights" parties was unimportant. The Arizona Senator was one of only six Republicans to vote against the Civil Rights Act,[5] and Goldwater's staunchly conservative policies caused the small Mississippi electorate to almost unanimously support him over the "big government" Johnson.

Following the Voting Rights Act, Federal examiners registered Mississippi blacks as voters in large numbers: African-American registration rose from under seven percent to over fifty-nine percent between mid-1965 and 1968.[6] Extreme anger ensued among white Mississippians, because black voting in significant numbers would threaten the entire social fabric of the Black Belt[7] and was even feared by the few upcountry whites who had stayed loyal to Johnson as potentially causing social breakdown.[8] The anger of Mississippi's whites was seen in the 1967 Democratic gubernatorial primary when both Black Belt whites and their traditional foes in the upcountry supported conservative John Bell Williams against William Winter whom it was believed was favored by the newly registered blacks[9] – although it remained political suicide to openly court black support.[9]

In addition, the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and resultant abolition of Mississippi's rigorous poll tax requirements for voting had allowed large increases in white, as well as black, voter registration,[10] with some of these drives done by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Consequently, when segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace announced in early 1968 that he would mount a third-party candidacy for the Presidency, he had a powerful base in his native Deep South. Meanwhile, the Republican Party in the 1966 mid-term elections had of necessity moved away from the strident conservatism of Goldwater – who had been replaced as Republican National Congress Chairman by Ray Bliss.[11]

Given Wallace's firmly established reputation as a segregationist, it was inevitable that he would be endorsed by Mississippi's established Democratic Party leadership, and this happened in September.[12] William Winter, the losing candidate for Governor the previous year, did support Democratic nominee and sitting Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, but knew that it would be too risky to actively campaign for him.[13]

Vote

By August, there was virtual unanimity that Wallace would carry Mississippi by a large margin,[14] as apart from a small number of wealthy urban communities, he had captured a virtual monopoly of the state's white electorate, including the small minority who had backed Johnson. Wallace was the only candidate to do any campaigning:[12] Nixon did not campaign in the state at all, and won more than twenty percent of the vote in just four of the state's 82 counties.[15] This was the second presidential election which Richard Nixon came in third place in Mississippi. Humphrey improved upon the support gained by Johnson, but this was entirely due to the huge increases in black voter registration – exit polls suggest the national Democratic nominee received less than 5 percent of the white vote. In fact, so marked was the reversal of voting patterns from the previous five presidential elections that Humphrey did worst in the counties where Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson and Harry S. Truman had run best.[16]

With 63.46% of the popular vote, Mississippi would prove to be Wallace's second strongest state in the 1968 election after neighboring Alabama.[17]

As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which the following counties did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate: Forrest, Lowndes, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lincoln, Newton, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Harrison, Jackson, Choctaw, Jones, and Smith.[18] It is also the last election in which the Republican nominee won the presidency without carrying Mississippi.

Results

1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Independent	George C. Wallace	415,349	63.46%	7
	National Democratic	Hubert Humphrey	150,644	23.02%	0
	Republican	Richard Nixon	88,516	13.52%	0
Totals			654,509	100.00%	7
Voter turnout (Voting age/Registered voters)					53%/84%

Results by county

County	Hubert Horatio Humphrey Democratic		Richard Milhous Nixon Republican		George Corley Wallace Independent		Margin[lower-alpha 4]		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Adams	5,214	38.62%	1,475	10.93%	6,812	50.46%	-1,598	-11.84%	13,501
Alcorn	1,122	12.21%	1,760	19.16%	6,304	68.63%	-4,544[lower-alpha 5]	-49.47%	9,186
Amite	1,533	29.87%	393	7.66%	3,206	62.47%	-1,673	-32.60%	5,132
Attala	1,588	22.81%	599	8.60%	4,776	68.59%	-3,188	-45.78%	6,963
Benton	850	31.89%	185	6.94%	1,630	61.16%	-780	-29.27%	2,665
Bolivar	4,696	40.82%	1,790	15.56%	5,018	43.62%	-322	-2.80%	11,504
Calhoun	276	5.02%	394	7.17%	4,823	87.80%	-4,429[lower-alpha 5]	-80.63%	5,493
Carroll	925	28.96%	138	4.32%	2,131	66.72%	-1,206	-37.76%	3,194
Chickasaw	720	13.95%	381	7.38%	4,062	78.68%	-3,342	-64.73%	5,163
Choctaw	417	13.15%	211	6.65%	2,543	80.20%	-2,126	-67.05%	3,171
Claiborne	2,129	60.79%	230	6.57%	1,143	32.64%	986	28.16%	3,502
Clarke	878	16.29%	298	5.53%	4,214	78.18%	-3,336	-61.89%	5,390
Clay	1,510	27.41%	494	8.97%	3,505	63.62%	-1,995	-36.21%	5,509
Coahoma	5,352	49.11%	1,875	17.20%	3,671	33.69%	1,681	15.42%	10,898
Copiah	2,724	32.51%	704	8.40%	4,951	59.09%	-2,227	-26.58%	8,379
Covington	691	14.38%	445	9.26%	3,668	76.35%	-2,977	-61.97%	4,804
DeSoto	1,898	22.77%	1,092	13.10%	5,346	64.13%	-3,448	-41.36%	8,336
Forrest	2,957	18.22%	3,294	20.30%	9,975	61.48%	-6,681[lower-alpha 5]	-41.17%	16,226
Franklin	782	22.72%	231	6.71%	2,429	70.57%	-1,647	-47.85%	3,442
George	214	4.89%	171	3.91%	3,992	91.20%	-3,778	-86.31%	4,377
Greene	449	13.50%	132	3.97%	2,744	82.53%	-2,295	-69.02%	3,325
Grenada	2,050	28.86%	718	10.11%	4,335	61.03%	-2,285	-32.17%	7,103
Hancock	904	14.96%	1,065	17.63%	4,072	67.41%	-3,007[lower-alpha 5]	-49.78%	6,041
Harrison	4,549	15.55%	6,542	22.37%	18,157	62.08%	-11,615[lower-alpha 5]	-39.71%	29,248
Hinds	14,880	24.50%	13,488	22.21%	32,366	53.29%	-17,486	-28.79%	60,734
Holmes	3,881	52.38%	520	7.02%	3,008	40.60%	873	11.78%	7,409
Humphreys	1,219	33.60%	258	7.11%	2,151	59.29%	-932	-25.69%	3,628
Issaquena	527	47.69%	44	3.98%	534	48.33%	-7	-0.63%	1,105
Itawamba	417	6.74%	569	9.19%	5,204	84.07%	-4,635[lower-alpha 5]	-74.88%	6,190
Jackson	2,236	10.94%	2,942	14.39%	15,261	74.67%	-12,319[lower-alpha 5]	-60.27%	20,439
Jasper	987	22.13%	373	8.36%	3,100	69.51%	-2,113	-47.38%	4,460
Jefferson	2,121	62.75%	147	4.35%	1,112	32.90%	1,009	29.85%	3,380
Jefferson Davis	1,465	33.48%	297	6.79%	2,614	59.73%	-1,149	-26.26%	4,376
Jones	2,476	13.76%	3,242	18.02%	12,276	68.22%	-9,034[lower-alpha 5]	-50.21%	17,994
Kemper	655	19.54%	167	4.98%	2,530	75.48%	-1,875	-55.94%	3,352
Lafayette	1,578	25.69%	1,235	20.11%	3,329	54.20%	-1,751	-28.51%	6,142
Lamar	351	6.60%	546	10.27%	4,422	83.14%	-3,876[lower-alpha 5]	-72.87%	5,319
Lauderdale	3,195	15.69%	2,328	11.43%	14,842	72.88%	-11,647	-57.19%	20,365
Lawrence	740	19.00%	329	8.45%	2,825	72.55%	-2,085	-53.54%	3,894
Leake	1,295	20.50%	453	7.17%	4,568	72.32%	-3,273	-51.82%	6,316
Lee	1,912	13.99%	2,522	18.45%	9,232	67.55%	-6,710[lower-alpha 5]	-49.10%	13,666
Leflore	4,386	37.71%	1,514	13.02%	5,732	49.28%	-1,346	-11.57%	11,632
Lincoln	1,585	15.98%	1,057	10.66%	7,276	73.36%	-5,691	-57.38%	9,918
Lowndes	2,229	20.22%	1,968	17.85%	6,829	61.94%	-4,600	-41.72%	11,026
Madison	4,515	47.72%	876	9.26%	4,071	43.02%	444	4.69%	9,462
Marion	1,722	20.66%	763	9.16%	5,848	70.18%	-4,126	-49.51%	8,333
Marshall	2,907	46.30%	577	9.19%	2,794	44.50%	113	1.80%	6,278
Monroe	1,506	14.30%	1,167	11.08%	7,856	74.61%	-6,350	-60.31%	10,529
Montgomery	896	20.56%	475	10.90%	2,988	68.55%	-2,092	-47.99%	4,359
Neshoba	867	11.09%	531	6.79%	6,417	82.11%	-5,550	-71.02%	7,815
Newton	799	11.58%	542	7.85%	5,561	80.57%	-4,762	-68.99%	6,902
Noxubee	1,387	37.91%	232	6.34%	2,040	55.75%	-653	-17.85%	3,659
Oktibbeha	1,826	25.26%	1,276	17.65%	4,127	57.09%	-2,301	-31.83%	7,229
Panola	2,743	34.40%	1,098	13.77%	4,133	51.83%	-1,390	-17.43%	7,974
Pearl River	926	11.19%	1,298	15.69%	6,050	73.12%	-4,752[lower-alpha 5]	-57.43%	8,274
Perry	439	13.69%	227	7.08%	2,541	79.23%	-2,102	-65.54%	3,207
Pike	2,848	28.05%	1,460	14.38%	5,846	57.57%	-2,998	-29.53%	10,154
Pontotoc	599	9.77%	733	11.96%	4,798	78.27%	-4,065[lower-alpha 5]	-66.31%	6,130
Prentiss	440	7.08%	723	11.63%	5,055	81.30%	-4,332[lower-alpha 5]	-69.67%	6,218
Quitman	1,502	34.30%	434	9.91%	2,443	55.79%	-941	-21.49%	4,379
Rankin	1,975	16.03%	1,124	9.12%	9,224	74.85%	-7,249	-58.82%	12,323
Scott	1,067	15.77%	604	8.93%	5,093	75.30%	-4,026	-59.52%	6,764
Sharkey	972	40.35%	249	10.34%	1,188	49.32%	-216	-8.97%	2,409
Simpson	1,079	15.37%	875	12.47%	5,064	72.16%	-3,985	-56.78%	7,018
Smith	352	6.83%	437	8.48%	4,367	84.70%	-3,930[lower-alpha 5]	-76.22%	5,156
Stone	314	11.58%	258	9.51%	2,140	78.91%	-1,826	-67.33%	2,712
Sunflower	2,602	34.37%	1,036	13.69%	3,932	51.94%	-1,330	-17.57%	7,570
Tallahatchie	1,477	28.79%	577	11.25%	3,076	59.96%	-1,599	-31.17%	5,130
Tate	1,162	25.39%	605	13.22%	2,810	61.39%	-1,648	-36.01%	4,577
Tippah	663	11.28%	589	10.02%	4,627	78.70%	-3,964	-67.43%	5,879
Tishomingo	358	6.46%	617	11.13%	4,569	82.41%	-3,952[lower-alpha 5]	-71.28%	5,544
Tunica	1,133	48.65%	413	17.73%	783	33.62%	350	15.03%	2,329
Union	624	9.22%	948	14.00%	5,198	76.78%	-4,250[lower-alpha 5]	-62.78%	6,770
Walthall	1,233	25.66%	387	8.05%	3,186	66.29%	-1,953	-40.64%	4,806
Warren	4,503	31.91%	2,392	16.95%	7,217	51.14%	-2,714	-19.23%	14,112
Washington	5,520	36.03%	3,500	22.85%	6,300	41.12%	-780	-5.09%	15,320
Wayne	739	14.56%	247	4.87%	4,089	80.57%	-3,350	-66.01%	5,075
Webster	295	7.33%	330	8.20%	3,398	84.46%	-3,068[lower-alpha 5]	-76.26%	4,023
Wilkinson	2,144	54.71%	272	6.94%	1,503	38.35%	641	16.36%	3,919
Winston	911	15.05%	508	8.39%	4,635	76.56%	-3,724	-61.51%	6,054
Yalobusha	873	20.99%	562	13.51%	2,725	65.50%	-1,852	-44.52%	4,160
Yazoo	2,163	26.84%	958	11.89%	4,939	61.28%	-2,776	-34.44%	8,060
Totals	150,644	23.02%	88,516	13.52%	415,349	63.46%	-264,705	-40.44%	654,509

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.
2. These unpledged electors supported Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd for President and South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond for Vice-President.
3. Over the whole of Mississippi it is estimated that at the time of the 1964 presidential election between six and seven percent of the black population was registered to vote, and that about three-quarters of these – totalling twenty-one thousand blacks – actually voted in the 1964 presidential election, giving Lyndon Johnson about 40 percent of his fifty-two thousand statewide votes. However, in most rural counties, black registration was zero before the Voting Rights Act and had been since the Constitution of 1890.
4. Because Wallace finished first in Mississippi as a whole and Humphrey was the highest-polling statewide major party nominee in the state as a whole, all margins and percentage margins shown are Humphrey minus Wallace unless otherwise stated.
5. In this county where Nixon ran second ahead of Humphrey, margin given is Nixon vote minus Wallace vote and percentage margin is Nixon percentage minus Wallace percentage.

References

1. Crespino, Joseph; In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution, p. 206 ISBN 0691122091
2. Mitchell, Dennis J.; A New History of Mississippi; p. 453 ISBN 1617039764
3. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
4. Katagiri, Yasuhiro; The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission: Civil Rights and States' Rights, p. 203 ISBN 1604730080
5. Thernstrom, Stephan and Thernstrom, Abigail; America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible, p. 151 ISBN 1439129096
6. Mickey, Robert; Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972, pp. 289-290 ISBN 1400838789
7. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 253
8. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 264
9. Dittmer, John; Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi, p. 417 ISBN 0252065077
10. Mickey, Paths out of Dixie, p. 290
11. Polsky, Andrew J.; The Eisenhower Presidency: Lessons for the Twenty-First Century, p. 34 ISBN 1498522211
12. Nash, Jere and Taggart, Andy; Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976-2008, p. 29 ISBN 1604733578
13. Bolton, Charles C.; William F. Winter and the New Mississippi: A Biography, p. 150 ISBN 1617037877
14. Crespino, In Search of Another Country, p. 221
15. 1968 Presidential General Election Results – Mississippi US Election Atlas
16. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 245, 266
17. "1968 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-03-05.
18. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016