1968 United States presidential election - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1968 United States presidential election

← 1964 November 5, 1968 1972 →

538 members of the Electoral College
270 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout60.9%[1] Decrease 1.0 pp
 
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey George Wallace
Party Republican Democratic American Independent
Home state California Minnesota Alabama
Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie Curtis LeMay
Electoral vote 301 191 46
States carried 32 13 + D.C. 5
Popular vote 31,783,783 31,271,839 9,901,118
Percentage 43.4% 42.7% 13.5%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Nixon/Agnew. Blue denotes states won by Humphrey/Muskie. Orange denotes states won by Wallace/LeMay, as well as a faithless elector in North Carolina who casted his electoral vote for Wallace/LeMay instead of Nixon/Agnew. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

The 1968 United States presidential election happened on November 5, 1968. Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate and former vice president of the United States, won the election. He defeated the incumbent vice president, Hubert Humphrey, the Incumbent Vice President and a Democrat, and George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama, who ran as a member of the American Independent Party

Incumbent United States President Lyndon B. Johnson was able to run, but decided against it. On March 31, 1968, Johnson withdrew his nomination and he said, "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President".

The incumbent Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, brother of former United States President John F. Kennedy was a serious presidential candidate before his assassination on June 5, 1968 by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles after winning the California and South Dakota primaries for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

Richard Nixon won the election by 301 electoral votes. Hubert Humphrey got 191 electoral votes. George Wallace received 46 electoral votes and a faithless elector in North Carolina voted Wallace and running mate Curtis LeMay.

Humphrey did not win the south because he was very liberal and favored civil rights. The only southern state he won was Texas (which he won narrowly).

Candidates[change | change source]

Democratic Party[change | change source]

Candidates gallery[change | change source]

Republican Party[change | change source]

Candidates gallery[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved October 21, 2012.

Other websites[change | change source]