1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas

Last updated

1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas
Flag of Arkansas (1924-2011).svg
  1960 November 3, 1964 1968  
  37 Lyndon Johnson 3x4 (cropped).jpg Goldwater and Miller (cropped).jpg
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote60
Popular vote314,197243,264
Percentage56.1%43.4%

Arkansas Presidential Election Results 1964.svg
County Results

President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

The 1964 presidential election in Arkansas was held on November 3, 1964 as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. State voters chose six electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson won the state of Arkansas with 56.06% of the popular vote, [1] which was a substantial increase upon John F. Kennedy's 50.19% from the preceding election, although the Republican vote remained virtually unchanged at 43.41%. Johnson won all but ten of Arkansas' seventy-five counties, and all four congressional districts. As of the 2020 presidential election , this is the last election in which Arkansas voted for a different candidate than neighboring Louisiana. Furthermore, with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina voting for Goldwater, Arkansas became the last Southern state to have never voted for a Republican candidate since the end of Reconstruction.

Contents

Results

1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas
PartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Democratic Lyndon Johnson (inc.)314,19756.06%6
Republican Barry Goldwater 243,26443.41%0
National States' Rights John Kasper 2,9650.53%0
Totals560,426100.00%6
Voter turnout (Voting age/Registered Voters)50.6%/78.3%

Results by county

CountyLyndon B. Johnson
Democratic
Barry Goldwater
Republican
John Kasper
National States’ Rights
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %
Arkansas 3,20045.78%3,76953.92%210.30%-569-8.14%6,990
Ashley 2,90143.23%3,74255.77%671.00%-841-12.54%6,710
Baxter 2,90059.29%1,98640.61%50.10%91418.68%4,891
Benton 5,65548.49%5,97751.25%300.26%-322-2.76%11,662
Boone 3,77056.73%2,85742.99%190.29%91313.74%6,646
Bradley 2,22954.34%1,85245.15%210.51%3779.19%4,102
Calhoun 1,40960.68%88938.29%241.03%52022.39%2,322
Carroll 2,00548.78%2,10551.22%00.00%-100-2.44%4,110
Chicot 2,91659.47%1,97240.22%150.31%94419.25%4,903
Clark 4,12768.36%1,88431.21%260.43%2,24337.15%6,037
Clay 3,28061.64%1,99937.57%420.79%1,28124.07%5,321
Cleburne 2,64568.26%1,22131.51%90.23%1,42436.75%3,875
Cleveland 1,12151.78%1,02647.39%180.83%954.39%2,165
Columbia 3,48546.26%4,00953.22%390.52%-524-6.96%7,533
Conway 4,20563.69%2,37836.02%190.29%1,82727.67%6,602
Craighead 8,33461.55%5,16338.13%440.32%3,17123.42%13,541
Crawford 3,53751.62%3,29448.07%210.31%2433.55%6,852
Crittenden 4,16850.20%4,06548.96%690.83%1031.24%8,302
Cross 2,42152.86%2,14746.88%120.26%2745.98%4,580
Dallas 1,77951.61%1,62547.14%431.25%1544.47%3,447
Desha 3,29462.91%1,93036.86%120.23%1,36426.05%5,236
Drew 1,98048.05%2,10951.18%320.78%-129-3.13%4,121
Faulkner 6,11664.95%3,25934.61%420.45%2,85730.34%9,417
Franklin 2,68562.47%1,58036.76%330.77%1,10525.71%4,298
Fulton 1,70466.64%84633.09%70.27%85833.55%2,557
Garland 11,59153.59%9,95246.01%860.40%1,6397.58%21,629
Grant 1,67855.07%1,30842.93%612.00%37012.14%3,047
Greene 4,74267.39%2,27132.27%240.34%2,47135.12%7,037
Hempstead 3,35556.95%2,49342.32%430.73%86214.63%5,891
Hot Spring 4,54360.40%2,91138.70%680.90%1,63221.70%7,522
Howard 1,32043.10%1,64953.84%943.07%-329-10.74%3,063
Independence 4,45564.01%2,47035.49%350.50%1,98528.52%6,960
Izard 1,73669.83%72629.20%240.97%1,01040.63%2,486
Jackson 4,65168.12%2,14131.36%360.53%2,51036.76%6,828
Jefferson 12,87256.04%9,96843.40%1290.56%2,90412.64%22,969
Johnson 3,12766.77%1,53532.78%210.45%1,59233.99%4,683
Lafayette 1,48450.02%1,47649.75%70.24%80.27%2,967
Lawrence 3,49863.16%2,01336.35%270.49%1,48526.81%5,538
Lee 2,33558.21%1,66841.59%80.20%66716.62%4,011
Lincoln 2,46863.58%1,41036.32%40.10%1,05827.26%3,882
Little River 2,04063.87%1,14135.72%130.41%89928.15%3,194
Logan 3,60461.13%2,26538.42%270.46%1,33922.71%5,896
Lonoke 3,81851.06%3,63648.63%230.31%1822.43%7,477
Madison 2,71557.45%1,99742.26%140.30%71815.19%4,726
Marion 1,66160.20%1,08839.43%100.36%57320.77%2,759
Miller 5,19054.68%4,25344.81%490.52%9379.87%9,492
Mississippi 8,67858.20%6,21341.67%200.13%2,46516.53%14,911
Monroe 2,25853.29%1,96846.45%110.26%2906.84%4,237
Montgomery 1,35861.67%83237.78%120.54%52623.89%2,202
Nevada 2,19060.41%1,40638.79%290.80%78421.62%3,625
Newton 1,37449.62%1,35749.01%381.37%170.61%2,769
Ouachita 7,05665.96%3,57233.39%700.65%3,48432.57%10,698
Perry 1,32055.30%1,04843.90%190.80%27211.40%2,387
Phillips 5,81859.43%3,96340.48%90.09%1,85518.95%9,790
Pike 1,53154.93%1,24144.53%150.54%29010.40%2,787
Poinsett 5,63564.93%3,03134.92%130.15%2,60430.01%8,679
Polk 2,57555.88%2,02243.88%110.24%55312.00%4,608
Pope 4,97263.91%2,65134.07%1572.02%2,32129.84%7,780
Prairie 1,81254.74%1,47644.59%220.66%33610.15%3,310
Pulaski 40,53551.12%38,31248.32%4420.56%2,2232.80%79,289
Randolph 2,68066.85%1,31232.73%170.42%1,36834.12%4,009
St. Francis 3,65151.88%3,37747.98%100.14%2743.90%7,038
Saline 5,60560.18%3,62838.96%800.86%1,97721.22%9,313
Scott 1,83862.01%1,12137.82%50.17%71724.19%2,964
Searcy 1,50847.68%1,64952.13%60.19%-141-4.45%3,163
Sebastian 10,29943.84%13,11055.80%840.36%-2,811-11.96%23,493
Sevier 2,12362.75%1,24936.92%110.33%87425.83%3,383
Sharp 1,81059.40%1,21539.88%220.72%59519.52%3,047
Stone 1,37458.72%94240.26%241.03%43218.46%2,340
Union 6,94844.60%8,47254.38%1601.03%-1,524-9.78%15,580
Van Buren 2,05461.28%1,27037.89%280.84%78423.39%3,352
Washington 10,16659.55%6,85640.16%480.28%3,31019.39%17,070
White 6,56656.20%5,02342.99%950.81%1,54313.21%11,684
Woodruff 2,30762.47%1,36636.99%200.54%94125.48%3,693
Yell 3,40768.86%1,52730.86%140.28%1,88038.00%4,948
Totals314,19756.06%243,26443.41%2,9650.53%70,93312.65%560,426

Analysis

Given the segregationism of its long-serving governor Orval Faubus, who had gained almost seven percent of the vote in the preceding presidential election, Arkansas would have seemed[ according to whom? ] potentially likely to succumb to Goldwater due to his opposition to the recent Civil Rights Act. However, the GOP's nomination of the moderate Winthrop Rockefeller in the party's first serious run for governor in the state since Reconstruction took the steam out of a Goldwater challenge. [2] Faubus refused to endorse Goldwater, [3] despite hesitating over this during the summer. In addition, many white Southerners commented to the effect that

Goldwater is right on the black man, and that is very important. But he is so wrong on everything else I can't bring myself to vote for him. [4]

In mid-July, Texas Governor John Connally had made private polls suggesting that Johnson would lose Arkansas, in addition to the Deep South states of Mississippi and Alabama which were leaning heavily towards Goldwater. [5] Nonetheless, that the increase in black registration in Arkansas had exceeded Kennedy's margin in 1960 suggested that Johnson's civil rights legislation did have some potential to help him, [5] and in early August polls suddenly became confident Johnson would carry the state due to Goldwater's policies of privatizing Social Security and expanding the war in Southeast Asia – a policy that did not play well in this isolationist state. [6] By October, a New York Times poll saw Arkansas as "safe" for Johnson [7] and his leads in polls increased as election day came closer. [8]

Ultimately, Johnson comfortably carried Arkansas, becoming the twenty-third and last consecutive Democratic presidential nominee to win the state; however, anti-civil rights sentiment did cause Arkansas to vote 9.92 percentage points more Republican than the nation at-large – this being the first time in 96 years when it voted less Democratic than the nation.

Johnson doubled Kennedy's margin, and reclaimed the counties of Clay, Craighead, Fulton, Marion, Randolph and Sharp, which in 1960 had defected to the GOP for the first time ever or since Reconstruction as a result of powerful anti-Catholicism. [9] Johnson also claimed thirteen other Ozark counties which had supported Nixon in 1960.

However, in the Delta and south of the state sufficient backlash against black civil rights occurred for Goldwater to claim six counties in those regions from the Democrats. [10] Of these, only state namesake Arkansas County had ever been carried by a Republican since the McKinley era. [lower-alpha 1] Ashley County and Drew County voted Republican for the first time since James G. Blaine in 1884, [11] Union County for the first time since 1872, and Columbia and Howard Counties for the first time ever. [10]

See also

Notes

  1. Arkansas County had voted for Warren G. Harding in 1920 and for Dwight D. Eisenhower in both 1952 and 1956.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election</span> 45th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in a landslide victory. Johnson was the fourth and most recent vice president to succeed the presidency following the death of his predecessor and win a full term in his own right. Johnson won the largest share of the popular vote for the Democratic Party in history, 61.1%, and the highest for any candidate since the advent of widespread popular elections in 1824.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 United States presidential election</span> 46th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1968 United States presidential election was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former vice president Richard Nixon, defeated both the Democratic nominee, incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, and the American Independent Party nominee, former Alabama governor George Wallace. This was the last election until 1988 in which the incumbent president was not on the ballot. This is the most recent election where a third-party candidate won a state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orval Faubus</span> Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967

Orval Eugene Faubus was an American politician who served as the 36th Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1957, he refused to comply with a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, and ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School. This event became known as the Little Rock Crisis. He was elected to six two-year terms as governor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid South</span> 1877–1964 U.S. Democratic voting bloc

The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democrats in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. During this period, the Democratic Party controlled southern state legislatures and most local, state and federal officeholders in the South were Democrats. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Southern Democrats disenfranchised blacks in all Southern states, along with a few non-Southern states. This resulted in a one-party system, in which a candidate's victory in Democratic primary elections was tantamount to election to the office itself. White primaries were another means that the Democrats used to consolidate their political power, excluding blacks from voting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of the Southern United States</span>

The politics of the Southern United States generally refers to the political landscape of the Southern United States. The institution of slavery had a profound impact on the politics of the Southern United States, causing the American Civil War and continued subjugation of African-Americans from the Reconstruction era to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Scholars have linked slavery to contemporary political attitudes, including racial resentment. From the Reconstruction era to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, pockets of the Southern United States were characterized as being "authoritarian enclaves".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 Republican Party presidential primaries</span> Selection of Republican US presidential candidate

From March 10 to June 2, 1964, voters of the Republican Party elected 1,308 delegates to the 1964 Republican National Convention through a series of delegate selection primaries and caucuses, for the purpose of determining the party's nominee for president in the 1964 United States presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in Alabama</span> Election in Alabama

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. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of as a slate, as in the other states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 Democratic Party presidential primaries</span> Selection of the Democratic Party nominee

From March 10 to June 2, 1964, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 1964 United States presidential election. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 1964 Democratic National Convention held from August 24 to August 27, 1964, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in Georgia</span> Election in Georgia

The 1964 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held on that day throughout all 50 states and The District of Columbia. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania</span> Election in Pennsylvania

The 1964 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 3, 1964, and was part of the 1964 United States presidential election. Voters chose 29 representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Pennsylvania overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic nominee, President Lyndon B. Johnson, over the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater. Johnson won Pennsylvania by a margin of 30.22%. Apart from William Howard Taft in 1912, Goldwater's 34.7% of the vote is easily the worst showing for a Republican in the state since the party was founded. Even relative to Johnson's popular vote landslide, Pennsylvania came out as 7.64% more Democratic than the nation at-large; the only occasion under the current two-party system that the state has been more anomalously Democratic than this was in Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide.

William Leach Spicer was a businessman from Fort Smith, Arkansas, who from 1962 to 1964 was the embattled state chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in New Hampshire</span> Election in New Hampshire

The 1964 United States presidential election in New Hampshire took place on November 5, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in Virginia</span> Election in Virginia

The 1964 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 3, 1964. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1964 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in Mississippi</span> Election in Mississippi

The 1964 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held on that day throughout all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Voters chose seven electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi</span> Election in Mississippi

The 1968 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 5, 1968. Mississippi voters chose seven electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for President and Vice-President. 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. In 1960, the state had been narrowly captured by a slate of unpledged Democratic electors, but in 1964 universal white opposition to the Civil Rights Act and negligible black voter registration meant that white Mississippians turned almost unanimously to Republican Barry Goldwater. Goldwater's support for "constitutional government and local self-rule" meant that the absence from the ballot of "states' rights" parties or unpledged electors was unimportant. The Arizona Senator was one of only six Republicans to vote against the Civil Rights Act, and so the small electorate of Mississippi supported him almost unanimously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1960 United States presidential election in Mississippi</span> Election in Mississippi

The 1960 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the 1960 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. This was the last election in which Mississippi had eight electoral votes: the Great Migration of Black Americans caused the state to lose congressional districts for the third time in four censuses before the next election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1956 United States presidential election in Mississippi</span> Election in Mississippi

The 1956 United States presidential election in Mississippi was held on November 6, 1956. Mississippi voters chose eight representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in South Carolina</span> Election in South Carolina

The 1964 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1964 United States presidential election in Maine</span> Election in Maine

The 1964 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all fifty states and D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

The 1964 presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson was a successful campaign for Johnson and his running mate Hubert Humphrey for their election as president and vice president of the United States. They defeated Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and vice presidential nominee William Miller. Johnson, a Democrat and former vice president under John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president upon Kennedy's assassination. In 1964, Johnson did not look optimistically upon the prospect of being elected president in his own right. Despite Johnson's uncertainty about running, he was seen as the most likely candidate to get the nomination. He entered the primaries starting with New Hampshire and won the state by almost 29,000 votes. Johnson's main opponent in the primaries was Alabama Governor George Wallace, who had announced his intention to seek the presidency even before Kennedy's assassination.

References

  1. "1964 Presidential General Election Results – Arkansas" . Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  2. Johnson, Robert David; All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, p. 225 ISBN   0521737524
  3. Bass, Jack and De Vries, Walter; The Transformation of Southern Politics Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945, p. 93 ISBN   0820317284
  4. Converse, Philip E., Clausen, Åge R. and Miller, Warren E.; 'Electoral Myth and Reality: The 1964 Election'; The American Political Science Review , Vol. 59, No. 2 (June 1965), pp. 321–336
  5. 1 2 Johnson; All the Way with LBJ, p. 168
  6. Roberts, Chalmers M.; 'Goldwater Riding High in South, Survey Finds: Has Firm Hold on Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida; Texas Rates Tossup'; Los Angeles Times , August 2, 1964, p. I2
  7. Wicker, Tom; 'Big Johnson Lead Found in Survey'; The New York Times , October 6, 1964, pp. 1, 28
  8. Johnson; All the Way with LBJ, p. 275
  9. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 87 ISBN   0786422173
  10. 1 2 Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 91
  11. Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 149–153