MAP 28.3 The Presidential Election of 1968
With Lyndon B. Johnson’s surprise withdrawal and the assassination of the party’s most charismatic contender, Robert Kennedy, the Democrats faced the election of 1968 in disarray. Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who left the Democrats to run as a third-party candidate, campaigned on the backlash against the civil rights movement. As late as mid-September Wallace held the support of 21 percent of the voters. But in November he received only 13.5 percent of the vote, winning five southern states. Republican Richard M. Nixon, who like Wallace emphasized “law and order” in his campaign, defeated Hubert H. Humphrey with only 43.4 percent of the popular vote, but it was now clear, given that Wallace’s southern support would otherwise have gone to Nixon, that the South had shifted decisively to the Republican side.