Out of the Shadow

[Cold War Liberal]

November 2, 1976
9:00 PM

“Welcome back to CBS News coverage of the 1976 elections, I’m Walter Cronkite. Seeing as the clock has just struck 9 on the eastern seaboard, ten more states have just closed their polls, along with portions of four others.

“Arizona has cast its ballots for John Lindsay, though he is a bad fit for the conservative state and is under-performing expectations. Lindsay has won that state by a little more than five points. Louisiana has overwhelmingly voted for Henry M. Jackson, which puts him over the 200 electoral vote mark. We can also project that both Michigan and Minnesota will vote for Jackson, no surprise due to his Manufacturing Belt union appeal. John Lindsay will win the state of Nebraska. Vice President Jackson has won the state of Wisconsin. Finally, Lindsay has carried the very Republican state of Wyoming.

“Oh, standby… I’ve been informed of three more calls we can make at this hour: John Lindsay has narrowly won Delaware, while at the same time, Vice President Jackson has won South Dakota and her four electoral votes. And the last call is that Maine’s second congressional district has narrowly voted for John Lindsay.

“Colorado is too early to call. Connecticut is too close to call. Illinois is too close to call. Kansas is too close to call. New Jersey is too close to call. New Mexico is too early to call. New York is too close to call. North Dakota is too close to call. Pennsylvania is too close to call. Virginia is too close to call.”

JACKSON/PEDEN: 54%, 247 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 45%, 49 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 152 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 90 EVS
“We can make two projections about the future control of Congress. First, the Democratic party has won at least 227 seats, well above the 218 needed for a majority in the House of Representatives. Depending on how other races fall, Democrats should prepared for, at best, a gain of three seats, or, in their worst case scenario, a net loss of no more than twenty-five seats. Regardless, Democrats will retain their control of the House of Representatives.

“For the other projection, we can call the Minnesota Senate race for the incumbent Walter Mondale, and with that, Democrats will retain control of the US Senate for at least another two years. We can also call that Bella Abzug has beaten William F. Buckley in the New York Senate race; like New York’s other Senator, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug is an outspoken feminist progressive activist and Congresswoman. Quentin Burdick has won a landslide reelection in North Dakota. William Proxmire of Wisconsin has also won a landslide reelection. In some good news for the GOP, Malcolm Wallop has ousted Wyoming Senator Gale McGee, beating the Democrat by a wide margin and securing Republicans their sixth flip of the night.”

Democrats: 54 seats ( 15)
Republicans: 33 seats ( 2)

“CBS can make the projection that Governor Arthur Link has won another term as Governor of North Dakota. In addition, we can also predict that James Holshouser, a Republican, will win the North Carolina gubernatorial election.

Democrats: 32 ( 8)
Republicans: 14 ( 4)

[LoneStarDem]

November 2, 1976
9:00 PM

“Welcome back to CBS News coverage of the 1976 elections, I’m Walter Cronkite. Seeing as the clock has just struck 9 on the eastern seaboard, ten more states have just closed their polls, along with portions of four others.

“Arizona has cast its ballots for John Lindsay, though he is a bad fit for the conservative state and is under-performing expectations. Lindsay has won that state by a little more than five points. Louisiana has overwhelmingly voted for Henry M. Jackson, which puts him over the 200 electoral vote mark. We can also project that both Michigan and Minnesota will vote for Jackson, no surprise due to his Manufacturing Belt union appeal. John Lindsay will win the state of Nebraska. Vice President Jackson has won the state of Wisconsin. Finally, Lindsay has carried the very Republican state of Wyoming.

“Oh, standby… I’ve been informed of three more calls we can make at this hour: John Lindsay has narrowly won Delaware, while at the same time, Vice President Jackson has won South Dakota and her four electoral votes. And the last call is that Maine’s second congressional district has narrowly voted for John Lindsay.

“Colorado is too early to call. Connecticut is too close to call. Illinois is too close to call. Kansas is too close to call. New Jersey is too close to call. New Mexico is too early to call. New York is too close to call. North Dakota is too close to call. Pennsylvania is too close to call. Virginia is too close to call.”

JACKSON/PEDEN: 54%, 247 EVS
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 45%, 49 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 152 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 90 EVS
“We can make two projections about the future control of Congress. First, the Democratic party has won at least 227 seats, well above the 218 needed for a majority in the House of Representatives. Depending on how other races fall, Democrats should prepared for, at best, a gain of three seats, or, in their worst case scenario, a net loss of no more than twenty-five seats. Regardless, Democrats will retain their control of the House of Representatives.

“For the other projection, we can call the Minnesota Senate race for the incumbent Walter Mondale, and with that, Democrats will retain control of the US Senate for at least another two years. We can also call that Bella Abzug has beaten William F. Buckley in the New York Senate race; like New York’s other Senator, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug is an outspoken feminist progressive activist and Congresswoman. Quentin Burdick has won a landslide reelection in North Dakota. William Proxmire of Wisconsin has also won a landslide reelection. In some good news for the GOP, Malcolm Wallop has ousted Wyoming Senator Gale McGee, beating the Democrat by a wide margin and securing Republicans their sixth flip of the night.”

Democrats: 54 seats ( 15)
Republicans: 33 seats ( 2)

“CBS can make the projection that Governor Arthur Link has won another term as Governor of North Dakota. In addition, we can also predict that James Holshouser, a Republican, will win the North Carolina gubernatorial election.

Democrats: 32 (
Republicans: 14 ( 4)

Who was elected NC Governor in 1972 from this TL ?

[Cold War Liberal]

Who was elected NC Governor in 1972 from this TL ?

Skipper Bowles.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

It's 1976 and New York's senators are a Jew and a Black woman. The two presidential candidates are progressives with integrity. How I wish this was our world!!

[LoneStarDem]

Meanwhile in several Southern states, the Old Guard is hell-bent on preventing & blocking change by using discriminatory tactics, diluting voting to prevent minorities, the elderly, etc., from participating in a free democratic process, racially-charged rhetoric.

[Corbyn is (no longer) the leader of the Labour Party]

How does Jackson do so well in the South?

[LoneStarDem]

How does Jackson do so well in the South?

Good question since it's been awhile since they had a Southerner in the White House.

[Cold War Liberal]

How does Jackson do so well in the South?

Lindsay doesn’t enthuse southern whites at all, while black voters are exercising their newly-granted voting rights (though Lindsay is winning almost 30% of them), protected by the Federal Election Observers. Senator Peden, while not from the Deep South, has endeared herself to many southerners.

Overall Jackson is doing very well with union workers and poor-to-working-class whites, while also taking about 72% of the national black vote. Meanwhile upper-middle class whites and country club republicans love Lindsay, which is one reason why he’s doing so well in New England at the moment (being from the region doesn’t hurt).

#Analysis like this is as close as I’m going to get to posting actual exit polls.

[Cold War Liberal]

November 2, 1976
9:47 PM

THIS IS A CBS NEWS SPECIAL BULLETIN“This just in! The Associated Press has just called the state of Illinois for Vice President Henry M. Jackson, a state with 26 electoral votes. This puts Vice President Jackson at 273 electoral votes, three more than a majority; thus Vice President Jackson is now President-elect Jackson. Henry Jackson has been elected the 38th President of the United States, while Senator Katherine Peden has been elected the 41st Vice President of the United States. Katherine Peden has made history tonight; she will be the first woman to serve as Vice President in all of America’s 200 year history. President-elect Jackson and Vice President-elect Peden will have a Democratic Congress to work with; the trifecta which has existed for all of the Humphrey Administration will persist until at least 1979, though without a Senate supermajority and possibly without a supermajority in the House either.”

JACKSON/PEDEN: 54%, 273 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 45%, 49 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 126 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 90 EVS
“We’re going live to CBS correspondent Dan Rather, who is at the Jackson/Peden campaign party tonight. Dan, what is the crowd - and the President-elect - feeling right now?”

“Thanks Walter. The crowd can only be described as ecstatic. Vice President-elect Peden has just finished speaking, and President-elect Jackson is getting on stage now. Let’s listen.”

“Tonight, the American people have sent a clear message: they want a strong America! They want a continuation of the policies of the past four years into the next four. They want better treatment of women and minorities, and hell, they want a woman Vice President! I’m humbled and honored to have been elected President of the United States tonight, and I hope to serve you well in the next four years and beyond, if you’ll have me…”

“Back to you, Walter.”

“Thank you, Dan. We’ve also received a tip that Mayor Lindsay called to concede about half an hour ago, before the official call of the election but after it became clear Lindsay was highly unlikely to win. Bill Moyers is at the Lindsay campaign headquarters. What’s going on down there, Bill?”

“Well, Walter, it’s a somber mood tonight here in New York. Mayor Lindsay didn’t take his home state, and it was clear from quite early on in the night that the upset the mayor needed just wasn’t going to happen. Senator Ruckelshaus, the running mate, is introducing Lindsay now- oh, here the mayor comes…”

“Thank you! Thank you! Well, we didn’t quite make it tonight… But while we didn’t win the election, democracy worked, and every time democracy works and there’s a peaceful transition of power, America wins. The entire free world wins! This campaign came farther than anyone guessed we would, and we’ve left our mark on not only our party but our country. We must continue to fight for the values we hold dead: fairness, civil rights and liberties, combating poverty, and fostering personal responsibility. The fight for these values goes on, it must go on, but for now, let’s give a congratulatory round of applause for our new President, Henry Jackson…”

“A strikingly conciliatory tone from Mayor Lindsay tonight. Back to you Walter.”

“Thanks, Bill. Stay tuned for more poll closings in just a few minutes.”

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Can I get an F in chat for Hunt and Lindsay

[Continential]

F

[LoneStarDem]

I'm assuming the Dems have a supermajority on the US State Governorships.

[Mr. Smith]

Can't wait to see The West.

[Cold War Liberal]

I'm assuming the Dems have a supermajority on the US State Governorships.

As my mom always says, when you assume, you make an ass out of u and me.

You’ll have to wait to see the rest of the gubernatorial results for 1976; election night isn’t over yet. Every gubernatorial election result since 1963 can be found throughout this and the previous two timelines.

[LoneStarDem]

Interested to see if Scoop wins by double digits.

[Neo-Malthusian Misanthrope]

Well that was an awfully quick call! I've had the feeling for a while that Jackson's hawkishness might mean the spectre of Goldwater's foreign policy might follow him through his presidency. Eager as always to see where things go next.

[LoneStarDem]

This TL is getting juicy.

[Cold War Liberal]

November 2, 1976
10:00 PM

“This is CBS News, and I’m Walter Cronkite. It is 10 PM and polls have closed in four more states. The only new state which is not too close to call is Utah, which has gone decisively for Mayor Lindsay. However, we can make a series of other calls in states that were previously too close or too early.

“Kansas goes to John Lindsay. North Dakota will also be carried by the former New York mayor. Little by little, it appears Republicans are regaining the ground they lost to Democrats in the Plains during and following the Goldwater Administration. President-elect Henry Jackson has won the state of Pennsylvania; John Lindsay was not able to replicate Nelson Rockefeller’s 1964 victory in that state twelve years later. The rest of the states are still too close to call.”

JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 300 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 63 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 104 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 71 EVS
“The AP has called the Montana Senate race for Congressman John Melcher, who has won by double digits. Meanwhile, Congressman Orrin Hatch has unseated Senator Frank Moss in Utah, the seventh GOP flip of the night.

“In Vermont, we can finally call that Senator Stafford has narrowly won reelection. And in Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter has defeated State Sen. Jeanette Reibman for the open Senate seat in that state. In good news for Democrats, Senator Morrison has won another term in Nebraska.”

Democrats: 56 seats ( 13)
Republicans: 36 seats ( 5)

“Governor Judge of Montana has won a landslide reelection tonight, while Utah is still too close to call. However, the newest results out of Vermont have given us the confidence to project that Stella Hackel, the state’s Treasurer, has won the election by less than one percent, and will be the next Governor.

Democrats: 34 ( 6)
Republicans: 14 ( 4)

11:00 PM

“As the last polls of the Lower 48 close, we can call Hawaii for President-elect Jackson. Mayor Lindsay has won Idaho in a landslide; Idaho was the closest state in 1972, when, like every other state, it went to President Hubert Humphrey. Washington state, where President-elect Jackson is from, will easily go to its favorite son. California and Oregon are too close to call.

“We can make a few more calls on the Presidential level, however. We are confident enough to say that John Lindsay has won Colorado, taking the state with 49.9% of the vote to Henry Jackson’s 47.3%. With 99% reporting and only a little more than 5,000 votes separating the two candidates (a margin of about 0.4%), we can call Connecticut for John Lindsay. Iowa is too close to call, though with 53% in, Jackson has a lead of about 30,000 votes, or around 1.5%. Montana is obscenely close at this hour; with 61% in, Jackson leads by about 53 votes. Not 53% of the vote, 53 individual votes. The AP has just called the state of Nevada for John Lindsay, who has beaten the President-elect there by about 4 points. And with 98% of the vote reported in New Jersey, John Lindsay’s 15,000 vote lead (half a percentage point) looks insurmountable, so we are calling New Jersey for Lindsay, putting him above the 100 electoral vote mark.

“Less than a thousand votes separate the candidates in New Mexico, so that race is too close to call at this time. It appears Henry Jackson has won Mayor Lindsay's home state of New York by around 4 points. Virginia, usually reliably Republican except for a fluke vote for Faubus in 1964 and the overwhelming Democratic landslide in 1972, is returning to its Republican roots and voting for John Lindsay tonight. And that’s the state of the Presidential election right now...”

JACKSON/PEDEN: 53%, 354 EVS ✓
LINDSAY/RUCKELSHAUS: 46%, 114 EVS
OTHERS: 1%, 0 EVS
TOO CLOSE/EARLY TO CALL: 67 EVS
POLLS OPEN: 3 EVS
“...moving on to the Senate, George Brown Jr. has run away with the California Senate election, crushing former Governor Finch by double digits. Senator Cecil Heftel has won reelection handily in Hawaii. And Senator Tom Foley has easily won a term of his own at the same time that the man he replaced is ascending to the Presidency.

“We can also project that Raul Hector Castro has narrowly defeated Senator Jack Williams in Arizona, so far the only Democratic flip of the night. We are also confident enough to call Michigan’s open Senate seat for Secretary of State Richard Austin, who will become the first African-American to represent Michigan in the US Senate. The Missouri Senate election is still too close to call, though Congressman Litton has a narrow lead with 93% of the vote in. Senator Paul Laxalt has narrowly won a third term in Nevada. In New Mexico, the AP has projected that former NASA astronaut Harrison Schmitt has defeated Senator Joseph Montoya. It’s been a good night for the GOP in the Senate, much better than in 1974 or in tonight’s Presidential election, but some races have left Republicans disappointed, and Democrats will retain their filibuster-proof majority until at least 1979, though they have lost their supermajority.”

Democrats: 61 seats ( 8)
Republicans: 38 seats ( 7)

“As for the governors’ races, Albert Rosellini has won another term as Washington’s governor, his second consecutive and fourth cumulative term. We can also project that Vernon Romney will flip the Utah governorship to the GOP, the Republicans’ fifth gain of the night and the second member of the Romney family to be elected Governor of a US state.”

Democrats: 35 ( 5)
Republicans: 15 ( 5)

[OSR stands with Israel]

Hope the Conservative wing of the party comes back after this defeat

[Cold War Liberal]

Hope the Conservative wing of the party comes back after this defeat

The George Bushes, Paul Laxalts, and Spiro Agnews of the world are likely not unhappy with the result, and are undoubtedly thinking about '80.

[KaiserDave]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

[LoneStarDem]

This is Rosellini's 4th term as WA St Governor ?

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

[Continential]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Hopefully this continues America's realignment to a more European and left of center political spectrum.

Who would’ve thought a Goldwater presidency would be great for the left?