1964 Presidential Election Night Coverage (CBS)

[Calthrina950]

Great to see this coverage even though it's just an hour.  I know a lot of people have been trying to find it for a long time.   And it's great to see the CBS team of Cronkite, Sevareid, Reasoner, and Mudd--all news giants of their time.  

It was surprising to see so many split tickets, where LBJ ran far ahead of his Senate candidates.  Looks like he pulled the incumbents through in OH, NV, and IL.  And RFK ran better than he was expected in winning the Senate race in NY.

Fully agree with this. I am always impressed by the news coverage of that time period. Our media outlets today pale in comparison to their forbears; the quality and substance of the conversations between these men (and Mike Wallace as well) is certainly something to note. I too have also been trying to find additional coverage of the 1964 election, and so I'm glad that this has been posted. Johnson did indeed have extensive coattails that year.

Ticket-splitting also worked the other way, as Republican Senatorial incumbents in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Delaware won reelection while Johnson carried their states by landslide margins, and George Murphy beat Pierre Salinger in California while Johnson was winning there by nearly 20%. At the gubernatorial level, the same was also true in Michigan, where George Romney easily won reelection while Johnson got 66% there. The country was much less polarized in those days.

[Calthrina950]

I find it kind of funny how people at one point in time felt Goldwater would "only" get 60 Mississippi

I've read that many thought Johnson could hold Georgia, Louisiana, and even South Carolina into the autumn of that year, when it became clear that Goldwater had the advantage in those states. Nationally, Johnson led Goldwater by as much as 3-1 in many polls during the campaign. If you notice, Arizona was the only remaining state that was uncalled at the end of the election night; Goldwater went on to win it by just 1%, and did so only because it was his home state. So he never had any real chance in most states outside of the Deep South.

[Calthrina950]

Mississippi 1964 was easily one of the most interesting state presidential results in history, in terms of extremity, and how blatantly obvious (and awful) the motives for voting for Goldwater were.

And were it not for the Voting Rights Act, Mississippi would have gone by a similarly large margin for Richard Nixon in 1972 as well. As it is, it was his best state in the country that year. This is a state where the Southern Strategy, and the "party shift" within the South, were most obvious.

[Calthrina950]

Finally!!  JFK1963 NewsVideos has uploaded extensive 1964 election night coverage on You Tube--about 3 1/2 hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-GYglOwBI 


Some interesting and historical calls--Vermont voting Democratic for the first time ever (about 38 minutes in) and projecting Robert Kennedy in the New York Senate race.

The other very interesting (to me, anyway) part is at the 29-35 minute range where the races in the South are being reported.  Especially Alabama (where Goldwater beats "Unpledged Electors") and Mississippi (where Goldwater was leading LBJ 10,000 to 1,300 with 7% of the precincts reporting).

Excellent! I'm looking forward to watching this.

[Calthrina950]

What I also find bizarre about the coverage is that Texas is described as close for much for the night, though Johnson ended up winning it with 63.32% of the vote. The "VPA" Machine which they utilized was definitely off with some of its figures, although it got the overall results of the race correct in the end.