How did Humphrey Carry Macomb County?

[Don Vito Corleone]

When we think of Richard Nixon's win in 1968, we think of big wins in the suburbs, in small part due to Nixon campaigning on Law and Order right?
Well then how did Humphrey carry Macomb County by 15 points(AKA The county that would give birth to the legend of the Reagan Democrats),when it was not only a white middle class suburb, but one of the places where Nixon's law and order message should have resonated the most, given the destructiveness of the Detriot riots only a year earlier?

[Del Tachi]

Unions

[SingingAnalyst]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're fairly young. I'm 50, but I'm also fairly young in the sense that I was 2 y/o at the time of the 1968 election (and still living in Detroit; my family would not move us to Macomb for another year or two).

In 1968, Macomb was overwhelmingly Catholic and unionized. Many children attended Catholic schools; this was before the ideological divide on "parochiaid" which came two years later in MI (and long before any partisan divide). Macomb families were somewhat isolated from the rest of Republican, mainline Protestant (or Christian or Dutch Reformed) Michigan.

Yes, the 1967 Detroit riot was a shock. But it was over in 12 days. Detroit's WWC areas joined Macomb in voting overwhelmingly for Humphrey: it was seen as the good, union thing to do (and the Dems had not yet been established as the "party of minorities", the 1964 election having been an all-around landslide outside the deep South and especially in MI).

Macomb actually voted 55.2% for Humphrey and just 30.4% for Nixon (with a larger-than-average 14.1% for Wallace).  Similar percentages prevailed throughout WWC Catholic Detroit: Districts 5 and 6, on Detroit's far East side, voted 54/33 and 60/25 for Humphrey over Nixon, respectively.

In the ensuing 4 years everything changed: Blacks were increasingly asserting political power and violent crime was rising. By 1972, Nixon's law and order message resonated (and McGovern's support of busing was a deal killer): Macomb gave McGovern just 35% of the vote, while Districts 5 and 6 gave McGovern just 40% and 45%. These latter areas were near the tipping point: by 2000 Districts 5 and 6 were 95% and 93% for Gore.

The GOP simply did not exist to speak of in Macomb in 1968. The following year, when the Board of County Commissioners was created, it had 25 members-- 24 Dems and 1 Republican.

I hope that helps.

[Don Vito Corleone]

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you're fairly young. I'm 50, but I'm also fairly young in the sense that I was 2 y/o at the time of the 1968 election (and still living in Detroit; my family would not move us to Macomb for another year or two).

In 1968, Macomb was overwhelmingly Catholic and unionized. Many children attended Catholic schools; this was before the ideological divide on "parochiaid" which came two years later in MI (and long before any partisan divide). Macomb families were somewhat isolated from the rest of Republican, mainline Protestant (or Christian or Dutch Reformed) Michigan.

Yes, the 1967 Detroit riot was a shock. But it was over in 12 days. Detroit's WWC areas joined Macomb in voting overwhelmingly for Humphrey: it was seen as the good, union thing to do (and the Dems had not yet been established as the "party of minorities", the 1964 election having been an all-around landslide outside the deep South and especially in MI).

Macomb actually voted 55.2% for Humphrey and just 30.4% for Nixon (with a larger-than-average 14.1% for Wallace).  Similar percentages prevailed throughout WWC Catholic Detroit: Districts 5 and 6, on Detroit's far East side, voted 54/33 and 60/25 for Humphrey over Nixon, respectively.

In the ensuing 4 years everything changed: Blacks were increasingly asserting political power and violent crime was rising. By 1972, Nixon's law and order message resonated (and McGovern's support of busing was a deal killer): Macomb gave McGovern just 35% of the vote, white Districts 5 and 6 gave McGovern just 40% and 45%. These latter areas were near the tipping point: by 2000 Districts 5 and 6 were 95% and 93% for Gore.

The GOP simply did not exist to speak of in Macomb in 1968. The following year, when the Board of County Commissioners was created, it had 25 members-- 24 Dems and 1 Republican.

I hope that helps.

It did help, thank you.