In 1968, former Vice President Richard Nixon, now of New York, Vice President Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, and former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, fight the election down to the wire, with no winner emerging in the Electoral College.
The Vice Presidential candidates are Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland, Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, and General Curtis LeMay of California.
Election night, all states decided
Republican. Richard Nixon/Spiro Agnew 267 EV 43% PV
Democrat, Hubert Humphrey/Edmund Muskie 191 EV 42% PV
American Independent, George Wallace, Curtis LeMay 80 EV 15% PV
Richard Nixon had come so tantalizingly close to realizing his lifelong amibiton of becoming President of the United States, falling a heartbreaking 2 electoral votes short of an outright win in the Electoral College.
Any one state shifting from either Humphrey or Wallace to Nixon would give him the electoral college majority.
Humphrey was declared the winner in Texas and in Maryland, both by very narrow margins, however, not close enough for any realistic chance of Nixon taking over the lead in either of these states.
Of the Wallace states, the former Alabama Governor had tremendous leads in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mssissippi, Alabama, and Georgia. He had smaller, but non contestable leads in North Carolina and South Carolina. It was only in Florida where Wallace was hanging on to a tenuous lead on election night. With all Florida precincts reporting, Wallace was declared the winner in a close three way race in the state, with a lead of 12,964 votes over Nixon, and Nixon was in turn ahead of Humphrey by 9,651 votes.
The Humphrey campaign had nothing to gain from contesting the result in Florida, as they were sitting at only 191 electoral votes anyway, and Florida would not put Humphrey into the lead in any case. Besides, Humphrey was some 23,000 votes behind Wallace, and would not likely be able to overtake the lead, even if he were within striking distance in the Electoral College.
The Nixon campaign, however, had nothing less than the Presidency of the United States to gain with a victory in Florida. They decided to go for a statewide recount right off the mark, not just in heavily Republican counties. Nixon advisers were skeptical, however, that they would be able to come up with an additional 13,000 votes statewide. There were, after all, no major reports of any untoward activities or ballot problems.
Just as had been speculated by the Nixon campaign, the recount failed to put Nixon into the lead. The recount put Nixon up in heavily Republican areas, narrowing the Wallace lead to 10,167 votes, but confirmed the suspicions of the political pros in the Nixon camp, that Wallace had indeed legitimately carried the state of Florida.
The major reason the Nixon campaign hoped for a recount victory in Florida was because of the unusual and uncertain situation which would be facing the new House of Representatives, who would now have the responsibility of deciding who the new President was to be, choosing from between Nixon, Humphrey, and Wallace.
The American Indpendent Party made the decision to run House candidates throughout the south.
In the election for the House of Representatives, the Republicans made major inroads, but the big surprise was the showing of the American Independent Party. The party ended up achieving spectacular, and unexpected, successes in the election for House seats. American Independent candidates for the House were swept into office on George Wallace's coattails.
House seats won by the American Independent Party
Arkansas-3, Louisiana-5, Mississippi-3, Alabama-5, Georgia-6, Florida-4, North Carolina-3, South Carolina-2 for a total of 31 House seats. Even more significantly, in the new House, for purposes of choosing the new President, the American Independent Party of George Wallace controlled 5 state delegations, those of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, thus giving George Wallace and his party tremendous clout and influence in the new House.
The make up of the new of House Representatives stands at Democrat-202, Republican-202, American Independent-31. The American Independent Party now holds the balance of power in the House.
Not only was the situation in the new House building up to be potentially chaotic, but the situation in the new U.S. Senate was as well shaping up to be possibly explosive.
The Republicans, as in the House, made major gains in the Senate, but that was only part of the Senate story.
Not only did the American Independent Party run candidates for the House of Representatives throughout the south, they also ran candidates for the U.S. Senate in all the Senate seats up for election in the south.
The party did not achieve the level of success in the Senate elections as they did in the House elections, however, they did elect 2 Senators, 1 in George Wallace's home state of Alabama. As fortune would have it, long serving Democratic Senator Lister Hill retired and did not seek re-election. The open Senate seat was won by the American Independent Party candidate, Jefferson Davis "Cornbread" Pendleton, a high profile Birmingham attorney, and a former two term Democratic member of the Alabama State Legislature, in a tight race with the Democrat. George Wallace himself took time out from his Presidential campaign to campaign alongside "Cornbread," which is credited for putting him over the top.
In a coup for the party, George Wallace persuaded long serving Arkansas Democrat J. William Fulbright to run for re-election to the Senate on the American Independent Party ticket. This would be Fulbright's last election, as he planned on retiring at the end of this term, so he agreed to run for the American Independent Party, whose platform he endorsed anyway. Fulbright won the seat handily.
The election of 2 American Independent Senators would prove to be crucial as well, as the makeup of the new Senate is now Democrat 49, Republican 49, American Independent 2.
Interesting, possibly chaotic, times, and some history making decisions lie ahead for the 91st Congress.
The nation needs a President and a Vice President.
