Richard Nixon just barely managed to win the 1968 presidential election.
Richard Nixon won Election 1968 in a Republican pickup.
This followed the 1964 Republicans’s outcome, with losing nominee Barry Goldwater, of –22.58 percentage points in the U.S. Popular Vote and carriage of six [06] states. (Goldwater was such an electoral disaster that 25 of the 26 states in the 1960 Republican column for Nixon switched to the 1964 Democratic column to elect Lyndon Johnson to a full term.)
Given the fundamentals of that year, shouldn't he have won a pretty substantial victory?...
1968 Republican presidential pickup winner Richard Nixon, who presided over a realigning presidential election in favor of his party, should have carried not 32 but more in line with 40 states. (I would say the same of 2008 Democratic presidential pickup winner Barack Obama, who carried 28 states plus Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District and District of Columbia, as he too presided over presided over a realigning presidential election in favor of his party.)
With considering the ranked order of states, following the 32 Nixon carried, I will mention the rest leading to 40 states. But I will also do this: None of the states in column for George McGovern will be on my list. McGovern carried where Democrats routinely prevailed back then. If you look at 20th-century examples of candidates outside the two major U.S. political parties who carried at least one state: They carried where Republicans or Democrats normally did.
ELECTION 1968
Richard Nixon (R, pickup winner, with 32 states and an original 302 electoral votes): 33. Texas +25 (for 327 electoral votes)
34. Maryland +10 (for 337 electoral votes)
35. Washington +09 (for 346 electoral votes)
36. Pennsylvania +29 (for 375 electoral votes)
37. Connecticut +08 (for 383 electoral votes)
38. New York +43 (for 426 electoral votes)
39. Michigan +21 (for 447 electoral votes)
40. West Virginia +07 (for 454 electoral votes)
When thinking about 1968—and what a year that was in U.S. history—the losing Democratic nominee and incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey, also with consideration of how his nomination became reality, was lucky he was able to hold onto as much as he did.
