Why did Goldwater do so well in Florida in the 1964 presidential election?

[electionsguy259]

Even as he lost in a landslide nationwide, Barry Goldwater lost the state of Florida by less than 3 percentage points. What aspects of Goldwater's agenda appealed to voters in the Sunshine State? I assume at least part of it was his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which caused him to win several states in the Deep South. However, Goldwater did not seem to catch on in Texas (even accounting for LBJ's native son status), which was a similar Southern state with significant urbanization.

[Alben Barkley]

Wallace also did pretty well in Florida in 1968. Parts of the state, particularly the North/Panhandle, are distinctly "Deep South," and this was even more true back then.

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

Northern Florida is culturally Deep Southern, which is also why it voted for Wallace in 1968

[electionsguy259]

Northern Florida is culturally Deep Southern, which is also why it voted for Wallace in 1968

That is definitely a part of it, but Goldwater even won places like Palm Beach and Broward (!!!) Counties.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Northern Florida is culturally Deep Southern, which is also why it voted for Wallace in 1968

That is definitely a part of it, but Goldwater even won places like Palm Beach and Broward (!!!) Counties.

Palm Beach had pass laws for servants until Doonesbury exposed it in 1986.

[Alben Barkley]

Northern Florida is culturally Deep Southern, which is also why it voted for Wallace in 1968

That is definitely a part of it, but Goldwater even won places like Palm Beach and Broward (!!!) Counties.

Goldwater generally put up some of his best numbers in well-off/suburban/already Republican-leaning, Southern counties like those, which weren't quite what they are today. For example we hadn't quite seen the influx of Northeastern, disproportionately Jewish, people to South Florida yet. Among those who were already there, Goldwater being a man of Jewish descent probably didn't hurt him.

[TML]

In North FL, Goldwater’s success can mostly be explained by civil rights (due to the Democrats’ embrace of civil rights, they lost most southern whites and most southern blacks weren’t able to vote at the time). Elsewhere in the state, places where Goldwater won but have been D-leaning in recent elections were whiter, more conservative, and less diverse back in the 1960s compared to now.

[King of Kensington]

In the 1960s, Palm Beach was still quite WASP; Jews were mostly in Miami Beach.

[Alben Barkley]

Anyone who doubts how "Deep South" Florida was circa 1967 should watch Cool Hand Luke and realize it's set there.

[Cape Verde]

I'm more curious why Orange County (Orlando) was so heavily Republican in the 50s and 60s.

1952: Eisenhower 71, Stevenson 29
1956: Eisenhower 72, Stevenson 28
1960: Nixon 72, Kennedy 28
1964: Goldwater 56, Johnson 44
1968: Nixon 51, Wallace 27, Humphrey 22

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

Partly the same backlash against civil rights that powered him to such overwhelming victories in Alabama and Mississippi and partly also because I imagine that the sorts of transplanted Yankee Republicans living in the state at the time were probably on the more conservative and union hating end of the party and thus more likely to remain loyal to the ticket then say their cousins in New England or the midwest.

[TML]

I'm more curious why Orange County (Orlando) was so heavily Republican in the 50s and 60s.

1952: Eisenhower 71, Stevenson 29
1956: Eisenhower 72, Stevenson 28
1960: Nixon 72, Kennedy 28
1964: Goldwater 56, Johnson 44
1968: Nixon 51, Wallace 27, Humphrey 22

Back then, this county was whiter and less diverse compared to now.

[Vosem]

Besides the Deep South, some of Goldwater's strongest counties were in relatively new and wealthy Sun Belt metropolitan areas; his landslide in Orange County FL can be put in a context where he also won Maricopa and San Diego. Florida ended up being a close state since it had both types of Goldwater voter, although he lost by so much nationally that it didn't end up mattering.

[ReaganLimbaugh]

I have been reading Theodore White's 1972 The Making of the President 1972, and he suggested Orange was one of the most conservative counties in America.....I actually lived there (Winter Park and Maitland) from from 1978-88 and summers of 88 & 89. It was a very traditional minded area. 

Many conservative minded northerners came down to get away from the crime and violence in large cities in the 1960s.

It was effectively separated in most areas where I lived similar to many southern cities at the time. Economically, it did great during the Reagan years which fuel Republicanism moreso. 


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I'm more curious why Orange County (Orlando) was so heavily Republican in the 50s and 60s.

1952: Eisenhower 71, Stevenson 29
1956: Eisenhower 72, Stevenson 28
1960: Nixon 72, Kennedy 28
1964: Goldwater 56, Johnson 44
1968: Nixon 51, Wallace 27, Humphrey 22


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