The 1968 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. Voters chose 43 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.
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Turnout | 59.7%[1] 4.7 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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County results
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New York was won by incumbent Democratic vice president Hubert Humphrey, defeating Republican former vice president Richard Nixon by a margin of 5.46 percentage points and more than 370,000 votes. Maine Senator Edmund Muskie was Humphrey's vice-presidential running mate, while Nixon’s running mate was Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew.
Humphrey took 49.76% of the vote to Nixon's 44.30% in New York, while former Alabama Governor George Wallace won 5.29% as the nominee of the American Independent Party. Wallace ran a segregationist and right-wing populist campaign which failed to gain much traction in the Northeast. Wallace did best in suburban and exurban counties, as well as in the New York City borough of Staten Island. Wallace's stances were popular with voters who resented race riots, the increasing influence of African-Americans in the national Democratic Party, and the counterculture, but were anathema to voters in the inner cities and most of Upstate New York.[3]
New York weighed in for this election as 7% more Democratic than the nation. Almost six percent of the electorate voted for third parties, mainly the American Independent Party.[4] In typical form for the time, the major cities of New York City, Buffalo, Albany, Schenectady, and Niagara Falls voted Democratic, while the smaller counties in New York mainly turned out for Nixon as the Republican candidate. Nixon thus became the first Republican to win the White House without carrying Erie County since Abraham Lincoln in 1864, the first to do so without carrying Niagara or Schenectady Counties since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, as well as the first to do so without carrying Albany or Queens Counties since Herbert Hoover in 1928.
Despite Nixon winning most of the state's counties, Humphrey’s landslide margin in New York City — receiving 60.6% of the vote in the five boroughs to Nixon's 33.9%, and losing only Staten Island to Nixon — provided him with enough raw votes for a statewide victory. Humphrey was seen by many as promising to continue the legacy of president Lyndon B. Johnson,[5] and this garnered him strong support from liberal voters across America.
This was the first time since Samuel J. Tilden won the state in 1876 that New York voted for a losing Democratic candidate. As of 2020[update], this remains the last time that New York had the largest number of electoral votes in the nation, as California would overtake it after the 1970 census.[6] Nixon is one of four presidents to win the presidency while losing his home state (the others being James K. Polk with Tennessee in 1844, Woodrow Wilson with New Jersey in 1916, and Donald Trump with New York in 2016).
Eldridge Cleaver, the presidential nominee for the Peace and Freedom Party was not listed on the ballot in New York as he was found in court to have been underage for president as Cleaver was 33 and that "he had failed to file a proper acceptance of the nomination".[7]
Results
edit1968 United States presidential election in New York | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
Democratic | Hubert Humphrey | 3,066,848 | 45.17% | ||
Liberal | Hubert Humphrey | 311,622 | 4.59% | ||
Total | Hubert Humphrey | 3,378,470 | 49.76% | 43 | |
Republican | Richard Nixon | 3,007,932 | 44.30% | 0 | |
Courage[b] | George Wallace | 358,864 | 5.29% | 0 | |
Peace and Freedom | Dick Gregory | 24,517 | 0.36% | 0 | |
Socialist Workers | Fred Halstead | 11,851 | 0.17% | 0 | |
Socialist Labor | Henning Blomen | 8,432 | 0.12% | 0 | |
Totals | 6,790,066 | 100.0% | 43 |
New York City results
edit1968 presidential election in New York City | Manhattan | The Bronx | Brooklyn | Queens | Staten Island | Total | |||
Democratic- Liberal |
Hubert Humphrey | 370,806 | 277,385 | 489,174 | 410,546 | 34,770 | 1,582,681 | 60.56% | |
70.04% | 62.40% | 63.12% | 53.60% | 35.18% | |||||
Republican | Richard Nixon | 135,458 | 142,314 | 247,936 | 306,620 | 54,631 | 886,959 | 33.94% | |
25.59% | 32.02% | 31.99% | 40.03% | 55.28% | |||||
Courage | George Wallace | 12,958 | 21,950 | 33,563 | 44,198 | 9,112 | 121,781 | 4.66% | |
2.45% | 4.94% | 4.33% | 5.77% | 9.22% | |||||
Peace and Freedom | Dick Gregory | 8,610 | 1,767 | 2,857 | 3,104 | 123 | 16,461 | 0.63% | |
1.63% | 0.40% | 0.37% | 0.41% | 0.12% | |||||
Socialist Labor | Henning A. Blomen | 818 | 836 | 1,039 | 1,091 | 164 | 3,948 | 0.15% | |
0.15% | 0.19% | 0.13% | 0.14% | 0.17% | |||||
Socialist Workers | Fred Halstead | 742 | 265 | 400 | 353 | 24 | 1,784 | 0.07% | |
0.14% | 0.06% | 0.05% | 0.05% | 0.02% | |||||
TOTAL | 529,392 | 444,517 | 774,969 | 765,912 | 98,824 | 2,613,614 | 100.00% |
Results by county
editCounty | Hubert Humphrey Democratic |
Richard Nixon Republican |
George Wallace Courage |
Dick Gregory[8] Peace and Freedom |
Various candidates[8] Other parties |
Margin | Total votes cast | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
# | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
Albany | 80,724 | 57.93% | 52,948 | 38.00% | 5,025 | 3.61% | 189 | 0.14% | 508 | 0.36% | 27,776 | 19.93% | 139,351 |
Allegany | 4,986 | 29.08% | 11,222 | 65.45% | 851 | 4.96% | 22 | 0.13% | 75 | 0.44% | −6,236 | −36.37% | 17,145 |
Bronx | 277,385 | 62.40% | 142,314 | 32.02% | 21,950 | 4.94% | 1,767 | 0.40% | 1,116 | 0.25% | 135,071 | 30.38% | 444,517 |
Broome | 37,451 | 41.93% | 46,872 | 52.48% | 4,618 | 5.17% | 110 | 0.12% | 321 | 0.36% | −9,421 | −10.55% | 89,311 |
Cattaraugus | 12,733 | 40.88% | 16,594 | 53.27% | 1,674 | 5.37% | 31 | 0.10% | 125 | 0.40% | −3,861 | −12.39% | 31,148 |
Cayuga | 14,604 | 44.71% | 16,167 | 49.49% | 1,826 | 5.59% | 20 | 0.06% | 53 | 0.16% | −1,563 | −4.78% | 32,666 |
Chautauqua | 26,431 | 45.18% | 28,561 | 48.82% | 3,273 | 5.59% | 47 | 0.08% | 195 | 0.33% | −2,130 | −3.64% | 58,507 |
Chemung | 15,820 | 40.00% | 20,693 | 52.32% | 2,807 | 7.10% | 35 | 0.09% | 198 | 0.50% | −4,873 | −12.32% | 39,553 |
Chenango | 5,706 | 30.92% | 11,785 | 63.86% | 887 | 4.81% | 12 | 0.07% | 65 | 0.35% | −6,079 | −32.94% | 18,455 |
Clinton | 10,153 | 43.82% | 11,951 | 51.58% | 931 | 4.02% | 28 | 0.12% | 113 | 0.49% | −1,798 | −7.76% | 23,168 |
Columbia | 7,762 | 33.62% | 13,857 | 60.03% | 1,372 | 5.94% | 41 | 0.18% | 54 | 0.23% | −6,095 | −26.41% | 23,085 |
Cortland | 5,791 | 34.47% | 10,209 | 60.76% | 720 | 4.29% | 31 | 0.18% | 67 | 0.40% | −4,418 | −26.29% | 16,801 |
Delaware | 5,360 | 28.36% | 12,366 | 65.44% | 1,121 | 5.93% | 18 | 0.10% | 33 | 0.17% | −7,006 | −37.08% | 18,898 |
Dutchess | 31,025 | 37.80% | 45,032 | 54.87% | 5,662 | 6.90% | 214 | 0.26% | 189 | 0.23% | −14,007 | −17.07% | 82,067 |
Erie | 250,054 | 55.18% | 167,853 | 37.04% | 33,402 | 7.37% | 679 | 0.15% | 1,283 | 0.28% | 82,201 | 18.14% | 453,165 |
Essex | 5,218 | 33.98% | 9,377 | 61.07% | 701 | 4.57% | 15 | 0.10% | 50 | 0.33% | −4,159 | −27.09% | 15,355 |
Franklin | 6,678 | 42.80% | 8,314 | 53.29% | 544 | 3.49% | 9 | 0.06% | 59 | 0.38% | −1,636 | −10.49% | 15,602 |
Fulton | 8,871 | 40.66% | 11,895 | 54.52% | 989 | 4.53% | 20 | 0.09% | 43 | 0.20% | −3,024 | −13.86% | 21,818 |
Genesee | 9,533 | 41.18% | 12,418 | 53.64% | 1,141 | 4.93% | 9 | 0.04% | 49 | 0.21% | −2,885 | −12.46% | 23,150 |
Greene | 5,499 | 30.56% | 10,954 | 60.87% | 1,421 | 7.90% | 20 | 0.11% | 127 | 0.70% | −5,455 | −30.31% | 17,997 |
Hamilton | 762 | 24.96% | 2,123 | 69.54% | 163 | 5.34% | 1 | 0.03% | 4 | 0.13% | −1,361 | −44.58% | 3,053 |
Herkimer | 10,940 | 39.54% | 15,192 | 54.91% | 1,455 | 5.26% | 15 | 0.05% | 75 | 0.27% | −4,252 | −15.37% | 27,665 |
Jefferson | 13,438 | 40.59% | 18,552 | 56.03% | 1,016 | 3.07% | 17 | 0.05% | 100 | 0.30% | −5,114 | −15.44% | 33,109 |
Kings | 489,174 | 63.12% | 247,936 | 31.99% | 33,563 | 4.33% | 2,857 | 0.37% | 1,537 | 0.20% | 241,238 | 31.13% | 774,969 |
Lewis | 3,205 | 34.91% | 5,524 | 60.17% | 430 | 4.68% | 5 | 0.05% | 19 | 0.21% | −2,319 | −25.26% | 9,180 |
Livingston | 6,989 | 35.82% | 11,659 | 59.75% | 775 | 3.97% | 24 | 0.12% | 66 | 0.34% | −4,670 | −23.93% | 19,513 |
Madison | 7,056 | 32.06% | 13,819 | 62.79% | 1,053 | 4.78% | 14 | 0.06% | 68 | 0.31% | −6,763 | −30.73% | 22,010 |
Monroe | 141,437 | 47.66% | 143,233 | 48.27% | 10,875 | 3.66% | 446 | 0.15% | 764 | 0.26% | −1,796 | −0.61% | 296,755 |
Montgomery | 11,449 | 45.33% | 12,566 | 49.75% | 1,147 | 4.54% | 24 | 0.10% | 71 | 0.28% | −1,117 | −4.42% | 25,257 |
Nassau | 278,599 | 43.31% | 329,792 | 51.27% | 30,860 | 4.80% | 2,107 | 0.33% | 2,224 | 0.35% | −51,193 | −7.96% | 643,195 |
New York | 370,806 | 70.04% | 135,458 | 25.59% | 12,958 | 2.45% | 8,610 | 1.63% | 1,632 | 0.31% | 235,348 | 44.45% | 529,392 |
Niagara | 41,999 | 47.77% | 38,796 | 44.12% | 6,617 | 7.53% | 59 | 0.07% | 454 | 0.52% | 3,203 | 3.65% | 87,925 |
Oneida | 44,685 | 43.07% | 52,875 | 50.96% | 5,666 | 5.46% | 75 | 0.07% | 460 | 0.44% | −8,190 | −7.89% | 103,761 |
Onondaga | 83,576 | 44.02% | 95,806 | 50.46% | 9,459 | 4.98% | 272 | 0.14% | 767 | 0.40% | −12,230 | −6.44% | 189,865 |
Ontario | 11,719 | 38.94% | 17,114 | 56.86% | 1,180 | 3.92% | 28 | 0.09% | 57 | 0.19% | −5,395 | −17.92% | 30,098 |
Orange | 28,122 | 35.09% | 44,955 | 56.09% | 6,473 | 8.08% | 129 | 0.16% | 502 | 0.63% | −16,833 | −21.00% | 80,149 |
Orleans | 4,786 | 34.13% | 8,509 | 60.67% | 696 | 4.96% | 6 | 0.04% | 35 | 0.25% | −3,723 | −26.54% | 14,024 |
Oswego | 14,636 | 39.72% | 20,041 | 54.39% | 1,962 | 5.33% | 39 | 0.11% | 167 | 0.45% | −5,405 | −14.67% | 36,845 |
Otsego | 7,981 | 35.16% | 13,543 | 59.67% | 1,091 | 4.81% | 44 | 0.19% | 49 | 0.22% | −5,562 | −24.51% | 22,696 |
Putnam | 8,472 | 34.84% | 13,293 | 54.67% | 2,388 | 9.82% | 45 | 0.18% | 129 | 0.53% | −4,821 | −19.83% | 24,314 |
Queens | 410,546 | 53.60% | 306,620 | 40.03% | 44,198 | 5.77% | 3,104 | 0.41% | 1,544 | 0.20% | 103,926 | 13.57% | 765,912 |
Rensselaer | 30,232 | 44.02% | 34,674 | 50.49% | 3,461 | 5.04% | 53 | 0.08% | 261 | 0.38% | −4,442 | −6.47% | 68,681 |
Richmond | 34,770 | 35.18% | 54,631 | 55.28% | 9,112 | 9.22% | 123 | 0.12% | 202 | 0.20% | −19,861 | −20.10% | 98,824 |
Rockland | 36,948 | 44.35% | 40,880 | 49.07% | 5,028 | 6.04% | 303 | 0.36% | 178 | 0.21% | −3,932 | −4.72% | 83,307 |
St. Lawrence | 15,662 | 41.29% | 20,982 | 55.31% | 1,178 | 3.11% | 52 | 0.14% | 63 | 0.17% | −5,320 | −14.02% | 37,933 |
Saratoga | 17,766 | 38.69% | 25,658 | 55.87% | 2,220 | 4.83% | 36 | 0.08% | 255 | 0.56% | −7,892 | −17.18% | 45,922 |
Schenectady | 34,786 | 48.31% | 33,687 | 46.79% | 3,246 | 4.51% | 86 | 0.12% | 247 | 0.34% | 1,099 | 1.52% | 72,002 |
Schoharie | 3,883 | 36.03% | 6,166 | 57.21% | 689 | 6.39% | 12 | 0.11% | 27 | 0.25% | −2,283 | −21.18% | 10,777 |
Schuyler | 2,034 | 30.38% | 4,105 | 61.31% | 522 | 7.80% | 8 | 0.12% | 27 | 0.40% | −2,071 | −30.93% | 6,696 |
Seneca | 5,222 | 40.15% | 7,083 | 54.46% | 635 | 4.88% | 17 | 0.13% | 51 | 0.39% | −1,861 | −14.31% | 13,005 |
Steuben | 12,229 | 31.61% | 24,189 | 62.52% | 2,194 | 5.67% | 20 | 0.05% | 58 | 0.15% | −11,960 | −30.91% | 38,690 |
Suffolk | 122,590 | 32.71% | 218,027 | 58.18% | 31,304 | 8.35% | 776 | 0.21% | 2,178 | 0.58% | −95,437 | −25.47% | 374,767 |
Sullivan | 10,860 | 44.88% | 11,657 | 48.17% | 1,487 | 6.15% | 56 | 0.23% | 138 | 0.57% | −797 | −3.29% | 24,198 |
Tioga | 5,336 | 31.47% | 10,441 | 61.58% | 1,127 | 6.65% | 9 | 0.05% | 43 | 0.25% | −5,105 | −30.11% | 16,956 |
Tompkins | 10,343 | 40.97% | 13,446 | 53.26% | 1,236 | 4.90% | 161 | 0.64% | 124 | 0.49% | −3,103 | −12.29% | 25,248 |
Ulster | 20,886 | 34.59% | 34,798 | 57.62% | 4,183 | 6.93% | 191 | 0.32% | 394 | 0.65% | −13,912 | −23.03% | 60,387 |
Warren | 6,460 | 31.85% | 12,963 | 63.92% | 807 | 3.98% | 15 | 0.07% | 35 | 0.17% | −6,503 | −32.07% | 20,280 |
Washington | 6,806 | 33.09% | 12,694 | 61.71% | 930 | 4.52% | 17 | 0.08% | 123 | 0.60% | −5,888 | −28.62% | 20,569 |
Wayne | 8,907 | 32.17% | 17,470 | 63.09% | 1,211 | 4.37% | 14 | 0.05% | 93 | 0.34% | −8,563 | −30.92% | 27,689 |
Westchester | 173,954 | 43.40% | 201,652 | 50.31% | 22,115 | 5.52% | 1,318 | 0.33% | 1,906 | 0.48% | −27,698 | −6.91% | 400,807 |
Wyoming | 4,477 | 32.52% | 8,459 | 61.45% | 799 | 5.80% | 5 | 0.04% | 25 | 0.18% | −3,982 | −28.93% | 13,765 |
Yates | 2,158 | 26.59% | 5,482 | 67.54% | 440 | 5.42% | 7 | 0.09% | 30 | 0.37% | −3,324 | −40.95% | 8,117 |
Totals | 3,378,470 | 49.76% | 3,007,932 | 44.30% | 358,864 | 5.29% | 24,517 | 0.36% | 20,283 | 0.30% | 370,538 | 5.46% | 6,790,066 |
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
edit- Allegany
- Broome
- Cattaraugus
- Cayuga
- Chautauqua
- Chemung
- Chenango
- Clinton
- Columbia
- Cortland
- Delaware
- Dutchess
- Essex
- Franklin
- Fulton
- Genesee
- Greene
- Hamilton
- Herkimer
- Jefferson
- Lewis
- Livingston
- Madison
- Monroe
- Montgomery
- Nassau
- Onondaga
- Oneida
- Ontario
- Orange
- Orleans
- Oswego
- Otsego
- Putnam
- Rensselaer
- Richmond (Staten Island, borough of New York City)
- Rockland
- St. Lawrence
- Saratoga
- Schoharie
- Schuyler
- Seneca
- Steuben
- Suffolk
- Sullivan
- Tioga
- Tompkins
- Ulster
- Warren
- Washington
- Wayne
- Westchester
- Wyoming
- Yates
Results by congressional district
editResults are grouped by the percentage of the popular vote nationally in that order. The candidates are listed by the percentage of the vote won in that respective district.[9]
District[9] | Nixon | Humphrey | Wallace |
---|---|---|---|
1st | 58% | 33% | 9% |
2nd | 56.2% | 37% | 6.8% |
3rd | 48.9% | 47.2% | 3.9% |
4th | 53% | 42.1% | 5% |
5th | 51.3% | 43.6% | 5.1% |
6th | 45.6% | 49% | 3.4% |
7th | 33.7% | 60.6% | 5.7% |
8th | 40.3% | 54.2% | 5.5% |
9th | 48.2% | 43.2% | 7.9% |
10th | 29% | 67.9% | 3.2% |
11th | 32.7% | 62.5% | 4.8% |
12th | 17.5% | 79.5% | 3% |
13rd | 26.8% | 70% | 3.2% |
14th | 33.8% | 59.8% | 6.4% |
15th | 50.7% | 42% | 7.3% |
16th | 57.2% | 35.8% | 7% |
17th | 38.3% | 59.3% | 2.4% |
18th | 9.5% | 89.9% | 0.6% |
19th | 26.6% | 69.4% | 3.9% |
20th | 24.5% | 72.5% | 4.81% |
21st | 25.7% | 70% | 4.4% |
22nd | 30.5% | 64.4% | 5.1% |
23rd | 26.8% | 69.2% | 4% |
24th | 46.9% | 45.7% | 7.4% |
25th | 52% | 41.8% | 6.2% |
26th | 50.9% | 44.7% | 4.4% |
27th | 51.4% | 41.2% | 7.3% |
28th | 58.2% | 35.5% | 6.3% |
29th | 42.3% | 53.8% | 3.9% |
30th | 50.1% | 45.6% | 4.4% |
31st | 54% | 41.5% | 4.5% |
32nd | 51.6% | 43.3% | 5.1% |
33rd | 52.3% | 42.1% | 5.6% |
34th | 51.5% | 43.5% | 4.9% |
35th | 54.3% | 41% | 4.7% |
36th | 49.3% | 47.2% | 3.5% |
37th | 48.7% | 46.7% | 4.6% |
38th | 53.3% | 41% | 5.7% |
39th | 41.6% | 51.3% | 7.1% |
40th | 42.8% | 50.4% | 6.8% |
41st | 20% | 72.6% | 7.4% |
See also
editNotes
edit- ^ Although he was born in California and he served as a U.S. Representative and Senator from California, in 1968 Richard Nixon's official state of residence was New York, having moved there to practice law after his defeat in the 1962 California gubernatorial election. During his first term as president, Nixon re-established his residency in California. Consequently, most reliable reference books list Nixon's home state as New York in the 1968 election and his home state as California in the 1972 (and 1960) election.
- ^ a b New York law forbids the use of the word "American" in a party's name, and so the American Independent Party was named as the "Courage Party" on the ballot in New York State.[2]
References
edit- ^ Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.
- ^ "Courage Party in State Wants Wallace on Ballot". The New York Times. June 18, 1972. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
- ^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 10.
- ^ "1968 Presidential General Election Results — New York". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved January 9, 2018.
- ^ Lewis L. Gould (2010). 1968: The Election That Changed America. Government Institutes. pp. 16–18.
- ^ "New York — CountingTheVotes.com". January 6, 2017. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Cleaver Loses Appeal To Get on State Ballot". The New York Times. Associated Press. October 18, 1968. p. 21 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b "NY US President Race, November 05, 1968". Our Campaigns.
- ^ a b "1968 United States Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District". Retrieved October 9, 2023.