1964 United States presidential election in Wyoming

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1964 United States presidential election in Wyoming

← 1960 November 3, 1964[1] 1968 →
 
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 80,718 61,998
Percentage 56.56% 43.44%

County Results

President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

The 1964 United States presidential election in Wyoming took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. State voters chose three[2] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Wyoming was won by incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, with 56.56% of the popular vote, against the Republican nominee, Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, with 43.44% of the popular vote, representing a margin of victory of 13.2%.[3][4] Johnson's victory was part of a nationwide landslide in which he captured many traditionally Republican states, and Wyoming was no exception. Johnson flipped 11 counties that had voted for Richard Nixon in 1960, those being: Albany, Platte, Goshen, Natrona, Fremont, Hot Springs, Uinta, Lincoln, Park, Big Horn, & Sheridan. Goldwater's performance in the state was the worst for a Republican since Alf Landon in 1936.

Johnson enjoyed bipartisan support due to sympathy over the Assassination of his predecessor John F. Kennedy in 1963, along with support for many of his programs such as The Great Society, which aimed to eliminate poverty in America, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial discrimination. Goldwater, a believer in free markets and low taxes, famously opposed both of these programs, and suggested making social security voluntary, which cost him a great deal of support among moderates - including Republicans - who viewed him as too conservative. Nelson Rockefeller and George W. Romney, the governors of New York and Michigan respectively, refused to endorse Goldwater. He did receive some support from Nixon and former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, however the former wanted to see much of Goldwater's agenda struck down, while Eisenhower's support was limited to a single commercial, as he never fully forgave the Arizona Senator for calling many of his biggest accomplishments as President such as the Interstate Highway System "a dime store New Deal.[5] Democrats successfully portrayed him as an extremist, most famously with the Daisy Television Ad. With Johnson's victory, Democrat Gale W. McGee held his Senate seat and Democrats flipped the state's sole congressional seat. They even managed to regain control of the Wyoming House of Representatives and got within a single seat of capturing the State Senate, an astounding achievement in a state that political pundits had written off in the years prior as "too red"[6]

Despite his stunning defeat, Goldwater's campaign began a long term political realignment in American politics, with conservatives beginning to sway towards the Republican Party, ultimately culminating in the 1980 presidential victory of Ronald Reagan, who had supported Goldwater in 1964, famously giving a speech on his behalf titled "A Time For Choosing", which raised over $1 million for the Republican nominee's campaign,[7] and launching Reagan into the national political spotlight. Additionally, many Northeastern liberals who had previously favored the Republicans began to move towards the Democrats, which would ultimately flip the Northeast blue in 1992.

As of the 2020 presidential election, this was the last time a Democratic presidential nominee has carried the state of Wyoming – in fact no Democrat has since reached forty percent of the state's vote. It is also the last occasion that Laramie County (home of Cheyenne, the state's largest city), Fremont County, Sheridan County, Park County, Uinta County, Lincoln County, Goshen County, Big Horn County, Platte County, or Hot Springs County have voted for a Democratic Presidential nominee.[8] This is also the last time that Teton County voted for the Republican candidate while the state as a whole voted for the Democrat.

Results[edit]

1964 United States presidential election in Wyoming
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Lyndon B. Johnson (inc.) 80,718 56.56%
Republican Barry Goldwater 61,998 43.44%
Total votes 142,716 100.00%

Results by county[edit]

County Lyndon Baines Johnson
Democratic
Barry Morris Goldwater
Republican
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # %
Albany 6,019 67.31% 2,923 32.69% 3,096 34.62% 8,942
Big Horn 2,690 50.21% 2,668 49.79% 22 0.42% 5,358
Campbell 1,196 42.68% 1,606 57.32% -410 -14.64% 2,802
Carbon 4,322 66.68% 2,160 33.32% 2,162 33.36% 6,482
Converse 1,250 44.50% 1,559 55.50% -309 -11.00% 2,809
Crook 780 39.12% 1,214 60.88% -434 -21.76% 1,994
Fremont 5,985 55.45% 4,809 44.55% 1,176 10.90% 10,794
Goshen 2,749 51.35% 2,604 48.65% 145 2.70% 5,353
Hot Springs 1,380 52.91% 1,228 47.09% 152 5.82% 2,608
Johnson 852 34.19% 1,640 65.81% -788 -31.62% 2,492
Laramie 16,059 65.22% 8,563 34.78% 7,496 30.44% 24,622
Lincoln 2,273 55.66% 1,811 44.34% 462 11.32% 4,084
Natrona 11,167 52.42% 10,135 47.58% 1,032 4.84% 21,302
Niobrara 843 42.90% 1,122 57.10% -279 -14.20% 1,965
Park 3,745 50.32% 3,698 49.68% 47 0.64% 7,443
Platte 1,890 56.25% 1,470 43.75% 420 12.50% 3,360
Sheridan 4,747 51.39% 4,491 48.61% 256 2.78% 9,238
Sublette 791 46.78% 900 53.22% -109 -6.44% 1,691
Sweetwater 5,969 75.43% 1,944 24.57% 4,025 50.86% 7,913
Teton 968 47.24% 1,081 52.76% -113 -5.52% 2,049
Uinta 1,929 61.93% 1,186 38.07% 743 23.86% 3,115
Washakie 1,695 49.74% 1,713 50.26% -18 -0.52% 3,408
Weston 1,419 49.07% 1,473 50.93% -54 -1.86% 2,892
Totals 80,718 56.56% 61,998 43.44% 18,720 13.12% 142,716
County flips from 1960:

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "United States Presidential election of 1964 – Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  2. ^ "1964 Election for the Forty-Fifth Term (1965-69)". Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  3. ^ "1964 Presidential General Election Results – Wyoming". Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  4. ^ "The American Presidency Project – Election of 1964". Retrieved May 30, 2017.
  5. ^ "The Living Room Candidate – Commercials – 1964 – Social Security".
  6. ^ Hinckley, John T. (January 22, 1965). "The 1964 Election in Wyoming". The Western Political Quarterly. 18 (2): 523–526. doi:10.2307/445300. JSTOR 445300.
  7. ^ Cannon, Lou (June 6, 2004). "Actor, Governor, President, Icon". The Washington Post. p. A01.
  8. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016