1968 United States presidential election in Vermont

The 1968 United States presidential election in Vermont took place on November 5, 1968, as part of the 1968 United States presidential election which was held throughout all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1968 United States presidential election in Vermont

November 5, 1968
 
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York[lower-alpha 1] Minnesota
Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 85,142 70,255
Percentage 52.75% 43.53%

County Results

President before election

Lyndon Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

Vermont was won by the Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon of California, and his running mate Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland, defeating incumbent Democratic Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota and his running mate Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine.

Nixon took 52.75% of the vote to Humphrey’s 43.53%, a margin of 9.22%.

The American Independent candidate, Southern populist Governor George Wallace of Alabama, did not have a serious impact on the race. While taking 13.53% nationally and winning electoral votes from 5 Southern states, Wallace would take only 3.16% of the vote in Vermont. Wallace's base of support was in the South, and he had practically no appeal in Northeastern states like Vermont, which would be Wallace’s third weakest state in the nation after Hawaii and Maine.

Vermont historically was a bastion of liberal Northeastern Republicanism, and by 1968 the Green Mountain State had gone Republican in every presidential election since the founding of the Republican Party, except in the Democratic landslide of 1964, when the GOP had nominated staunch conservative Barry Goldwater. Goldwater had lost the 1964 election in a nationwide landslide, but the loss in Vermont was especially severe from a historical perspective. From 1856 to 1960, Vermont had the longest streak of voting Republican of any state, having never voted Democratic before, but in 1964 it rejected Goldwater's conservatism and went Democratic for the first time – and by a landslide 66-33 margin.

In 1968, the GOP sought to recover from their crippling defeat with Goldwater, and the party looked to former Vice President and the party’s narrowly defeated 1960 presidential nominee, Richard Nixon. Nixon was seen as a mainstream moderate Republican who could unite the competing factions of the Republican Party, and win back the moderate voters that Goldwater had alienated. The party recovered successfully and won back the White House, Vermont was returned to the Republican column, and Nixon’s 1968 victory in Vermont established another twenty year winning streak for the GOP in the state. The state would finally flip to the Democrats for good in 1992 after the GOP again embraced a more conservative stance in the 1980s.

As Nixon won a razor-thin victory over Humphrey nationally, Vermont weighed in as about 8% more Republican than the nation. However, with the four other New England states voting for Humphrey, Vermont became one of the two states in the region (the other being neighboring New Hampshire) to vote for Nixon.

Nixon won 12 of the 14 counties in Vermont, losing only 2 counties in the northwestern part of the state. Humphrey won Chittenden County, the most populous county, home to the state's largest city, Burlington, as well as Franklin County. The northwestern 3 counties of Vermont had long been Democratic enclaves in an otherwise Republican state, although in 1968 Nixon was able to win a plurality in tiny Grand Isle County.

Results

1968 United States presidential election in Vermont[1]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Richard Nixon 85,142 52.75% 3
Democratic Hubert H. Humphrey 70,255 43.53% 0
American Independent George Wallace 5,104 3.16% 0
New Party Eugene McCarthy 579 0.36% 0
Socialist Workers Fred Halstead 295 0.18% 0
No party Write-ins 29 0.02% 0
Totals 161,404 100.00% 3
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) 64%/73%

Results by county

County Richard Milhous Nixon

Republican

Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr.

Democratic

George Corley Wallace

American Independent

Other candidates

Various parties

Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Addison 5,006 60.84% 2,914 35.42% 278 3.38% 30 0.36% 8,228
Bennington 5,967 52.27% 4,966 43.50% 401 3.51% 82 0.72% 11,416
Caledonia 4,996 58.88% 3,201 37.73% 250 2.95% 38 0.45% 8,485
Chittenden 14,621 45.34% 16,420 50.91% 1,000 3.10% 209 0.65% 32,250
Essex 1,009 49.83% 952 47.01% 57 2.81% 7 0.35% 2,025
Franklin 5,218 44.67% 6,027 51.60% 398 3.41% 38 0.33% 11,681
Grand Isle 754 48.36% 730 46.82% 73 4.68% 2 0.13% 1,559
Lamoille 2,965 68.04% 1,239 28.43% 140 3.21% 14 0.32% 4,358
Orange 4,135 66.16% 1,879 30.06% 200 3.20% 36 0.58% 6,250
Orleans 4,055 56.97% 2,762 38.80% 269 3.78% 32 0.45% 7,118
Rutland 10,318 51.26% 9,000 44.72% 699 3.47% 110 0.55% 20,127
Washington 9,387 52.62% 7,826 43.87% 497 2.79% 129 0.72% 17,839
Windham 6,916 54.37% 5,353 42.08% 374 2.94% 78 0.61% 12,721
Windsor 9,795 56.47% 6,986 40.27% 468 2.70% 98 0.56% 17,347
Totals85,14252.75%70,25543.53%5,1043.16%9030.56%161,404

See also

References

  1. "1968 Presidential General Election Results - Vermont". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-08-02.

Notes

  1. Although he was born in California and he served as a U.S. Senator from California, in 1968 Richard Nixon’s official state of residence was New York, because he 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.
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