From March to July 1968, Democratic Party voters elected delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the purpose of selecting the party's nominee for president in the upcoming election. Delegates, and the nominee they were to support at the convention, were selected through a series of primary elections, caucuses, and state party conventions. This was the last time that state primary elections formed a minority (12 states) of the selection process, as the McGovern–Fraser Commission, which issued its recommendations in time for the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries, would dramatically reform the nomination process to expand the use of popular primaries rather than caucuses.
After an inconclusive and tumultuous campaign focused on the Vietnam War and marred by the June assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey was nominated at the 1968 Democratic National Convention held from August 26 to August 29, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois.
The campaign for the nomination began with incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson expected to win re-nomination for a second consecutive election, despite low approval ratings following the Tet Offensive in January 1968. His only significant challenger was Eugene McCarthy, an anti-war Senator from Minnesota. After McCarthy nearly won the New Hampshire primary on March 12, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, another critic of the war and the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, entered the race on March 16. On March 31, Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election. In April, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey joined the race as the establishment candidate; he did not criticize the administration's conduct of the war and avoided the popular contests for delegates.
McCarthy and Kennedy traded primary victories while Humphrey collected delegates through the closed caucus and convention systems in place in most states. Many other delegates were selected without a formal commitment to support any particular candidate. The race was upended on June 5, the night of the California and South Dakota primaries. Both races went for Kennedy, but he was assassinated after his victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel. At the moment of his assassination, Kennedy trailed Humphrey in the pledged delegate count with McCarthy third. Without any obligation to vote for any candidate, most Kennedy delegates backed Humphrey over McCarthy or fell behind Kennedy supporter George McGovern.
At the convention, Humphrey secured the nomination easily despite anti-war riots outside the convention center; he went on to lose the presidential election narrowly to Richard Nixon. Humphrey would be the last Democratic nominee to be nominated despite not actively campaigning in the primaries until Kamala Harris in the 2024 United States presidential election.
In 1960, John F. Kennedy won the Democratic nomination over Lyndon B. Johnson. After he secured the nomination at the party convention, Kennedy offered Johnson the vice presidential nomination; the offer was a surprise, and some Kennedy supporters claimed that the nominee expected Johnson to decline. Robert F. Kennedy, the nominee's brother and campaign manager, reportedly went to Johnson's hotel suite to dissuade Johnson from accepting.[1] Johnson accepted, and the Kennedy-Johnson ticket was narrowly elected, but the 1960 campaign intensified the personal enmity between Robert F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, which dated to as early as 1953. President Kennedy named his brother to his cabinet as United States Attorney General.
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963; Johnson succeeded him with tremendous national popularity amid a wave of mourning and sympathy. Robert Kennedy remained in the cabinet for several months, creating what Johnson staffers began to refer to as "the Bobby problem": despite the personal hatred between the two, Democratic voters overwhelmingly favored Kennedy as Johnson's running mate in the 1964 election.[2] Kennedy began to plan for a nationwide campaign,[3] and in the informal New Hampshire vice-presidential primary, Kennedy defeated Hubert H. Humphrey in a landslide.[4]
In July 1964, Johnson issued an official statement ruling out any cabinet member for the vice presidency.[5] In search of a way out of the dilemma, Kennedy asked speechwriter Milton Gwirtzman to write a memo comparing two offices: 1) governor of Massachusetts and 2) U.S. senator from New York, and "which would be a better place from which to make a run for the presidency in future years?"[6] In September, Kennedy resigned as attorney general, and ran for and won election to the U.S. Senate.[7] Johnson was elected in a landslide.
United States involvement in the Vietnam War began shortly after the end of World War II. Beginning in 1964, President Johnson dramatically escalated American military presence after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. On the recommendation of General William C. Westmoreland, whom Johnson had appointed to command American troops in Vietnam, U.S. manpower in Southeast Asia expanded from 16,000 in 1964 to more than 553,000 by 1969.
As U.S. involvement escalated throughout 1964 to 1966, protests against the war escalated in proportion. Several anti-war groups were founded or expanded during the period.
Amid criticism of U.S. handling of the war from both parties, President Johnson's approval rating sank from a high above 70 percent to below 40 percent by the 1966 midterm elections. The Democratic Party had already begun to split between anti-war "doves" and pro-war "hawks," and the Republican Party gained dozens of seats in Congress.
As opposition grew in 1967, anti-war Democrats led by Allard Lowenstein and Curtis Gans formed the Dump Johnson movement, which sought to challenge the President's re-election. Their first choice was Robert Kennedy, who had sufficiently established himself as a critic of the war and an effective popular campaigner. He declined, as did a series of lesser-known candidates, including Senator George McGovern. Lowenstein finally found a candidate in October 1967, when Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy agreed to challenge the President. At first, McCarthy merely expressed his interest, telling Lowenstein, "Somebody has to raise the flag."[8][9] On November 30, 1967, McCarthy publicly announced his campaign for the nomination.
Kennedy continued to demur, despite pressure from his aides to enter the race and worry that anti-war allies, like George McGovern, would begin to make commitments to McCarthy.[10] On January 30, he again indicated to the press that he had no plans to campaign against Johnson.[11]
In early February 1968, after the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, Kennedy received an anguished letter from writer Pete Hamill, noting that poor people in the Watts area of Los Angeles had hung pictures of Kennedy's brother, President John F. Kennedy, in their homes. Hamill's letter reminded Robert Kennedy that he had an "obligation of staying true to whatever it was that put those pictures on those walls."[12] There were other factors that influenced Kennedy's decision to enter the presidential primary race. On February 29, 1968, the Kerner Commission issued a report on the racial unrest that had affected American cities during the previous summer. The Kerner Commission blamed "white racism" for the violence, but its findings were largely dismissed by the Johnson administration.[12]
On March 10, Kennedy told his aide, Peter Edelman, that he had decided to run and had to "figure out how to get McCarthy out of it."[13][14] However, Kennedy hesitated to enter the race with McCarthy still in and agreed to McCarthy's request to delay an announcement of his intentions until after the New Hampshire primary.[13]
The following political leaders were candidates for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination:
These candidates participated in multiple state primaries or were included in multiple major national polls.
The following candidates ran only in their home state or district's primary or caucuses for the purpose of controlling its delegate slate at the convention and did not appear to be considered national candidates by the media.
The following persons were listed in two or more major national polls or were the subject of media speculation surrounding their potential candidacy, but declined to actively seek the nomination.
Running as an antiwar candidate in the New Hampshire presidential primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Trailing badly in national polls and with little chance to influence delegate selection absent primary wins, McCarthy decided to pour most of his resources into New Hampshire, the first state to hold a primary election. He was boosted by thousands of young college students who volunteered throughout the state, who shaved their beards and cut their hair to "Get Clean for Gene."
On March 12, McCarthy was the only person on the ballot, as Johnson had not filed, and was only a write in candidate. McCarthy won 42% of the primary vote to Johnson's 50%, an extremely strong showing for such a challenger which gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum.[16] In addition, McCarthy's superior coordination led to a near sweep of the state's twenty-four pledged delegates; since Johnson had no formal campaign organization in the state, a number of competing pro-Johnson delegate candidates split his vote, allowing McCarthy to take twenty delegates.
Despite his desire to oppose Johnson directly and the fear that McCarthy would split the anti-war vote, Kennedy pushed forward with his planned campaign. On March 16, Kennedy declared, "I am today announcing my candidacy for the presidency of the United States. I do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can."[17] However, due to his late entry, Kennedy's name would not appear on a state ballot until the Indiana primary on May 7.
Johnson now had two strong challengers, sitting members of the Senate with demonstrated popularity. To make matters worse, polling in Wisconsin showed McCarthy beating Johnson badly, with the latter getting only 12% of the vote.[18] Facing declining health and bleak political forecasts in the upcoming primaries,[19] Johnson concluded that he could not win the nomination without a major political and personal struggle. On March 31, 1968, at the end of a televised address on Vietnam, he shocked the nation by announcing that he would not seek re-election. By withdrawing, he could avoid the stigma of defeat and could keep control of the party machinery to support Vice President Hubert Humphrey. As the year developed, it also became clear that Johnson believed he could secure his place in the history books by ending the war before the election in November, which would give Humphrey the boost he would need to win.[20][21][22]
After Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy on April 27.[23] Humphrey's campaign concentrated on winning the delegates in non-primary states, where party leaders controlled the delegate votes. Humphrey did not compete in the primaries, leaving favorite sons to win delegates as surrogates, notably Senator George A. Smathers from Florida, Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio, and Indiana Governor Roger D. Branigin.
The Wisconsin primary on April 2 was effectively uncontested. McCarthy received 56% of the vote. Kennedy received 6% as a write-in candidate. Kennedy was ineligible for the ballot because he entered the race following the filing deadline.[24] The Pennsylvania primary on April 23 was similarly a rout for McCarthy, who took 71% of the vote.[25]
In the Massachusetts primary on April 30 neither Humphrey nor Kennedy were formally listed on the ballot. As a result, McCarthy won the popular vote easily, and by the rules in place at the time, all 72 of the commonwealth's delegates were pledged to him on the first ballot. Some analysts viewed Humphrey's unexpectedly strong showing (44,156 write-in votes, or 18% of the total) as a clear victory over Kennedy, a Brookline, Massachusetts native, who polled a meager 28% write-in vote in his family's home state.[26]
On March 27, 1968, Kennedy announced his intention to run against McCarthy in the Indiana primary, although aides told him that a race in Indiana would be extremely tight and advised him against it.[27] At the Indiana Statehouse, Kennedy told a cheering crowd that the state was important to his campaign: "If we can win in Indiana, we can win in every other state, and win when we go to the convention in August."[28] The Indiana primary thus marked the first open entry of Kennedy into the field and pitted him against McCarthy and Governor Roger Branigin, a favorite son who had backed Johnson and now impliedly supported Humphrey.
During his first campaign stop in Indiana, Kennedy delivered two of a trio notable speeches. First, on April 4, he spoke at Ball State University in Muncie. In this speech, Kennedy suggested the election would "determine the direction that the United States is going to move" and that the American people should "examine everything. Not take anything for granted." Kennedy expressed concerns about poverty and hunger, lawlessness and violence, jobs and economic development, and foreign policy. He emphasized that Americans had a "moral obligation" and should "make an honest effort to understand one another and move forward together." After leaving the stage at Ball State, Kennedy boarded a plane for Indianapolis. When he arrived, he was informed of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[29] Addressing a crowd gathered for a political rally on the black north side of the city, Kennedy gave a heartfelt impromptu speech to the crowd, calling for peace and compassion.[30] The next day in Cleveland, he delivered prepared remarks entitled "On the Mindless Menace of Violence," elaborating the themes he had addressed in Indianapolis. After attending King's funeral in Atlanta, Kennedy resumed campaigning in Indiana on April 10.[31]
Branigin campaigned in nearly all of the state's 92 counties, while McCarthy's campaign strategy concentrated on Indiana's rural areas and small towns. According to Kennedy's campaign advisor, John Bartlow Martin, the campaign gained momentum with Kennedy's visits to central and southern Indiana on April 22 and 23, which included a memorable whistle-stop railroad trip aboard the Wabash Cannonball.[32] Martin urged the candidate to speak out against violence and rioting, emphasize his "law enforcement experience" as former U.S. Attorney General, and promote coordination between the government and private sector to solve domestic issues. Kennedy continued to speak out against the war and in support of the cessation of hostilities and reallocating war funds to domestic programs.[33] To appeal to conservative voters, Kennedy "toned down his rhetoric" as well.[34] McCarthy, meanwhile, contrasted his approach to conflict of "call[ing] upon everyone ... to be as fully responsible as [they] can be" against Humphrey's ("run[ning] things together indiscriminately") and Kennedy's (a "combination of separate interests ... or groups").[35]
On May 7, Kennedy won with 42 percent of the vote; Branigan was second with 31 percent of the vote; and McCarthy, earning 27 percent, came in third.[36][37] In response to the defeat, McCarthy remarked, "We've tested the enemy now, and we know his techniques ... we know his weaknesses."[38]
Campaigning vigorously in the Nebraska primary, Kennedy hoped for a major win to give him momentum going into the crucial California primary in June. While McCarthy made only one visit to Nebraska, Kennedy made numerous appearances.[39] Though Kennedy's advisors had been worried about his chances in Nebraska, given his lack of credibility on ranching and agriculture policy and the short amount of time to campaign in the state after the Indiana primary,[40] Kennedy won on May 14 with 51.4 percent of the vote to McCarthy's 31 percent.[39][41] Kennedy won 24 of the 25 counties that he visited ahead of the vote; of those, the sole county he lost by two votes was home to the University of Nebraska, where a plurality of students favored McCarthy.[42] Kennedy declared that the results, where two anti-war candidates collectively earned over 80 percent of the vote, were "a smashing repudiation" of the Johnson-Humphrey administration.[43]
A Newsweek delegate survey, taken after the Nebraska primary,[44] showed 1,280 delegates (1,312 delegates needed to win the nomination)[45] solid or leaning toward Humphrey, 714 leaning to Kennedy, and 280 favoring McCarthy.[46]
In contrast to Nebraska, the Oregon primary posed several challenges to Kennedy's campaign. His campaign organization, run by U.S. Congresswoman Edith Green, was not strong and his platform emphasizing poverty, hunger, and minority issues did not resonate with Oregon voters.[47][48] About Kennedy's calls for unity amongst Americans, Mills wrote that "As far as Oregonians were concerned, America had not fallen apart."[49] The Kennedy campaign circulated material on McCarthy's record; McCarthy had voted against a minimum wage law and repeal of the poll tax in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The McCarthy campaign responded with charges that Kennedy illegally taped Martin Luther King Jr. as United States Attorney General.[50] Ten days ahead of the vote, Kennedy admitted his message did not appeal well to Oregonians: "This state is like one giant suburb. I appeal best to people who have problems."[51] During a speech he gave in California, Kennedy also admitted, "I think that if I get beaten in any primary, I am not a very viable candidate," further raising the stakes in Oregon.[50] Following that comment, Kennedy campaigned for sixteen hours a day; in the weeks before the election, his campaign canvased 50,000 homes.[52]
On May 28, McCarthy won the Oregon primary with 44.7 percent; Kennedy received 38.8 percent of votes.[53] After Kennedy's loss was confirmed, he sent a terse congratulatory message to McCarthy but asserted that he would remain in the race.[54] According to Kennedy biographer Larry Tye, the defeat in Oregon proved to Kennedy that he needed to take risks and convinced voters that Kennedy was vulnerable to electoral defeat.[51][55] Observers remarked that McCarthy was "back in the race as a real contender."[56]
Meanwhile, in the Florida primary (also on May 28), a slate of Humphrey delegates led by favorite son George A. Smathers easily swept aside McCarthy, who managed only four delegates from two Miami congressional districts.[57] Humphrey also picked up 83 of the 125 delegates from Pennsylvania,[58] following an endorsement from Philadelphia Mayor James Tate,[59] and collected delegates from non-primary party caucuses and state conventions.[60] In April and May, Humphrey won the majority of delegates in Delaware, Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming, Arizona, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, Missouri, Maine, and Vermont.[61] The other candidates criticized this tactic, and accused Humphrey of organizing a "bossed convention" against the wishes of the people.[62]
McCarthy and Kennedy vigorously campaigned throughout California in the beginning of June, with the latter announcing he would exit the race if he lost the state's primary. California's winner-take-all primary became crucial to both Kennedy and McCarthy's campaigns.[63] McCarthy stumped the state's many colleges and universities, where he was treated as a hero for being the first presidential candidate to oppose the war. Kennedy campaigned in the ghettos and barrios of the state's larger cities, where he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters.[64] In the South Dakota primary, Kennedy also hoped to simultaneously pull off an upset victory over McCarthy and Humphrey, both from neighboring Minnesota (Humphrey was also a native of Wallace, South Dakota).[65]
On June 1, Kennedy and McCarthy met in a televised debate on ABC's Issues and Answers,[66] which observers generally considered a draw.[67] "It was a conversation rather than a debate," said The New York Times, "and it demonstrated that the two rivals are in substantial agreement on every major issue."[68] Though Kennedy considered the debate "indecisive and disappointing," subsequent polling showed that undecided voters favored his performance by a margin of two-to-one.[69]
On June 3, Kennedy made a "final dash" through the state's major urban centers, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego; along with suburban Long Beach, in a single day.[70] As his motorcade moved slowly through cheering crowds in San Francisco's Chinatown, gun shots appeared to ring out. However, it was just the sound of celebratory firecrackers.[70] The campaign entourage and traveling press were all "scared to death," recalled Bill Eppridge, a Life magazine photographer in the car just ahead of the Kennedys.[71]
On June 4, Kennedy privately expressed his hope to Theodore H. White that victories in the California and South Dakota primaries could persuade party insiders that he was more electable than Humphrey and thus win him crucial support from unpledged delegates. Kennedy won the California primary with 46 percent of the vote to McCarthy's 42 percent.[72] Author Joseph Palermo referred to the victory as Kennedy's "greatest."[73] Kennedy also won the South Dakota primary, winning approximately 50 percent of the vote.[74]
McCarthy, who that same night defeated Kennedy in the New Jersey primary (with 36% of the write-in vote),[75] made it clear that he would contest the upcoming New York primary on June 18 in Kennedy's adopted state.[76]
After giving his victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchen service pantry in the early morning of June 5. Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian-born Jordanian, was arrested. Kennedy died 26 hours later at Good Samaritan Hospital.
At the moment of Kennedy's death, the delegate totals were estimated to be:[77]
Kennedy's death threw the Democratic Party into disarray. Shaken by the event, Humphrey took off two weeks from campaigning. He met with President Johnson, and the two talked about "everything"[78] during a three-hour meeting. The assassination all but guaranteed Humphrey the nomination. He commented that he "was doing everything I could to win the nomination ... but God knows I didn't want it that way."[79] A large number of Kennedy delegates switched to Humphrey, but he lost money from Republican donors concerned about a Kennedy nomination,[79] and popular opinion polls shifted in favor of Senator McCarthy.[80] In fact, Humphrey was booed before 50,000 people on June 19 at the Lincoln Memorial as he was introduced at a Solidarity March for civil rights.[81] He tried to defend his record against the liberal detractors,[82] but often encountered anti-war protesters and hostile crowds while campaigning.[62] At the end of June, Republican Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon assessed the race, arguing that Humphrey would be the party's nominee for president but criticized him for being too closely aligned with Johnson's policies.[83]
Tablemaker's Note:[a]
Total popular vote:[148]
Johnson/Humphrey surrogates:
Minor candidates and write-ins:
Primary Map By County (Massachusetts not Included)Hubert Humphrey – RedLyndon B. Johnson – Yellow (outside of Florida)Robert F. Kennedy – PurpleEugene McCarthy – GreenGeorge Wallace – Lime GreenRoger D. Branigin – OrangeGeorge Smathers – Yellow (Florida Only)Stephen Young – Brown
When the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, thousands of young antiwar activists from around the nation gathered in the city to protest the Vietnam War. In a clash covered on live television, Americans were shocked to see Chicago Police officers brutally beating antiwar protesters. While the protesters chanted "the whole world is watching," the police used clubs and tear gas to beat back the protesters, leaving many of them bloody and dazed. The tear gas even wafted into numerous hotel suites. In one of them, Humphrey was watching the proceedings on television. Meanwhile, the convention itself was marred by the strong-armed tactics of Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, who was seen on television angrily cursing Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, who had made a speech at the convention denouncing the excesses of the Chicago police in the riots.
In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot. The convention then chose Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as Humphrey's running mate. However, the tragedy of the antiwar riots crippled the Humphrey campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered. (White, pp. 377–378;[149])
Source: Keating Holland, "All the Votes... Really," CNN[151]
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