The 1964 United States presidential election in California took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. State voters chose 40 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
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| Turnout | 88.38% (of registered voters)  0.06 pp 66.00% (of eligible voters)  2.77 pp[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County Results
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California voted for the incumbent Democratic President, Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, in a landslide over the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona.
As Johnson won nationally in a massive landslide, taking 61.05% of the vote nationwide, and dominating many Northeastern and Midwestern states by record landslide margins, California weighed in at about 4% more Republican than the national average in the 1964 election. Johnson dominated in liberal Northern California, breaking 60% in many counties and even breaking 70% in Plumas County and the city of San Francisco. However, the Western conservative Goldwater, from neighboring Arizona, appealed to residents of conservative Southern California, where Johnson failed to break his nationwide vote average in a single county. Goldwater indeed won six congressional districts in suburban areas of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties, and carried two heavily populated Southern California counties outright: Orange County and San Diego County, thus holding Johnson below the 60% mark statewide.
Although California has become a strongly Democratic state in recent elections, this was the only presidential election from 1952 to 1988 where the state was carried by a Democrat. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is also the last time that a Democrat has won the counties of Calaveras, Colusa, Glenn, Kern, Modoc and Tulare.[2] Democrats would not win Nevada County until 2008; and Inyo County until 2020.
California was Barry Goldwater's best state in the modern day "blue wall", which were states won by the Democrats in every presidential election from 1992 to 2012. Johnson was the only Democrat prior to 1992 to carry all of the states of that future "blue wall". It remains the last presidential election when California voted to the right of Alaska, Colorado, Montana, New Hampshire or New Mexico. This is also the most recent presidential election where Los Angeles County voted more Republican than the state as a whole, as well as the last in which California did not register the most votes cast by state.
Results
edit| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote |
Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote | ||||
| Lyndon B. Johnson | Democratic | Texas | 4,171,877 | 59.11% | 40 | Hubert Humphrey | Minnesota | 40 |
| Barry Goldwater | Republican | Arizona | 2,879,108 | 40.79% | 0 | William E. Miller | New York | 0 |
| Write-in candidates | — | — | 5,410 | 0.08% | 0 | — | — | 0 |
| Eric Hass | Socialist Labor | New York | 489 | 0.01% | 0 | Henning A. Blomen | Massachusetts | 0 |
| Clifton DeBerry | Socialist Workers | New York | 378 | 0.01% | 0 | Ed Shaw | 0 | |
| E. Harold Munn | Prohibition Party | Michigan | 305 | 0.00% | 0 | Mark R. Shaw | Massachusetts | 0 |
| Kirby J. Hensley | Universal Party | California | 19 | 0.00% | 0 | Roscoe MacKenna | 0 | |
| Total | 7,057,586 | 100% | 40 | 40 | ||||
| Needed to win | 270 | 270 | ||||||
Results by county
edit| County[3] | Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic |
Barry Goldwater Republican |
Various candidates Other parties |
Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Alameda | 283,833 | 66.42% | 142,998 | 33.46% | 509 | 0.12% | 140,835 | 32.96% | 427,340 |
| Alpine | 91 | 42.33% | 124 | 57.67% | 0 | 0.00% | -33 | -15.34% | 215 |
| Amador | 3,410 | 66.89% | 1,682 | 32.99% | 6 | 0.12% | 1,728 | 33.90% | 5,098 |
| Butte | 20,831 | 51.54% | 19,574 | 48.43% | 14 | 0.03% | 1,257 | 3.11% | 40,419 |
| Calaveras | 3,145 | 58.27% | 2,244 | 41.58% | 8 | 0.15% | 901 | 16.69% | 5,397 |
| Colusa | 2,790 | 60.57% | 1,811 | 39.32% | 5 | 0.11% | 979 | 21.25% | 4,606 |
| Contra Costa | 113,071 | 63.44% | 65,011 | 36.47% | 163 | 0.09% | 48,060 | 26.97% | 178,245 |
| Del Norte | 3,652 | 63.77% | 2,075 | 36.23% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,577 | 27.54% | 5,727 |
| El Dorado | 8,810 | 60.30% | 5,775 | 39.53% | 25 | 0.17% | 3,035 | 20.77% | 14,610 |
| Fresno | 89,375 | 65.57% | 46,792 | 34.33% | 141 | 0.10% | 42,583 | 31.24% | 136,308 |
| Glenn | 3,937 | 54.01% | 3,351 | 45.97% | 2 | 0.02% | 586 | 8.04% | 7,290 |
| Humboldt | 25,515 | 66.27% | 12,909 | 33.53% | 75 | 0.20% | 12,606 | 32.74% | 38,499 |
| Imperial | 11,143 | 51.85% | 10,330 | 48.06% | 19 | 0.09% | 813 | 3.79% | 21,492 |
| Inyo | 3,161 | 53.44% | 2,751 | 46.51% | 3 | 0.05% | 410 | 6.93% | 5,915 |
| Kern | 64,174 | 58.71% | 45,014 | 41.18% | 120 | 0.11% | 19,160 | 17.53% | 109,308 |
| Kings | 13,073 | 69.39% | 5,753 | 30.54% | 14 | 0.07% | 7,320 | 38.85% | 18,840 |
| Lake | 4,680 | 56.37% | 3,616 | 43.56% | 6 | 0.07% | 1,064 | 12.81% | 8,302 |
| Lassen | 4,072 | 65.67% | 2,124 | 34.25% | 5 | 0.08% | 1,948 | 31.42% | 6,201 |
| Los Angeles | 1,568,300 | 57.43% | 1,161,067 | 42.52% | 1,551 | 0.05% | 407,233 | 14.91% | 2,730,918 |
| Madera | 9,391 | 67.75% | 4,461 | 32.18% | 10 | 0.07% | 4,930 | 35.57% | 13,862 |
| Marin | 46,462 | 61.65% | 28,682 | 38.06% | 220 | 0.29% | 17,780 | 23.59% | 75,364 |
| Mariposa | 1,704 | 57.41% | 1,264 | 42.59% | 0 | 0.00% | 440 | 14.82% | 2,968 |
| Mendocino | 11,869 | 65.12% | 6,322 | 34.68% | 36 | 0.20% | 5,547 | 30.44% | 18,227 |
| Merced | 19,431 | 68.74% | 8,814 | 31.18% | 24 | 0.08% | 10,617 | 37.56% | 28,269 |
| Modoc | 1,972 | 58.73% | 1,386 | 41.27% | 0 | 0.00% | 586 | 17.46% | 3,358 |
| Mono | 666 | 43.93% | 850 | 56.07% | 0 | 0.00% | -184 | -12.14% | 1,516 |
| Monterey | 40,093 | 61.83% | 24,579 | 37.90% | 172 | 0.27% | 15,514 | 23.93% | 64,844 |
| Napa | 19,580 | 62.74% | 11,567 | 37.06% | 63 | 0.20% | 8,013 | 25.68% | 31,210 |
| Nevada | 6,397 | 56.52% | 4,899 | 43.29% | 22 | 0.19% | 1,498 | 13.23% | 11,318 |
| Orange | 176,539 | 44.01% | 224,196 | 55.89% | 430 | 0.10% | -47,657 | -11.88% | 401,165 |
| Placer | 18,256 | 65.96% | 9,389 | 33.92% | 31 | 0.12% | 8,867 | 32.04% | 27,676 |
| Plumas | 4,019 | 70.35% | 1,686 | 29.51% | 8 | 0.14% | 2,333 | 40.84% | 5,713 |
| Riverside | 80,528 | 56.79% | 61,165 | 43.14% | 95 | 0.07% | 19,363 | 13.65% | 141,788 |
| Sacramento | 149,668 | 65.68% | 77,871 | 34.17% | 332 | 0.15% | 71,797 | 31.51% | 227,871 |
| San Benito | 3,779 | 60.59% | 2,444 | 39.19% | 14 | 0.22% | 1,335 | 21.40% | 6,237 |
| San Bernardino | 123,012 | 57.11% | 92,145 | 42.78% | 243 | 0.11% | 30,867 | 14.33% | 215,400 |
| San Diego | 211,808 | 49.69% | 214,445 | 50.31% | 33 | 0.00% | -2,637 | -0.62% | 426,286 |
| San Francisco | 230,758 | 71.24% | 92,994 | 28.71% | 156 | 0.05% | 137,764 | 42.53% | 323,908 |
| San Joaquin | 59,210 | 61.78% | 36,546 | 38.13% | 83 | 0.09% | 22,664 | 23.65% | 95,839 |
| San Luis Obispo | 22,252 | 59.84% | 14,906 | 40.08% | 28 | 0.08% | 7,346 | 19.76% | 37,186 |
| San Mateo | 140,978 | 64.32% | 77,916 | 35.55% | 297 | 0.13% | 63,062 | 28.77% | 219,191 |
| Santa Barbara | 48,381 | 55.94% | 38,020 | 43.96% | 85 | 0.10% | 10,361 | 11.98% | 86,486 |
| Santa Clara | 202,249 | 63.10% | 117,420 | 36.63% | 858 | 0.27% | 84,829 | 26.47% | 320,527 |
| Santa Cruz | 26,714 | 58.53% | 18,836 | 41.27% | 94 | 0.20% | 7,878 | 17.26% | 45,644 |
| Shasta | 19,142 | 67.52% | 9,178 | 32.37% | 30 | 0.11% | 9,964 | 35.15% | 28,350 |
| Sierra | 828 | 66.72% | 413 | 33.28% | 0 | 0.00% | 415 | 33.44% | 1,241 |
| Siskiyou | 9,126 | 63.66% | 5,186 | 36.18% | 23 | 0.16% | 3,940 | 27.48% | 14,335 |
| Solano | 34,930 | 69.53% | 15,263 | 30.38% | 47 | 0.09% | 19,667 | 39.15% | 50,240 |
| Sonoma | 44,354 | 61.49% | 27,677 | 38.37% | 105 | 0.14% | 16,677 | 23.12% | 72,136 |
| Stanislaus | 43,078 | 66.14% | 21,973 | 33.74% | 77 | 0.12% | 21,105 | 32.40% | 65,128 |
| Sutter | 6,787 | 48.33% | 7,241 | 51.56% | 16 | 0.11% | -454 | -3.23% | 14,044 |
| Tehama | 6,928 | 60.42% | 4,529 | 39.50% | 10 | 0.08% | 2,399 | 20.92% | 11,467 |
| Trinity | 2,175 | 63.25% | 1,252 | 36.41% | 12 | 0.34% | 923 | 26.84% | 3,439 |
| Tulare | 33,974 | 60.08% | 22,527 | 39.83% | 51 | 0.09% | 11,447 | 20.25% | 56,552 |
| Tuolumne | 4,939 | 63.16% | 2,861 | 36.59% | 20 | 0.25% | 2,078 | 26.57% | 7,820 |
| Ventura | 57,805 | 58.84% | 40,264 | 40.99% | 169 | 0.17% | 17,541 | 17.85% | 98,238 |
| Yolo | 18,266 | 69.52% | 7,976 | 30.36% | 32 | 0.12% | 10,290 | 39.16% | 26,274 |
| Yuba | 6,766 | 57.64% | 4,964 | 42.29% | 9 | 0.07% | 1,802 | 15.35% | 11,739 |
| Total | 4,171,877 | 59.11% | 2,879,108 | 40.79% | 6,601 | 0.10% | 1,292,769 | 18.32% | 7,057,586 |
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
editReferences
edit- ^ "Historical Voter Registration and Participation in Statewide General Elections 1910-2018" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
- ^ "California Election Results". The New York Times. November 3, 2020.
- ^ "1964 Presidential General Election Results - California". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved October 8, 2013.