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1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico

Main article: 1968 United States presidential election

The 1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 5, 1968. All fifty states and The District of Columbia, were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico
← 1964 November 5, 1968 1972 →
 
Nominee Richard Nixon Hubert Humphrey George Wallace
Party Republican Democratic American Independent
Home state New York[a] Minnesota Alabama
Running mate Spiro Agnew Edmund Muskie S. Marvin Griffin
Electoral vote 4 0 0
Popular vote 169,692 130,081 25,737
Percentage 51.85% 39.75% 7.86%
County Results
President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Richard Nixon
Republican

New Mexico had been a long-time political bellwether, having supported the winning candidate in every presidential election since statehood in 1912. However, a definite Republican trend was detectable in 1964, when Goldwater was able to win a vote share two percent above his national mean and Johnson feared losing traditionally Southern Democratic "Little Texas".[1]

The 1966 midterm elections saw the state join with larger "Sunbelt" dynamics and Democratic candidates for statewide offices would lose twelve percent or more of their previous vote share,[2] in the process showing that Hispanic candidates were becoming a liability in Albuquerque and the east due to considerable in-migration,[3] and legislative GOP percentages reached levels not observed for over four decades.[4] Local issues of public school finance and land-grant claims for the Hispanic and Native American populations of the state proved a further liability for the incumbent Democratic Party.[5] The issue of the stalemated Vietnam War was another problem for the Democratic Party in a state severely affected by poverty, and anti-war Eugene McCarthy gained substantial support among New Mexico Democrats before the assassination of Bobby Kennedy largely turned them toward eventual nominee Hubert Humphrey.

Incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and segregationist American Independent Party candidate and former Governor of Alabama George Wallace campaigned in New Mexico during the autumn, whilst running mate Spiro Agnew did all the campaigning for Republican Richard Nixon in the state.[5] Despite his failure to visit, New Mexico was won by former Vice President Nixon by a 12-point margin against Humphrey.[6] Wallace, far from his base in the Deep South, did well among working and lower-middle class unionized workers[7] and farmers in the "Little Texas" region, but received some of his poorest national percentages in the north-central highland regions – Mora County gave Wallace his eleventh-smallest vote share of any county in the country. Nixon was the first Republican to carry Lea and Eddy counties since 1928.

Results

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1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Republican
169,692 51.85% +11.61
Democratic
130,081 39.75% −19.47
American Independent
25,737 7.86% N/A
People's Constitutional
  • Ventura Chavez
  • Adelico Moya
 1,519 0.46% N/A
Socialist Workers
252 0.08% N/A
Total votes 327,281 100.00%
Republican win

Results by county

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County Richard Nixon
Republican 		Hubert Humphrey
Democratic 		George Wallace
American Independent 		Various candidates
Other parties 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Bernalillo 56,234 54.96% 40,835 39.91% 4,920 4.81% 332 0.32% 15,399 15.05% 102,321
Catron 674 62.29% 278 25.69% 128 11.83% 2 0.18% 396 36.60% 1,082
Chaves 8,866 63.61% 3,612 25.91% 1,425 10.22% 35 0.25% 5,254 37.70% 13,938
Colfax 2,212 44.39% 2,477 49.71% 263 5.28% 31 0.62% -265 -5.32% 4,983
Curry 5,562 53.99% 2,915 28.30% 1,754 17.03% 71 0.69% 2,647 25.69% 10,302
De Baca 658 57.67% 345 30.24% 130 11.39% 8 0.70% 313 27.43% 1,141
Dona Ana 10,824 54.15% 7,658 38.31% 1,453 7.27% 55 0.28% 3,166 15.84% 19,990
Eddy 7,193 47.74% 6,093 40.44% 1,671 11.09% 109 0.72% 1,100 7.30% 15,066
Grant 2,908 38.52% 3,817 50.56% 793 10.50% 31 0.41% -909 -12.04% 7,549
Guadalupe 1,176 51.42% 1,027 44.91% 77 3.37% 7 0.31% 149 6.51% 2,287
Harding 450 57.69% 284 36.41% 44 5.64% 2 0.26% 166 21.28% 780
Hidalgo 606 39.25% 678 43.91% 257 16.65% 3 0.19% -72 -4.66% 1,544
Lea 7,415 48.21% 4,751 30.89% 3,025 19.67% 191 1.24% 2,664 17.32% 15,382
Lincoln 2,004 64.52% 802 25.82% 287 9.24% 13 0.42% 1,202 38.70% 3,106
Los Alamos 3,447 54.92% 2,552 40.66% 268 4.27% 9 0.14% 895 14.26% 6,276
Luna 1,952 50.10% 1,438 36.91% 490 12.58% 16 0.41% 514 13.19% 3,896
McKinley 4,376 45.71% 4,491 46.91% 547 5.71% 159 1.66% -115 -1.20% 9,573
Mora 1,155 50.97% 1,069 47.18% 35 1.54% 7 0.31% 86 3.79% 2,266
Otero 4,475 43.77% 3,978 38.91% 1,688 16.51% 83 0.81% 497 4.86% 10,224
Quay 2,123 51.38% 1,399 33.86% 567 13.72% 43 1.04% 724 17.52% 4,132
Rio Arriba 3,935 43.23% 4,799 52.72% 269 2.96% 99 1.09% -864 -9.49% 9,102
Roosevelt 3,256 58.11% 1,547 27.61% 773 13.80% 27 0.48% 1,709 30.50% 5,603
San Juan 7,664 54.03% 4,036 28.45% 2,304 16.24% 181 1.28% 3,628 25.58% 14,185
San Miguel 4,027 48.12% 4,088 48.85% 195 2.33% 58 0.69% -61 -0.73% 8,368
Sandoval 1,959 41.43% 2,609 55.18% 129 2.73% 31 0.66% -650 -13.75% 4,728
Santa Fe 9,359 48.12% 9,544 49.07% 492 2.53% 54 0.28% -185 -0.95% 19,449
Sierra 1,624 57.06% 930 32.68% 282 9.91% 10 0.35% 694 24.38% 2,846
Socorro 2,230 52.07% 1,871 43.68% 173 4.04% 9 0.21% 359 8.39% 4,283
Taos 3,119 49.89% 2,993 47.87% 124 1.98% 16 0.26% 126 2.02% 6,252
Torrance 1,316 52.98% 974 39.21% 188 7.57% 6 0.24% 342 13.77% 2,484
Union 1,217 55.42% 678 30.87% 279 12.70% 22 1.00% 539 24.55% 2,196
Valencia 5,676 47.51% 5,513 46.15% 707 5.92% 51 0.43% 163 1.36% 11,947
Totals 169,692 51.85% 130,081 39.75% 25,737 7.86% 1,771 0.54% 39,611 12.10% 327,281

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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Results by congressional district

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This table shows the results by congressional district. Nixon won both of New Mexico's congressional districts. The candidates are listed based on what place they got nationally.[8]

District[8] Nixon Humphrey Wallace
1st 52.4% 43.1% 4.5%
2nd 51.8% 36.4% 11.9%

Notes

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  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.

References

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  1. ^ Johnson, Robert David; All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, p. 168 ISBN 0521737524
  2. ^ Wolf, T. Phillip; 'The 1966 Election in New Mexico'; The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 20, No. 2, Part 2 (June 1967), pp. 586-592
  3. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 463 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  4. ^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 467
  5. ^ a b Wolf, T. Phillip; 'The 1968 Elections in New Mexico', The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 3 (September 1969), pp. 510-516
  6. ^ "1968 Presidential General Election Results – New Mexico". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  7. ^ Converse, Philip E.; Miller, Warren E.; Rusk, Jerrold G. and Wolfe, Arthur C.; 'Continuity and Change in American Politics: Parties and Issues in the 1968 Election'; The American Political Science Review, vol. 63, no. 4 (December 1969), pp. 1083-1105
  8. ^ a b "1968 United States Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District". Western Washington University. Retrieved November 25, 2024.
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