The Democratic Party candidate, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, very narrowly carried Texas with 41.14% of the vote, giving him the state's 25 electoral votes.[2] However, he narrowly lost the general election to Republican candidate, former Vice President Richard Nixon. This was the first occasion when Texas had not backed the winning presidential candidate since voting for John W. Davis in 1924, and the last such occasion until 1992. This is also the most recent presidential election in which Texas would back a losing Democratic candidate, and the penultimate time it voted Democratic.
When Texas "favorite son" Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the 1968 election in March, it was generally thought that the Republican Party would have a good chance of winning Texas despite losing by 27 points in 1964 and the presence of former Alabama GovernorGeorge Wallace running as a candidate for the American Independent Party, a far-right political party. Wallace was known for his pro-segregationist politics, which would win him five southern states in the general election.[3] However, in Humphrey's favor was the abolition of the poll tax via the Twenty-Fourth Amendment that permitted previously disfranchised Mexican-Americans[3] to register and vote for the first time. The Mexican-American South Texas counties of Duval, Webb and Jim Hogg had been among the four most Democratic in the nation in 1964,[4] and despite polling fewer than eighteen thousand out of a state total exceeding three million votes, those three counties would provide over thirty percent of Humphrey's margin and Duval was again the most Democratic county in the nation.
On September 21, a poll by Joe Belden gave Nixon and Humphrey each thirty percent of the vote and Wallace twenty-five percent.[5] In the period between Belden's poll and the election, Wallace lost considerable support largely to Humphrey, owing chiefly to Democrat Preston Smith's "resolutely law-and-order" campaign for the governorship.[6] This, along with strong loyalty of Texas Democrats much more conservative than the liberal Humphrey,[7] was sufficient to allow the Democrats to carry the state. Exit polls suggest Humphrey gained a third of the non-Hispanic white vote in Texas,[7] vis-à-vis around 25 percent in Virginia and less than 20% in all other southern states.[8]
Wallace, who had been rivaling the two major party nominees in early polls, came in a distant third, with 18.97 percent of the vote, his lowest in any former Confederate state. Wallace did win 21 of Texas' 254 counties, which was enough for him to also carry one congressional district. Wallace's base of support was primarily in rural East Texas, which is more culturally tied to the Deep South than the rest of the state, although he did carry four counties in the West Texas region, with Loving County being the westernmost county in the country to vote for Wallace.
45% of white voters supported Nixon, 34% supported Humphrey, and 22% supported Wallace.[9][10][11]
Results
1968 United States presidential election in Texas[2]
Humphrey won 13 out of the 23 congressional districts in Texas, Nixon won 9, including six held by Democrats, and Wallace won 1, which was held by a Democrat.[12]
Humphrey performed best in the state's cities and rural areas, whereas Nixon performed best in the state's suburban areas. In cities, Humphrey won 43.5% of the vote to Nixon's 42.3% and Wallace's 14.2%. In the suburbs, Nixon won 41.9% of the vote to Humphrey's 35.3% and Wallace's 22.8%. In rural areas, Humphrey won 41.4% of the vote to Nixon's 34.5% and Wallace's 23.6%.[13]
This was the last time a Republican won the presidency while losing Texas. This was also the last time until 2008 that a Northern Democrat won any state in the former Confederacy.
This is also the most recent election in which a former Confederate State voted for a losing Democratic ticket that had no relations to the state. Georgia and Virginia supported a losing Democrat in 1980 and 2016, respectively, but 1980 Democratic presidential nominee Jimmy Carter was from Georgia, while 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine was from Virginia. Nixon had previously narrowly lost Texas to John F. Kennedy in 1960. In 1972, he sought re-election and won Texas with an overwhelming sixty-six percent of the popular vote.
^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.
^An additional 190 write-in votes were not tabulated by county
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoapaqIn this county where Nixon ran third behind both Humphrey and Wallace, margin given is Humphrey vote minus Wallace vote and percentage margin Humphrey percentage minus Wallace percentage.
^ abcdefghijklmnopqIn this county where Humphrey ran third behind both Nixon and Wallace, margin given is Nixon vote minus Wallace vote and percentage margin Nixon percentage minus Wallace percentage.
^ABC News Political Unit; Election Night Fact Book, 1968, p. 149
^Cunningham, Sean P.; American Politics in the Postwar Sunbelt: Conservative Growth in a Battleground Region (Cambridge Essential Histories), p. 140 ISBN1107024528
^ abPhillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 281 ISBN9780691163246
^Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 228
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