1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas

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1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas
Flag of Arkansas (1924-2011).svg
  1960 November 3, 1964 1968  
  37 Lyndon Johnson 3x4 (cropped).jpg Barry-Goldwater 1968.webp
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote60
Popular vote314,197243,264
Percentage56.1%43.4%

Arkansas Presidential Election Results 1964.svg
County Results

President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

The 1964 presidential election in Arkansas was held on November 3, 1964 as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. State voters chose six electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson won the state of Arkansas with 56.06% of the popular vote, [1] which was a substantial increase upon John F. Kennedy's 50.19% from the preceding election, although the Republican vote remained virtually unchanged at 43.41%. Johnson won all but ten of Arkansas' seventy-five counties, and all four congressional districts. As of the 2024 presidential election , this is the last election in which Arkansas voted for a different candidate than neighboring Louisiana. Furthermore, with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina voting for Goldwater, Arkansas became the last Southern state to have never voted for a Republican candidate since the end of Reconstruction.

Contents

Results

1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas
PartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Democratic Lyndon Johnson (inc.)314,19756.06%6
Republican Barry Goldwater 243,26443.41%0
National States' Rights John Kasper 2,9650.53%0
Totals560,426100.00%6
Voter turnout (Voting age/Registered Voters)50.6%/78.3%

Results by county

CountyLyndon B. Johnson
Democratic
Barry Goldwater
Republican
John Kasper
National States’ Rights
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %
Arkansas 3,20045.78%3,76953.92%210.30%-569-8.14%6,990
Ashley 2,90143.23%3,74255.77%671.00%-841-12.54%6,710
Baxter 2,90059.29%1,98640.61%50.10%91418.68%4,891
Benton 5,65548.49%5,97751.25%300.26%-322-2.76%11,662
Boone 3,77056.73%2,85742.99%190.29%91313.74%6,646
Bradley 2,22954.34%1,85245.15%210.51%3779.19%4,102
Calhoun 1,40960.68%88938.29%241.03%52022.39%2,322
Carroll 2,00548.78%2,10551.22%00.00%-100-2.44%4,110
Chicot 2,91659.47%1,97240.22%150.31%94419.25%4,903
Clark 4,12768.36%1,88431.21%260.43%2,24337.15%6,037
Clay 3,28061.64%1,99937.57%420.79%1,28124.07%5,321
Cleburne 2,64568.26%1,22131.51%90.23%1,42436.75%3,875
Cleveland 1,12151.78%1,02647.39%180.83%954.39%2,165
Columbia 3,48546.26%4,00953.22%390.52%-524-6.96%7,533
Conway 4,20563.69%2,37836.02%190.29%1,82727.67%6,602
Craighead 8,33461.55%5,16338.13%440.32%3,17123.42%13,541
Crawford 3,53751.62%3,29448.07%210.31%2433.55%6,852
Crittenden 4,16850.20%4,06548.96%690.83%1031.24%8,302
Cross 2,42152.86%2,14746.88%120.26%2745.98%4,580
Dallas 1,77951.61%1,62547.14%431.25%1544.47%3,447
Desha 3,29462.91%1,93036.86%120.23%1,36426.05%5,236
Drew 1,98048.05%2,10951.18%320.78%-129-3.13%4,121
Faulkner 6,11664.95%3,25934.61%420.45%2,85730.34%9,417
Franklin 2,68562.47%1,58036.76%330.77%1,10525.71%4,298
Fulton 1,70466.64%84633.09%70.27%85833.55%2,557
Garland 11,59153.59%9,95246.01%860.40%1,6397.58%21,629
Grant 1,67855.07%1,30842.93%612.00%37012.14%3,047
Greene 4,74267.39%2,27132.27%240.34%2,47135.12%7,037
Hempstead 3,35556.95%2,49342.32%430.73%86214.63%5,891
Hot Spring 4,54360.40%2,91138.70%680.90%1,63221.70%7,522
Howard 1,32043.10%1,64953.84%943.07%-329-10.74%3,063
Independence 4,45564.01%2,47035.49%350.50%1,98528.52%6,960
Izard 1,73669.83%72629.20%240.97%1,01040.63%2,486
Jackson 4,65168.12%2,14131.36%360.53%2,51036.76%6,828
Jefferson 12,87256.04%9,96843.40%1290.56%2,90412.64%22,969
Johnson 3,12766.77%1,53532.78%210.45%1,59233.99%4,683
Lafayette 1,48450.02%1,47649.75%70.24%80.27%2,967
Lawrence 3,49863.16%2,01336.35%270.49%1,48526.81%5,538
Lee 2,33558.21%1,66841.59%80.20%66716.62%4,011
Lincoln 2,46863.58%1,41036.32%40.10%1,05827.26%3,882
Little River 2,04063.87%1,14135.72%130.41%89928.15%3,194
Logan 3,60461.13%2,26538.42%270.46%1,33922.71%5,896
Lonoke 3,81851.06%3,63648.63%230.31%1822.43%7,477
Madison 2,71557.45%1,99742.26%140.30%71815.19%4,726
Marion 1,66160.20%1,08839.43%100.36%57320.77%2,759
Miller 5,19054.68%4,25344.81%490.52%9379.87%9,492
Mississippi 8,67858.20%6,21341.67%200.13%2,46516.53%14,911
Monroe 2,25853.29%1,96846.45%110.26%2906.84%4,237
Montgomery 1,35861.67%83237.78%120.54%52623.89%2,202
Nevada 2,19060.41%1,40638.79%290.80%78421.62%3,625
Newton 1,37449.62%1,35749.01%381.37%170.61%2,769
Ouachita 7,05665.96%3,57233.39%700.65%3,48432.57%10,698
Perry 1,32055.30%1,04843.90%190.80%27211.40%2,387
Phillips 5,81859.43%3,96340.48%90.09%1,85518.95%9,790
Pike 1,53154.93%1,24144.53%150.54%29010.40%2,787
Poinsett 5,63564.93%3,03134.92%130.15%2,60430.01%8,679
Polk 2,57555.88%2,02243.88%110.24%55312.00%4,608
Pope 4,97263.91%2,65134.07%1572.02%2,32129.84%7,780
Prairie 1,81254.74%1,47644.59%220.66%33610.15%3,310
Pulaski 40,53551.12%38,31248.32%4420.56%2,2232.80%79,289
Randolph 2,68066.85%1,31232.73%170.42%1,36834.12%4,009
St. Francis 3,65151.88%3,37747.98%100.14%2743.90%7,038
Saline 5,60560.18%3,62838.96%800.86%1,97721.22%9,313
Scott 1,83862.01%1,12137.82%50.17%71724.19%2,964
Searcy 1,50847.68%1,64952.13%60.19%-141-4.45%3,163
Sebastian 10,29943.84%13,11055.80%840.36%-2,811-11.96%23,493
Sevier 2,12362.75%1,24936.92%110.33%87425.83%3,383
Sharp 1,81059.40%1,21539.88%220.72%59519.52%3,047
Stone 1,37458.72%94240.26%241.03%43218.46%2,340
Union 6,94844.60%8,47254.38%1601.03%-1,524-9.78%15,580
Van Buren 2,05461.28%1,27037.89%280.84%78423.39%3,352
Washington 10,16659.55%6,85640.16%480.28%3,31019.39%17,070
White 6,56656.20%5,02342.99%950.81%1,54313.21%11,684
Woodruff 2,30762.47%1,36636.99%200.54%94125.48%3,693
Yell 3,40768.86%1,52730.86%140.28%1,88038.00%4,948
Totals314,19756.06%243,26443.41%2,9650.53%70,93312.65%560,426

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Analysis

Given the segregationism of its long-serving governor Orval Faubus, who had gained almost seven percent of the vote in the preceding presidential election, Arkansas would have seemed[ according to whom? ] potentially likely to succumb to Goldwater due to his opposition to the recent Civil Rights Act. However, the GOP's nomination of the moderate Winthrop Rockefeller in the party's first serious run for governor in the state since Reconstruction took the steam out of a Goldwater challenge. [2] Faubus refused to endorse Goldwater, [3] despite hesitating over this during the summer. In addition, many white Southerners commented to the effect that

Goldwater is right on the black man, and that is very important. But he is so wrong on everything else I can't bring myself to vote for him. [4]

In mid-July, Texas Governor John Connally had made private polls suggesting that Johnson would lose Arkansas, in addition to the Deep South states of Mississippi and Alabama which were leaning heavily towards Goldwater. [5] Nonetheless, that the increase in black registration in Arkansas had exceeded Kennedy's margin in 1960 suggested that Johnson's civil rights legislation did have some potential to help him, [5] and in early August polls suddenly became confident Johnson would carry the state due to Goldwater's policies of privatizing Social Security and expanding the war in Southeast Asia – a policy that did not play well in this isolationist state. [6] By October, a New York Times poll saw Arkansas as "safe" for Johnson [7] and his leads in polls increased as election day came closer. [8]

Ultimately, Johnson comfortably carried Arkansas, becoming the twenty-third and last consecutive Democratic presidential nominee to win the state; however, anti-civil rights sentiment did cause Arkansas to vote 9.92 percentage points more Republican than the nation at-large – this being the first time in 96 years when it voted less Democratic than the nation.

Johnson doubled Kennedy's margin, and reclaimed the counties of Clay, Craighead, Fulton, Marion, Randolph and Sharp, which in 1960 had defected to the GOP for the first time ever or since Reconstruction as a result of powerful anti-Catholicism. [9] Johnson also claimed thirteen other Ozark counties which had supported Nixon in 1960.

However, in the Delta and south of the state sufficient backlash against black civil rights occurred for Goldwater to claim six counties in those regions from the Democrats. [10] Of these, only state namesake Arkansas County had ever been carried by a Republican since the McKinley era. [a] Ashley County and Drew County voted Republican for the first time since James G. Blaine in 1884, [11] Union County for the first time since 1872, and Columbia and Howard Counties for the first time ever. [10]

See also

Notes

  1. Arkansas County had voted for Warren G. Harding in 1920 and for Dwight D. Eisenhower in both 1952 and 1956.

References

  1. "1964 Presidential General Election Results – Arkansas" . Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  2. Johnson, Robert David; All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, p. 225 ISBN   0521737524
  3. Bass, Jack and De Vries, Walter; The Transformation of Southern Politics Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945, p. 93 ISBN   0820317284
  4. Converse, Philip E., Clausen, Åge R. and Miller, Warren E.; 'Electoral Myth and Reality: The 1964 Election'; The American Political Science Review , Vol. 59, No. 2 (June 1965), pp. 321–336
  5. 1 2 Johnson; All the Way with LBJ, p. 168
  6. Roberts, Chalmers M.; 'Goldwater Riding High in South, Survey Finds: Has Firm Hold on Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida; Texas Rates Tossup'; Los Angeles Times , August 2, 1964, p. I2
  7. Wicker, Tom; 'Big Johnson Lead Found in Survey'; The New York Times , October 6, 1964, pp. 1, 28
  8. Johnson; All the Way with LBJ, p. 275
  9. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 87 ISBN   0786422173
  10. 1 2 Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 91
  11. Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 149–153