1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico

1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico
Nixon 40-50% 50-60% 60-70%	Humphrey 40-50% 50-60%
President before election; Lyndon B. Johnson ; Democratic	Elected President; Richard Nixon ; Republican

Last updated July 15, 2023

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.

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

1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Richard Nixon Spiro Agnew	169,692	51.85%	+11.61
	Democratic	Hubert Humphrey Edmund Muskie	130,081	39.75%	−19.47
	American Independent	George Wallace Marvin Griffin	25,737	7.86%	N/A
	People's Constitutional	Ventura Chavez Adelico Moya	1,519	0.46%	N/A
	Socialist Workers	Fred Halstead Paul Boutelle	252	0.08%	N/A
Total votes			327,281	100.00%
	Republican win

Results by county

County	Richard Milhous Nixon Republican		Hubert Horatio Humphrey Democratic		George Corley Wallace American Independent		Various candidates Other parties		Margin
County	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#
Lincoln	64.52%	2,004	25.82%	802	9.24%	287	0.42%	13	38.70%	1,202
Chaves	63.61%	8,866	25.91%	3,612	10.22%	1,425	0.25%	35	37.70%	5,254
Catron	62.29%	674	25.69%	278	11.83%	128	0.18%	2	36.60%	396
Roosevelt	58.11%	3,256	27.61%	1,547	13.80%	773	0.48%	27	30.50%	1,709
De Baca	57.67%	658	30.24%	345	11.39%	130	0.70%	8	27.43%	313
Curry	53.99%	5,562	28.30%	2,915	17.03%	1,754	0.69%	71	25.69%	2,647
San Juan	54.03%	7,664	28.45%	4,036	16.24%	2,304	1.28%	181	25.58%	3,628
Union	55.42%	1,217	30.87%	678	12.70%	279	1.00%	22	24.54%	539
Sierra	57.06%	1,624	32.68%	930	9.91%	282	0.35%	10	24.39%	694
Harding	57.69%	450	36.41%	284	5.64%	44	0.26%	2	21.28%	166
Quay	51.38%	2,123	33.86%	1,399	13.72%	567	1.04%	43	17.52%	724
Lea	48.21%	7,415	30.89%	4,751	19.67%	3,025	1.24%	191	17.32%	2,664
Doña Ana	54.15%	10,824	38.31%	7,658	7.27%	1,453	0.28%	55	15.84%	3,166
Bernalillo	54.96%	56,234	39.91%	40,835	4.81%	4,920	0.32%	332	15.05%	15,399
Los Alamos	54.92%	3,447	40.66%	2,552	4.27%	268	0.14%	9	14.26%	895
Torrance	52.98%	1,316	39.21%	974	7.57%	188	0.24%	6	13.77%	342
Luna	50.10%	1,952	36.91%	1,438	12.58%	490	0.41%	16	13.19%	514
Socorro	52.07%	2,230	43.68%	1,871	4.04%	173	0.21%	9	8.38%	359
Eddy	47.74%	7,193	40.44%	6,093	11.09%	1,671	0.72%	109	7.30%	1,100
Guadalupe	51.42%	1,176	44.91%	1,027	3.37%	77	0.31%	7	6.52%	149
Otero	43.77%	4,475	38.91%	3,978	16.51%	1,688	0.81%	83	4.86%	497
Mora	50.97%	1,155	47.18%	1,069	1.54%	35	0.31%	7	3.80%	86
Taos	49.89%	3,119	47.87%	2,993	1.98%	124	0.26%	16	2.02%	126
Valencia	47.51%	5,676	46.15%	5,513	5.92%	707	0.43%	51	1.36%	163
San Miguel	48.12%	4,027	48.85%	4,088	2.33%	195	0.69%	58	-0.73%	-61
Santa Fe	48.12%	9,359	49.07%	9,544	2.53%	492	0.28%	54	-0.95%	-185
McKinley	45.71%	4,376	46.91%	4,491	5.71%	547	1.66%	159	-1.20%	-115
Hidalgo	39.25%	606	43.91%	678	16.65%	257	0.19%	3	-4.66%	-72
Colfax	44.39%	2,212	49.71%	2,477	5.28%	263	0.62%	31	-5.32%	-265
Rio Arriba	43.23%	3,935	52.72%	4,799	2.96%	269	1.09%	99	-9.49%	-864
Grant	38.52%	2,908	50.56%	3,817	10.50%	793	0.41%	31	-12.04%	-909
Sandoval	41.43%	1,959	55.18%	2,609	2.73%	129	0.66%	31	-13.75%	-650

Notes

↑ 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.

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References

↑ Johnson, Robert David; All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, p. 168 ISBN 0521737524
↑ Wolf, T. Phillip; 'The 1966 Election in New Mexico'; The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 20, No. 2, Part 2 (June 1967), pp. 586-592
↑ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 463 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
↑ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 467
1 2 Wolf, T. Phillip; 'The 1968 Elections in New Mexico', The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 3 (September 1969), pp. 510-516
↑ "1968 Presidential General Election Results – New Mexico". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
↑ 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

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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.

[2] Johnson, Robert David; All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, p. 168 ISBN 0521737524

[Election1966-3] Wolf, T. Phillip; 'The 1966 Election in New Mexico'; The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 20, No. 2, Part 2 (June 1967), pp. 586-592

[4] Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 463 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6

[5] Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 467

[Election1968-6] 1 2 Wolf, T. Phillip; 'The 1968 Elections in New Mexico', The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 3 (September 1969), pp. 510-516

[7] "1968 Presidential General Election Results – New Mexico". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2018-02-12.

[8] 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

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