Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1966

Last updated
Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1966
Flag of Arkansas (1924-2011).svg
← 1964November 8, 1966 1968  →
  No image.svg
Nominee Winthrop Rockefeller James D. Johnson
Party Republican Democratic
Popular vote306,324257,203
Percentage54.36%45.64%
Governor before election

Orval E. Faubus
Democratic

Elected Governor

Winthrop Rockefeller
Republican

The Arkansas gubernatorial election of November 8, 1966 was the first time since Reconstruction that a member of the Republican Party was elected governor.

Arkansas State of the United States of America

Arkansas is a state in the southern region of the United States, home to over 3 million people as of 2018. Its name is of Siouan derivation from the language of the Osage denoting their related kin, the Quapaw Indians. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta.

Republican Party (United States) political party in the United States

The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major political parties in the United States; the other is its historic rival, the Democratic Party.

Contents

The same year, during a midterm election, Republicans made some gains in the traditionally Democratic southern stronghold – including winning the governorship in Florida (also first time since Reconstruction), and narrowly losing the gubernatorial race in Georgia (when a GOP candidate won a plurality, but the Democratic-controlled legislature selected their own candidate).

Florida State of the United States of America

Florida is the southernmost contiguous state in the United States. The state is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida. Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U.S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Miami metropolitan area is Florida's most populous urban area. Tallahassee is the state's capital.

Democratic primary

Popular and powerful six-term (since 1955) incumbent Orval E. Faubus decided against seeking re-election. "Justice Jim" Johnson, a political ally of George C. Wallace of Alabama, ran a segregationist campaign with support of the White Citizens Council. A decade earlier, Johnson had run in the Democratic primary against Faubus, another segregationist, whom he accused of working behind the scenes for racial integration.

The incumbent is the current holder of an office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent(s). For example, in the Hungarian presidential election, 2017, János Áder was the incumbent, because he had been the president in the term before the term for which the election sought to determine the president. A race without an incumbent is referred to as an open seat.

George Wallace 45th Governor of Alabama

George Corley Wallace Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, a position he occupied for four terms, during which he promoted "low-grade industrial development, low taxes, and trade schools". He sought the United States presidency as a Democrat three times, and once as an American Independent Party candidate, unsuccessfully each time. He is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and populist views. Wallace was known as "the most dangerous racist in America" and notoriously opposed desegregation and supported the policies of "Jim Crow" during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever".

Alabama State of the United States of America

Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states. With a total of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of inland waterways, Alabama has among the most of any state.

Candidates

Brooks Hays American politician

Lawrence Brooks Hays was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from the State of Arkansas and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

James Douglas Johnson, known as "Justice Jim" Johnson, was an Arkansas legislator; a losing candidate for governor of Arkansas in 1956; an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court; the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee for governor in 1966; and again a losing candidate for the United States Senate in 1968. A segregationist, Johnson was frequently compared to George Wallace of Alabama.


Results

July 26 Democratic primary results [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic James D. Johnson 105,60725.14
Democratic Frank Holt92,71122.07
Democratic Brooks Hays 64,81415.43
Democratic Thomas Dale Alford 53,53112.74
Democratic Sam Boyce49,74411.84
Democratic Raymond Rebsamen35,6078.48
Democratic Kenneth S. Sulcer18,0514.30
Total votes420,065100.00
August 9 Democratic runoff results [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic James D. Johnson 210,54351.86
Democratic Frank Holt195,44248.14
Total votes405,985100.00

Holt was supported by many younger, more liberal, Democrats, such as future governor and U.S. President Bill Clinton, who served as his campaign aide though he was not old enough to vote at the time.

President of the United States Head of state and of government of the United States

President of the United States (POTUS) is the title for the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.

Bill Clinton 42nd president of the United States

William Jefferson Clinton, commonly known as Bill Clinton, is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992, and the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideologically a New Democrat and many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy.

Republican primary

A northeastern native, multimillionaire and scion of a prominent political/business family Winthrop Rockefeller was nominated with over 96% of the vote over Gus McMillan of Sheridan. Charges abounded that McMillan, a lifelong Democrat, was planted in the race by Faubus in order to force the Republicans to hold an expensive and needless primary. Rockefeller had been the GOP nominee in the 1964 election.

Winthrop Rockefeller Governor of Arkansas

Winthrop Rockefeller was an American politician and philanthropist, who served as the first Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.

Campaign

Rockefeller was an unusual candidate – an eastern establishment member and moderate-to-liberal party wing member (such as his brother, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, an unofficial leader of this wing for many years).

The Republican Party at this time practically played only a most minor role in Arkansas politics.

However, his popularity and the break within Democratic camp, where many were outraged with Johnson's segregationist stances, and good year for the Republicans nationally helped Rockefeller to win.

Results

Arkansas gubernatorial election, 1966 [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%
Republican Winthrop Rockefeller 306,32454.36
Democratic James D. Johnson 257,20345.64
Total votes563,527100.00

Related Research Articles

Orval Faubus 36th governor of Arkansas (in office from 1955 to 1967)

Orval Eugene Faubus was an American politician who served as 36th Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967. In 1957, he refused to comply with a unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1954 case Brown v. Board of Education, and ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black students from attending Little Rock Central High School. This event became known as the Little Rock Crisis.

Joe Edward Purcell was Acting Governor of Arkansas for six days in 1979 as well as Arkansas Attorney General from 1967–1971 and the 13th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from 1975–1981.

Democratic Party of Arkansas

The Democratic Party of Arkansas is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Arkansas. It is responsible for promoting the ideologies and core values of the national Democratic Party in Arkansas.

Kenneth Lloyd Coon Sr., known as Ken Coon, is a Little Rock educator, professional psychologist, and counselor who was also a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in the U.S. state of Arkansas. He was the GOP state chairman from 1988–1990. Earlier, he was the party's nominee for lieutenant governor in 1972, its executive director (1973–1975), and its gubernatorial candidate in 1974. He also ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1996 but lost in the primary.

Len E. Blaylock Arkansas politician

Len Everette Blaylock Sr., was a farmer, educator, small businessman, and Republican politician from Nimrod in Perry County in northwestern Arkansas. He was state welfare commissioner under Governor Winthrop Rockefeller, the GOP gubernatorial nominee (1972), the United States marshal for the Eastern District of Arkansas (1975–1978), the appointments secretary for Governor Frank D. White (1981–1983), and the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party (1985–1986).

Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. was an American businessman and politician originally from Earle in Crittenden County in eastern Arkansas. He is best known as the 1968 Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat held by long-time Democrat J. William Fulbright of Fayetteville.

Henry Middleton Britt, III, was a Hot Springs lawyer and a pioneer in the revitalization of the Republican Party in the heavily Democratic state of Arkansas, primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. He was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1960, having been decisively defeated by Orval Eugene Faubus. In 1966, he was elected judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit of Arkansas, having served from 1967 to 1983. Britt was also a peripheral figure in the granting of repeated draft deferments in the late 1960s to future Governor of Arkansas and US President Bill Clinton, which made not have to join the US Army.

Willis Harvey Ricketts, known as Bubs Ricketts, was the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee in the U.S. state of Arkansas, having been overwhelmingly defeated by the incumbent Democrat Orval Faubus.

Lynn Lowe American politician

Aylmer Lynn Lowe, known as A. Lynn Lowe, was an American farmer and politician from Garland near Texarkana in Miller County in southwestern Arkansas, who was a major figure in the Arkansas Republican Party. He was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1978 against the Democrat Bill Clinton, served as state party chairman from 1974 to 1980, and was the GOP candidate in Arkansas's 4th congressional district in 1966, having been defeated by the Democrat David Pryor, then a state representative and a future governor and U.S. Senator, originally from Camden in Ouachita County in south Arkansas.

Virginia Lillian Morris Johnson was the first woman to seek the office of governor of Arkansas. She ran as a Democratic in the 1968 primary election.

Louis Leon Griffith was a master plumber from North Little Rock, who was the Arkansas Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1976, losing the election to Democratic incumbent Governor David H. Pryor.

Odell Pollard American political activist

Odell Pollard was an attorney in Searcy in White County in central Arkansas, who was a pioneer in the revitalization of the Arkansas Republican Party in the 1960s and 1970s.

Osro Cobb was a Republican lawyer who worked to establish a two-party system in the U.S. state of Arkansas. In 1926, he was elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives from Montgomery County and served as the only Republican member in the chamber for two two-year terms. He was the United States attorney for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas during the Little Rock Crisis of 1957–1958. He served a year on the Arkansas Supreme Court in 1966 as a temporary appointee of Democratic Governor Orval Faubus.

Danny Lee Patrick was an educator and farmer from rural Delaney in Madison County, Arkansas, who served from 1967 to 1970 as a Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for Madison and neighboring Carroll counties in the northwestern corner of his state. His legislative service coincided exactly with the administration of Winthrop Rockefeller, Arkansas' first GOP governor since Reconstruction.

James Ray Caldwell, known as Jim R. Caldwell, is a retired Church of Christ minister in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was a Republican member of the Arkansas State Senate from 1969 to 1978, the first member of his party to sit in the legislative upper chamber in the 20th century. His first two years as a senator corresponded with the second two-year term of Winthrop Rockefeller, the first Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. Caldwell was closely allied with Rockefeller during the 1969-1970 legislative sessions.

William Leach Spicer was a businessman from Fort Smith, Arkansas, who from 1962 to 1964 was the embattled state chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party.

Marion Harland Crank was a Democratic politician from Foreman in Little River County in the U.S. state of Arkansas. He served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1951 to 1968. He was the Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1963 to 1964 and his party's gubernatorial nominee in 1968, but he was narrowly defeated by the incumbent Republican Winthrop Rockefeller.

1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election

The 1967 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1967, in order to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Democrat Paul B. Johnson Jr. was term-limited, and could not run for reelection to a second term.

References

  1. ↑ Our Campaigns – AR Governor – D Primary Race – Jul 26, 1966
  2. ↑ Our Campaigns – AR Governor – D Runoff Race – Aug 09, 1966
  3. ↑ Our Campaigns - AR Governor Race - Nov 08, 1966
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.