1964 United States presidential election in New York

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1964 United States presidential election in New York
Flag of New York (1909-2020).svg
  1960 November 3, 1964 1968  
Turnout64.4% [1] Decrease2.svg 2.5 pp
  37 Lyndon Johnson 3x4 (cropped).jpg Goldwater and Miller (cropped).jpg
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Alliance Liberal
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote430
Popular vote4,913,1562,243,559
Percentage68.56%31.31%

New York Presidential Election Results 1964.svg
County Results
Johnson
  50-60%
  60-70%
  70-80%
  80-90%

The 1964 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. New York voters chose 43 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and his running mate, President pro tempore of the Senate Hubert Humphrey, against Republican challenger and Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona and his running mate and Chair of the Republican National Committee, William E. Miller.

Contents

Johnson carried the state in a historic landslide, taking 68.56% of the vote to Goldwater's 31.31%, a victory margin of 37.25%. This is the only election in history in which a Democratic presidential candidate carried every single county in the state of New York. The staunch conservative Barry Goldwater was widely seen in the liberal Northeast as a right-wing extremist; [2] he had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Johnson campaign portrayed him as a warmonger who as president would provoke a nuclear war. [3] Thus Goldwater performed especially weakly in northeastern states like New York: he wrote off the state and neighboring Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island from the beginning of his presidential campaign even before Kennedy's assassination. [4] For the first time in history, a Democratic presidential candidate swept every Northeastern state in 1964. Not only did Johnson win every Northeastern state, but he won all of them with over 60% of the vote. New York weighed in as the fifth most Democratic state in the nation.

Johnson dominated heavily Democratic cities such as New York City, the largest in the country, as well as the upstate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, which historically provided Democratic candidates an advantage. However, Johnson also swept every county in the state, including traditionally Republican parts of upstate New York and Long Island. Johnson carried all five boroughs of New York City, the first presidential candidate to do so since the landslide re-election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1936. In the borough of Manhattan, Johnson broke 80% of the vote, the first presidential candidate ever to do so. Brooklyn and the Bronx voted over 70% Democratic. Traditionally Republican Queens, narrowly carried by John F. Kennedy four years earlier in 1960, gave over 60% of the vote to Johnson. Even Staten Island voted Democratic, the only occasion it would do so between 1936 and 1996, although it was the only county to give Goldwater more than 45% of the vote. [5] Overall, New York City gave Johnson 73.02% of the vote, a citywide vote share no candidate would surpass until fellow Democrat Bill Clinton’s 77.10% in 1996. With 2,183,646 votes from the five boroughs, Johnson also received more votes in New York City than any other presidential candidate in history, setting a record that would hold until Democrat Hillary Clinton won 2,191,869 votes in 2016. Johnson's record of 4.9 million votes won by a single candidate in New York would hold for four years longer, being surpassed by Joe Biden in 2020.

Johnson's 68.56% of the vote remains the highest vote share any presidential candidate of either party has ever received in New York State. His 37.25% victory margin also remains the widest margin by which any Democratic presidential candidate has ever won New York State, and the second widest margin by which any candidate of either party has ever carried the state behind Republican Warren G. Harding’s 37.61% margin in the 1920 Republican landslide. [6] This result also made Johnson one of only three presidential candidates of either party who have been able to sweep every county in New York State, along with Harding in 1920 and his successor Calvin Coolidge in 1924. New York weighed in for this election as 15% more Democratic than the national average.

Results

1964 United States presidential election in New York
PartyPresidential NomineeVice Presidential NomineeVotesPercentageElectoral votes
Democratic Lyndon Baines JohnsonHubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr.4,570,72463.78%
Liberal Lyndon Baines JohnsonHubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr.342,4324.78%
Total Lyndon Baines Johnson (incumbent) Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. 4,913,15668.56%43
Republican Barry Morris Goldwater William Edward Miller 2,243,55931.31%0
Socialist Labor Eric Hass Henning A. Blomen 6,0850.08%0
Socialist Workers Clifton DeBerry Edward Walter Shaw 3,2150.04%0
Totals7,166,015100.0%43

New York City results

1964 Presidential Election in New York City Manhattan The Bronx Brooklyn Queens Staten Island Total
Democratic-
Liberal
Lyndon B. Johnson 503,848403,014684,839541,41850,5242,183,64373.02%
80.52%74.69%74.80%66.28%54.36%
Republican Barry Goldwater 120,125135,780229,291274,35142,330801,87726.81%
19.20%25.16%25.05%33.59%45.54%
Socialist Labor Eric Hass 966552879748713,2160.11%
0.15%0.10%0.10%0.09%0.08%
Socialist Workers Clifton DeBerry 780248494311211,8540.06%
0.12%0.05%0.05%0.04%0.02%
TOTAL625,719539,594915,503816,82892,9462,990,590100.00%

Results by county

CountyLyndon Baines Johnson
Democratic
Barry Morris Goldwater
Republican
Eric Hass [7]
Socialist Labor
Clifton DeBerry [7]
Socialist Workers
MarginTotal votes cast
# %# %# %# %# %
Albany 114,82778.03%32,22421.90%660.04%350.02%82,60356.13%147,152
Allegany 10,32957.26%7,68842.62%100.06%120.07%2,64114.64%18,039
Bronx 403,01474.69%135,78025.16%5520.10%2480.05%267,23449.53%539,594
Broome 59,02164.76%32,04835.16%540.06%160.02%26,97329.60%91,139
Cattaraugus 21,99466.78%10,90733.12%220.07%100.03%11,08733.67%32,933
Cayuga 24,09067.73%11,45332.20%130.04%100.03%12,63735.53%35,566
Chautauqua 42,92469.17%19,06930.73%440.07%190.03%23,85538.44%62,056
Chemung 26,33264.10%14,71635.82%240.06%100.02%11,61628.28%41,082
Chenango 11,65361.49%7,29338.48%40.02%20.01%4,36023.01%18,952
Clinton 18,39875.12%6,07824.82%90.04%70.03%12,32050.30%24,492
Columbia 14,51661.62%9,02338.30%130.06%60.03%5,49323.32%23,558
Cortland 11,11064.33%6,14935.61%40.02%70.04%4,96128.73%17,270
Delaware 11,68658.24%8,35941.66%150.07%40.02%3,32716.58%20,064
Dutchess 50,17962.94%29,50337.01%290.04%140.02%20,67625.93%79,725
Erie 344,91073.14%125,96226.71%5130.11%1910.04%218,94846.43%471,576
Essex 10,73964.75%5,83735.19%50.03%40.02%4,90229.56%16,585
Franklin 12,46771.94%4,84627.96%100.06%60.03%7,62143.98%17,329
Fulton 15,84668.46%7,27831.44%180.08%50.02%8,56837.02%23,147
Genesee 15,71365.91%8,11434.03%80.03%60.03%7,59931.87%23,841
Greene 10,03456.07%7,84243.82%90.05%90.05%2,19212.25%17,894
Hamilton 1,60355.80%1,26944.17%10.03%00.00%33411.63%2,873
Herkimer 20,13666.42%10,15933.51%110.04%110.04%9,97732.91%30,317
Jefferson 25,17570.10%10,71829.84%90.03%120.03%14,45740.25%35,914
Kings 684,83974.80%229,29125.05%8790.10%4940.05%455,54849.76%915,503
Lewis 6,58467.33%3,18532.57%50.05%50.05%3,39934.76%9,779
Livingston 13,48165.38%7,12034.53%80.04%100.05%6,36130.85%20,619
Madison 14,31361.75%8,85838.21%90.04%00.00%5,45523.53%23,180
Monroe 205,22671.86%80,09928.05%1700.06%870.03%125,12743.81%285,582
Montgomery 19,37069.52%8,47130.40%120.04%80.03%10,89939.12%27,861
Nassau 382,59060.53%248,88639.37%4280.07%2110.03%133,70421.15%632,115
New York 503,84880.52%120,12519.20%9660.15%7800.12%383,72361.33%625,719
Niagara 67,26070.07%28,66329.86%440.05%180.02%38,59740.21%95,985
Oneida 73,35964.80%39,73735.10%820.07%320.03%33,62229.70%113,210
Onondaga 128,63066.99%63,20532.92%1280.07%510.03%65,42534.07%192,014
Ontario 19,92264.72%10,84735.24%70.02%80.03%9,07529.48%30,784
Orange 48,24461.13%30,61038.78%490.06%210.03%17,63422.34%78,924
Orleans 9,30462.46%5,56737.37%180.12%70.05%3,73725.09%14,896
Oswego 24,78866.59%12,41533.35%130.03%100.03%12,37333.24%37,226
Otsego 15,19063.67%8,64336.23%190.08%70.03%6,54727.44%23,859
Putnam 12,63657.75%9,21942.14%110.05%130.06%3,41715.62%21,879
Queens 541,41866.28%274,35133.59%7480.09%3110.04%267,06732.70%816,828
Rensselaer 51,17071.01%20,81428.88%550.08%210.03%30,35642.13%72,060
Richmond 50,52454.36%42,33045.54%710.08%210.02%8,1948.82%92,946
Rockland 46,17363.74%26,18736.15%530.07%290.04%19,98627.59%72,442
St. Lawrence 29,17370.62%12,10229.30%230.05%240.06%17,07141.33%41,307
Saratoga 29,26468.57%13,36431.32%560.08%240.03%15,90037.26%42,675
Schenectady 51,89270.30%21,84829.60%80.07%30.03%30,04440.70%73,820
Schoharie 7,18763.09%4,19336.81%30.04%20.03%2,99426.28%11,391
Schuyler 4,32659.62%2,92540.31%70.05%60.04%1,40119.31%7,256
Seneca 8,89066.46%4,47333.44%200.05%120.03%4,41733.02%13,376
Steuben 24,63460.61%15,98839.34%150.04%80.02%8,64621.27%40,645
Suffolk 180,59855.51%144,35044.37%2770.09%1080.03%36,24811.14%325,333
Sullivan 16,72867.52%8,00632.31%230.09%180.07%8,72235.20%24,775
Tioga 10,41159.26%7,14740.68%40.02%50.03%3,26418.58%17,567
Tompkins 16,10363.90%9,07035.99%120.05%170.07%7,03327.91%25,202
Ulster 35,48659.82%23,74940.03%600.10%310.05%11,73719.78%59,326
Warren 12,77261.94%7,83437.99%100.05%40.02%4,93823.95%20,620
Washington 13,82662.87%8,16037.10%30.01%40.02%5,66625.76%21,993
Wayne 18,72963.83%10,58636.08%140.05%130.04%8,14327.75%29,342
Westchester 243,72361.98%149,05237.90%3180.08%1420.04%94,67124.07%393,235
Wyoming 8,86659.19%6,09940.71%100.07%50.03%2,76718.47%14,980
Yates 4,98357.52%3,67542.42%50.06%00.00%1,30815.10%8,663
Totals4,913,15668.56%2,243,55931.31%6,0850.08%3,2150.04%2,669,59737.25%7,166,015

Analysis

This is the only time in American history that the counties of Genesee, [8] Livingston, [9] Orleans, [10] and Wyoming [11] voted for the Democratic presidential nominee. It was also the first time in history that Chautauqua, Cortland, Essex, Ontario, Schuyler, and Washington counties voted Democratic, though not the last. Most of these counties were in the far western reaches of New York where the Whig Party was strongest in the Second Party System, before the rise of the Republican Party and during which Democrats regularly won more than a handful of upstate New York counties. [12]

Many counties ended long streaks of not voting Democratic: It was the first time since 1948 that Monroe County voted for a Democrat, the first time since 1936 that Richmond, Rockland, Schenectady, and Sullivan counties voted for a Democrat, the first time since 1932 that Rensselaer County voted for a Democrat, the first time since 1916 that Chemung, Greene, Hamilton, Otsego, and Schoharie counties voted for a Democrat, the first time since 1912 that Cattaraugus, Columbia, Herkimer, Lewis, Nassau, Putnam, Seneca, Steuben, Suffolk, Tompkins, Ulster, and Westchester counties voted for a Democrat, the first time since 1876 that Orange County voted for a Democrat, the first since 1872 that Dutchess county voted for a Democrat, and the first time since 1852 that numerous upstate counties voted for a Democrat, namely: Allegany, Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Jefferson, Madison, Onondaga, Oswego, St. Lawrence, Tioga, Warren, and Wayne counties. Finally, Fulton and Cayuga counties had not voted Democratic since 1844, and Saratoga county not since 1836 – 128 years prior. [13]

Unlike some analogous Northeastern counties where Johnson only won very narrowly, like Lancaster in Pennsylvania, Johnson won these normally Republican upstate counties by large margins over 25%. [5] Of these counties, Greene, Hamilton, Putnam, Steuben, Tioga, Allegany, and Wayne never voted Democratic since. Furthermore, Yates, Fulton, Chenango, Jefferson, Delaware, Herkimer, Lewis, Schoharie, Cattaraugus, Chemung, Oneida, Ontario, and Schuyler have only voted Democratic once since, for Bill Clinton in 1996. [13] This is one of two occasions between 1852 and 1992 that the Democratic candidate carried New York outside of the city (along with 1912), however, this was the only time they did so with a majority of the vote.

See also

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References

  1. Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.
  2. Donaldson, Gary; Liberalism’s Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964; p. 190 ISBN   1510702369
  3. Edwards, Lee and Schlafly, Phyllis; Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution; pp. 286-290 ISBN   162157458X
  4. Kelley, Stanley junior; ‘The Goldwater Strategy’; The Princeton Review ; pp. 8-11
  5. 1 2 "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  6. Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; Presidential General Election Results Comparison – New York
  7. 1 2 Our Campaigns; NY US President 1964
  8. The Political Graveyard; Genesee County, New York
  9. The Political Graveyard; Livingston County, New York
  10. "New York". Google Docs. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  11. Wyoming County, New York
  12. "Presidential election of 1832 - Map by counties". geoelections.free.fr. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  13. 1 2 "County Project (WIP)". Google Docs. Retrieved November 16, 2021.