1968 Electoral Map

1968 Election Results

Richard Nixon defeated Vice President Hubert Humphrey, winning 301 electoral votes to 191, while George Wallace received 46. Nixon’s popular-vote lead was less than one percentage point — a narrow victory that nevertheless dismantled Johnson’s 1964 electoral coalition.

Nixon flipped California, Illinois and Ohio, combining large industrial states with Republican strength across much of the West. His narrow wins in Ohio and Missouri were especially important: losing both would have left him short of an Electoral College majority.

The South fractured three ways. Wallace’s segregationist campaign carried Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Nixon won Florida, Virginia, Tennessee and the Carolinas, while Humphrey held Texas. The region that had once anchored Democratic presidential victories was now largely beyond the party’s reach.

Vietnam divided Democrats, Johnson abandoned his reelection bid, and assassinations and violence deepened the sense of national crisis. Nixon’s promise to restore order gave him an opening. Humphrey closed much of the gap late in the campaign, but could not rebuild enough of Johnson’s coalition. Four years after their landslide defeat, Republicans had recaptured the presidency with just 43% of the vote.