The Craziest Election in Modern US History

Lucas Uhm,
Calvary Chapel High School
11th grade

And it’s not the 2016 presidential election. While nowadays it may seem that

the 2016 presidential election has been one for the ages with the media being

dominated by a former reality TV star and seemingly no one with the gravitas

necessary to be president, it may be comforting (or disturbing) to know that, well, it could always be worse. In fact, it has been worse.

The election of 1968 occurred during a very tumultuous time in history.

500,000 American soldiers were in Vietnam fighting a seemingly impossible war.

Racial tensions soared, with Martin Luther King assassinated in April 1968. The

main candidates running for the Democratic Party nomination were Hubert

Humphrey, Vice President under the sitting president Lyndon B. Johnson, and

Robert F. Kennedy, New York Senator and brother of John F. Kennedy. Robert

Kennedy was a formidable candidate to Humphrey, who was led in delegates early on. However, Robert Kennedy was shot and killed after Kennedy had given a speech and went to meet reporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. His killer, a 24-year-old Palestinian, hated Kennedy for his support of Israel. With Kennedy out of the race, Humphrey seemed like a shoe-in and the Democratic Convention, which decided the Democratic nomination, would go easily.

However, the Democratic Convention itself was met with extreme events.

Thousands of anti-war protesters met outside the Chicago Hilton Hotel where the 1968 Democratic National Convention was being held. Chanting “the whole world is watching,” the protestors outside the hotel were beaten and tear gassed by the Chicago police.

The publicity of this occurrence left a stain on Hubert Humphrey, who easily won the Democratic nomination at that Convention.

The negative publicity of the violence and the clash between protestors and police at the Chicago Democratic National Convention allowed Richard Nixon to win the election with the final electoral vote being 301-191.

This election shook the Democratic Party, as up until this election, the Democratic Party was considered the majority party, influencing almost all levels of government. However, following the election, the party lost this influence, with only 2 Democratic presidents (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) elected between 1968 to 2004. This election also featured the last third-party candidate to win at least one state in the general election, former Alabama Governor George Wallace.

Wallace won many states in the Deep South and was a strong advocate for segregation in the public schools. He won 13.5% of the vote in the general election, accounting for nearly 10,000,000 votes.

2 Comments

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