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1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas

Main article: 1964 United States presidential election

The 1964 presidential election in Arkansas was held on November 3, 1964 as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. State voters chose six electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson won the state of Arkansas with 56.06% of the popular vote,[1] which was a substantial increase upon John F. Kennedy's 50.19% from the preceding election, although the Republican vote remained virtually unchanged at 43.41%. Johnson won all but ten of Arkansas' seventy-five counties, and all four congressional districts. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Arkansas voted for a different candidate than neighboring Louisiana. Furthermore, with Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina voting for Goldwater, Arkansas became the last Southern state to have never voted for a Republican candidate since the end of Reconstruction.

1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas
← 1960 November 3, 1964 1968 →
 
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote 6 0
Popular vote 314,197 243,264
Percentage 56.1% 43.4%
County Results
President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Results

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1964 United States presidential election in Arkansas
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Lyndon Johnson (inc.) 314,197 56.06% 6
Republican Barry Goldwater 243,264 43.41% 0
National States' Rights John Kasper 2,965 0.53% 0
Totals 560,426 100.00% 6
Voter turnout (Voting age/Registered Voters) 50.6%/78.3%

Results by county

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County Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic 		Barry Goldwater
Republican 		John Kasper
National States’ Rights 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Arkansas 3,200 45.78% 3,769 53.92% 21 0.30% -569 -8.14% 6,990
Ashley 2,901 43.23% 3,742 55.77% 67 1.00% -841 -12.54% 6,710
Baxter 2,900 59.29% 1,986 40.61% 5 0.10% 914 18.68% 4,891
Benton 5,655 48.49% 5,977 51.25% 30 0.26% -322 -2.76% 11,662
Boone 3,770 56.73% 2,857 42.99% 19 0.29% 913 13.74% 6,646
Bradley 2,229 54.34% 1,852 45.15% 21 0.51% 377 9.19% 4,102
Calhoun 1,409 60.68% 889 38.29% 24 1.03% 520 22.39% 2,322
Carroll 2,005 48.78% 2,105 51.22% 0 0.00% -100 -2.44% 4,110
Chicot 2,916 59.47% 1,972 40.22% 15 0.31% 944 19.25% 4,903
Clark 4,127 68.36% 1,884 31.21% 26 0.43% 2,243 37.15% 6,037
Clay 3,280 61.64% 1,999 37.57% 42 0.79% 1,281 24.07% 5,321
Cleburne 2,645 68.26% 1,221 31.51% 9 0.23% 1,424 36.75% 3,875
Cleveland 1,121 51.78% 1,026 47.39% 18 0.83% 95 4.39% 2,165
Columbia 3,485 46.26% 4,009 53.22% 39 0.52% -524 -6.96% 7,533
Conway 4,205 63.69% 2,378 36.02% 19 0.29% 1,827 27.67% 6,602
Craighead 8,334 61.55% 5,163 38.13% 44 0.32% 3,171 23.42% 13,541
Crawford 3,537 51.62% 3,294 48.07% 21 0.31% 243 3.55% 6,852
Crittenden 4,168 50.20% 4,065 48.96% 69 0.83% 103 1.24% 8,302
Cross 2,421 52.86% 2,147 46.88% 12 0.26% 274 5.98% 4,580
Dallas 1,779 51.61% 1,625 47.14% 43 1.25% 154 4.47% 3,447
Desha 3,294 62.91% 1,930 36.86% 12 0.23% 1,364 26.05% 5,236
Drew 1,980 48.05% 2,109 51.18% 32 0.78% -129 -3.13% 4,121
Faulkner 6,116 64.95% 3,259 34.61% 42 0.45% 2,857 30.34% 9,417
Franklin 2,685 62.47% 1,580 36.76% 33 0.77% 1,105 25.71% 4,298
Fulton 1,704 66.64% 846 33.09% 7 0.27% 858 33.55% 2,557
Garland 11,591 53.59% 9,952 46.01% 86 0.40% 1,639 7.58% 21,629
Grant 1,678 55.07% 1,308 42.93% 61 2.00% 370 12.14% 3,047
Greene 4,742 67.39% 2,271 32.27% 24 0.34% 2,471 35.12% 7,037
Hempstead 3,355 56.95% 2,493 42.32% 43 0.73% 862 14.63% 5,891
Hot Spring 4,543 60.40% 2,911 38.70% 68 0.90% 1,632 21.70% 7,522
Howard 1,320 43.10% 1,649 53.84% 94 3.07% -329 -10.74% 3,063
Independence 4,455 64.01% 2,470 35.49% 35 0.50% 1,985 28.52% 6,960
Izard 1,736 69.83% 726 29.20% 24 0.97% 1,010 40.63% 2,486
Jackson 4,651 68.12% 2,141 31.36% 36 0.53% 2,510 36.76% 6,828
Jefferson 12,872 56.04% 9,968 43.40% 129 0.56% 2,904 12.64% 22,969
Johnson 3,127 66.77% 1,535 32.78% 21 0.45% 1,592 33.99% 4,683
Lafayette 1,484 50.02% 1,476 49.75% 7 0.24% 8 0.27% 2,967
Lawrence 3,498 63.16% 2,013 36.35% 27 0.49% 1,485 26.81% 5,538
Lee 2,335 58.21% 1,668 41.59% 8 0.20% 667 16.62% 4,011
Lincoln 2,468 63.58% 1,410 36.32% 4 0.10% 1,058 27.26% 3,882
Little River 2,040 63.87% 1,141 35.72% 13 0.41% 899 28.15% 3,194
Logan 3,604 61.13% 2,265 38.42% 27 0.46% 1,339 22.71% 5,896
Lonoke 3,818 51.06% 3,636 48.63% 23 0.31% 182 2.43% 7,477
Madison 2,715 57.45% 1,997 42.26% 14 0.30% 718 15.19% 4,726
Marion 1,661 60.20% 1,088 39.43% 10 0.36% 573 20.77% 2,759
Miller 5,190 54.68% 4,253 44.81% 49 0.52% 937 9.87% 9,492
Mississippi 8,678 58.20% 6,213 41.67% 20 0.13% 2,465 16.53% 14,911
Monroe 2,258 53.29% 1,968 46.45% 11 0.26% 290 6.84% 4,237
Montgomery 1,358 61.67% 832 37.78% 12 0.54% 526 23.89% 2,202
Nevada 2,190 60.41% 1,406 38.79% 29 0.80% 784 21.62% 3,625
Newton 1,374 49.62% 1,357 49.01% 38 1.37% 17 0.61% 2,769
Ouachita 7,056 65.96% 3,572 33.39% 70 0.65% 3,484 32.57% 10,698
Perry 1,320 55.30% 1,048 43.90% 19 0.80% 272 11.40% 2,387
Phillips 5,818 59.43% 3,963 40.48% 9 0.09% 1,855 18.95% 9,790
Pike 1,531 54.93% 1,241 44.53% 15 0.54% 290 10.40% 2,787
Poinsett 5,635 64.93% 3,031 34.92% 13 0.15% 2,604 30.01% 8,679
Polk 2,575 55.88% 2,022 43.88% 11 0.24% 553 12.00% 4,608
Pope 4,972 63.91% 2,651 34.07% 157 2.02% 2,321 29.84% 7,780
Prairie 1,812 54.74% 1,476 44.59% 22 0.66% 336 10.15% 3,310
Pulaski 40,535 51.12% 38,312 48.32% 442 0.56% 2,223 2.80% 79,289
Randolph 2,680 66.85% 1,312 32.73% 17 0.42% 1,368 34.12% 4,009
St. Francis 3,651 51.88% 3,377 47.98% 10 0.14% 274 3.90% 7,038
Saline 5,605 60.18% 3,628 38.96% 80 0.86% 1,977 21.22% 9,313
Scott 1,838 62.01% 1,121 37.82% 5 0.17% 717 24.19% 2,964
Searcy 1,508 47.68% 1,649 52.13% 6 0.19% -141 -4.45% 3,163
Sebastian 10,299 43.84% 13,110 55.80% 84 0.36% -2,811 -11.96% 23,493
Sevier 2,123 62.75% 1,249 36.92% 11 0.33% 874 25.83% 3,383
Sharp 1,810 59.40% 1,215 39.88% 22 0.72% 595 19.52% 3,047
Stone 1,374 58.72% 942 40.26% 24 1.03% 432 18.46% 2,340
Union 6,948 44.60% 8,472 54.38% 160 1.03% -1,524 -9.78% 15,580
Van Buren 2,054 61.28% 1,270 37.89% 28 0.84% 784 23.39% 3,352
Washington 10,166 59.55% 6,856 40.16% 48 0.28% 3,310 19.39% 17,070
White 6,566 56.20% 5,023 42.99% 95 0.81% 1,543 13.21% 11,684
Woodruff 2,307 62.47% 1,366 36.99% 20 0.54% 941 25.48% 3,693
Yell 3,407 68.86% 1,527 30.86% 14 0.28% 1,880 38.00% 4,948
Totals 314,197 56.06% 243,264 43.41% 2,965 0.53% 70,933 12.65% 560,426

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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Analysis

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Given the segregationism of its long-serving governor Orval Faubus, who had gained almost seven percent of the vote in the preceding presidential election, Arkansas would have seemed[according to whom?] potentially likely to succumb to Goldwater due to his opposition to the recent Civil Rights Act. However, the GOP's nomination of the moderate Winthrop Rockefeller in the party's first serious run for governor in the state since Reconstruction took the steam out of a Goldwater challenge.[2] Faubus refused to endorse Goldwater,[3] despite hesitating over this during the summer. In addition, many white Southerners commented to the effect that

Goldwater is right on the black man, and that is very important. But he is so wrong on everything else I can't bring myself to vote for him.[4]

In mid-July, Texas Governor John Connally had made private polls suggesting that Johnson would lose Arkansas, in addition to the Deep South states of Mississippi and Alabama which were leaning heavily towards Goldwater.[5] Nonetheless, that the increase in black registration in Arkansas had exceeded Kennedy's margin in 1960 suggested that Johnson's civil rights legislation did have some potential to help him,[5] and in early August polls suddenly became confident Johnson would carry the state due to Goldwater's policies of privatizing Social Security and expanding the war in Southeast Asia – a policy that did not play well in this isolationist state.[6] By October, a New York Times poll saw Arkansas as "safe" for Johnson[7] and his leads in polls increased as election day came closer.[8]

Ultimately, Johnson comfortably carried Arkansas, becoming the twenty-third and last consecutive Democratic presidential nominee to win the state; however, anti-civil rights sentiment did cause Arkansas to vote 9.92 percentage points more Republican than the nation at-large – this being the first time in 96 years when it voted less Democratic than the nation.

Johnson doubled Kennedy's margin, and reclaimed the counties of Clay, Craighead, Fulton, Marion, Randolph and Sharp, which in 1960 had defected to the GOP for the first time ever or since Reconstruction as a result of powerful anti-Catholicism.[9] Johnson also claimed thirteen other Ozark counties which had supported Nixon in 1960.

However, in the Delta and south of the state sufficient backlash against black civil rights occurred for Goldwater to claim six counties in those regions from the Democrats.[10] Of these, only state namesake Arkansas County had ever been carried by a Republican since the McKinley era.[a] Ashley County and Drew County voted Republican for the first time since James G. Blaine in 1884,[11] Union County for the first time since 1872, and Columbia and Howard Counties for the first time ever.[10]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Arkansas County had voted for Warren G. Harding in 1920 and for Dwight D. Eisenhower in both 1952 and 1956.

References

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  1. ^ "1964 Presidential General Election Results – Arkansas". Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  2. ^ Johnson, Robert David; All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election, p. 225 ISBN 0521737524
  3. ^ Bass, Jack and De Vries, Walter; The Transformation of Southern Politics Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945, p. 93 ISBN 0820317284
  4. ^ Converse, Philip E., Clausen, Åge R. and Miller, Warren E.; 'Electoral Myth and Reality: The 1964 Election'; The American Political Science Review, Vol. 59, No. 2 (June 1965), pp. 321–336
  5. ^ a b Johnson; All the Way with LBJ, p. 168
  6. ^ Roberts, Chalmers M.; 'Goldwater Riding High in South, Survey Finds: Has Firm Hold on Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida; Texas Rates Tossup'; Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1964, p. I2
  7. ^ Wicker, Tom; 'Big Johnson Lead Found in Survey'; The New York Times, October 6, 1964, pp. 1, 28
  8. ^ Johnson; All the Way with LBJ, p. 275
  9. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 87 ISBN 0786422173
  10. ^ a b Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, p. 91
  11. ^ Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 149–153
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