The 1968 Presidential election
As 1968 began, it looked as if President Johnson, despite the rapidly-increasing unpopularity of his Vietnam War policies, would easily win the Democratic nomination for a second time. Humphrey indicated to Johnson that he would like to be his running mate again. However, in the
New Hampshire primary Johnson was nearly defeated by Senator
Eugene McCarthy of
Minnesota; McCarthy had challenged Johnson on an anti-war platform. A few days later Senator
Robert Kennedy of
New York also entered the race on an anti-war platform. On
March 31,
1968, a week before the
Wisconsin primary, where the polls predicted a loss to McCarthy, President
Lyndon B. Johnson stunned the nation by withdrawing from his race for a second term. Humphrey immediately re-evaluated his position, and then announced his presidential candidacy in late April 1968. Many people saw Humphrey as Johnson's stand-in; he won major backing from the nation's
labor unions and other Democratic groups that were troubled by young antiwar protestors and the social unrest around the nation. Humphrey avoided the primaries (and/or was too late to enter them) and concentrated on winning delegates in non-primary states; by June he was seen as the clear front-runner for the nomination. However, following his victory over McCarthy in the
California primary, it appeared that if Kennedy could unite the forces opposed to the Vietnam War that he could possibly beat Humphrey for the nomination. However, the night of the California primary, Senator Kennedy was assassinated. With the support of Mayor
Richard J. Daley, Humphrey and his
running mate,
Ed Muskie went on to easily win the Democratic nomination at the
party convention in
Chicago,
Illinois. Unfortunately for Humphrey's presidential chances, outside the convention hall there were riots and protests by thousands of
antiwar demonstrators, some of whom favored
Eugene McCarthy,
George McGovern, or other "anti-war" candidates. These antiwar protestors - most of whom were young college students - were attacked and beaten on live television by Chicago police. Humphrey's inaction during the riots, and the turmoil within the Democratic Party, created divisions that Humphrey was never able to overcome in the general election, despite a vigorous and forceful campaign. Humphrey was also hurt by the third-party campaign of former
Alabama Governor
George Wallace, a Southern Democrat whose veiled
racism and militant opposition to antiwar protestors attracted millions of Northern and Midwestern
blue-collar votes that would otherwise have probably gone to Humphrey.
Humphrey lost
the 1968 election to
Richard M. Nixon. His campaign was hurt in part because Humphrey had secured the presidential nomination without entering a single primary. In later years, changes to the party rules made such an outcome virtually impossible. During his underdog campaign, Humphrey grew on voters, who saw a kind of transparent decency as well as a mind that quickly grasped complicated issues. Starting out substantially behind Nixon in the polls, he had almost closed the gap by election day. Humphrey lost the election by 0.7 % of the popular vote: 43.4% (31,783,783 votes) for Nixon to 42.7% (31,271,839 votes) for Humphrey, with 13.5% (9,901,118 votes) for
George Wallace of
Alabama. In the electoral college Humphrey carried 13 states with 191 electoral votes, to Nixon's 32 states and 301 electoral votes, and Wallace's 5 states and 46 electoral votes (270 were needed to win).
While he was Vice President, Hubert Humphrey was the subject of a satirical song by songwriter/musician
Tom Lehrer entitled "Whatever Became of Hubert?" ("I wonder how many people here tonight remember Hubert Humphrey. He used to be a senator..."). The song addressed how some
liberals and
progressives felt let down by Humphrey, who had become a much more mute figure as Vice President than he had been as a senator. The song goes
"Whatever became of Hubert? Has anyone heard a thing? Once he shone on his own, now he sits home alone and waits for the phone to ring. Once a fiery liberal spirit, ah, but now when he speaks he must clear it. ..."
Immensely admired by associates and members of his staff, Humphrey could not break loose from the domination of Lyndon Johnson. The combination of the unpopularity of Johnson, the Chicago riots, and the discouragement of liberals and African-Americans when both
Robert F. Kennedy and
Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated during the election year caused him to lose to a candidate many thought less qualified to be president.The war that Humphrey was saddled with in the Johnson Administration continued until the mid-1970s.