Bear Voting California
Courtesy All-len-All
As this election season comes to a close, the two major party
candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are seldom seen in the Golden
State. Since 1992, a general election victory for the Democratic Party has been
a foregone conclusion in blue California. And with the exception of two anomalous year (2000 and 2004), since 1980 California has been a bellwether, with the
victor in this state mirroring the outcome of the General Election. Prior to
that, since 1964, Californians also voted for the winning candidate. Between
1964 and 2016, Californians have predicted the winner 84.6% of the time.
The election of 1964 bears some interesting similarities to
the wild, rancorous, and unpredictable election season of 2016. In that year
Barry Goldwater was the outlier Republican nominee, with Democratic Party
stalwart, incumbent President Lyndon Johnson the Democrat’s choice. As with this year, the
views of Republican nominee Goldwater were seen by many to be too extreme to
achieve victory. Prior to the convention, which was held at San Francisco’s Cow Palace, the previous Republican
president, Dwight Eisenhower, initially stumped for a Goldwater alternative,
the moderate Sen. William Scranton of Pennsylvania. (This year, of course, the
last two Republican presidents have refused to endorse their party’s nominee.) That year also saw a
first: Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine became the first woman
to have her name placed into nomination at a major party convention. Both would
go on to lose to Goldwater at the Republican convention. In the end, Lyndon
Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater, winning 486 Electoral College votes to
Goldwater’s 52. In
California Johnson beat Goldwater 59.1% to 40.8%.
By 1968, however, with Americans weary of civil unrest and
the Vietnam War, California voted Republican, helping to hand victory to
Richard Nixon over the Democrat, former Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Also in
that year, as a backlash to the Civil Rights Movement, American Independent
Party candidate and segregationist, Gov. George Wallace of Alabama, received 45
electoral votes, sweeping five southern states.
(Wallace would run again as a Democrat in 1972, but an assassination
attempt ended his campaign during the primaries.) In November 1972 Californians
again voted for the victor, the incumbent President Richard Nixon who trounced
Democrat George McGovern with 520 Electoral College votes to McGovern’s 17.
In this presidential year there is little doubt that
California will go blue, with Hillary Clinton the overwhelming favorite of
voters. As this turbulent airplane ride of an election arrives at its November
8 destination, the question is: Will California continue to be the oddsmaker’s best friend?
From our archives, a look back at some of the personalities
of elections years 1964, 1968, and 1972:
Margaret Chase Smith Airport Arrival, July 12, 1964
Photo by John McBride, San
Francisco Chronicle Collection, California Historical Society
Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, George Murphy, and Dwight Eisenhower,
July 14, 1964
Photo by Ken McLaughlin,
San Francisco Chronicle Collection, California Historical Society
Former President Dwight Eisenhower and Mamie en Route to the Republican
National Convention, 1964
San Francisco Chronicle
Collection, California Historical Society
Lyndon B. Johnson and Unidentified Man, date unknown
Photo by Del Ankers, San
Francisco Chronicle Collection, California Historical Society
Richard Nixon and Cousin Sally Milhous Fase, date unknown
Photo by Art Frisch, San
Francisco Chronicle Collection, California Historical Society
Keith Greene and Pat Dever at George Wallace Campaign Headquarters, May
17, 1972
Photo by Joseph J.
Rosenthal, San Francisco Chronicle Collection, California Historical Society
Senator Eugene McCarthy Speaking at the University of California's
Greek Theater in Berkeley, April 4, 1968
Photo by Peter Breinig,
San Francisco Chronicle Collection, California Historical Society
Alison Moore
Strategic Initiatives Liaison
Sources
University of California, Santa
Barbara, “The American Presidency Project,”
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php
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