1968 Presidential Election, Nixon vs. Humphrey and Wallace
Richard M. Nixon (Republican) won the 1968 election with 301 electoral votes and 43.2% of the popular vote. Hubert H. Humphrey (Democrat) received 191 electoral votes with 42.6% of the popular vote. George Wallace (American Independent) received 46 electoral votes with 12.9% of the popular vote. Richard Nixon had previously been elected to the House of Representatives (1946), Senate (1950), and was Vice President under Eisenhower (1952). He had previously run for president against John F. Kennedy in 1960. George Wallace was in the Alabama state assembly (1947-53), district court judge (1953-59), and Governor of Alabama (1962), and ran under a segregationalist platform. Humphrey had been elected mayor of Minneapolis (1945), Senate (1948), and was the current Vice President (1964) under Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson bowed out of the presidential race early, leaving Humphrey as the quasi-incumbent.
During the 1968 election the economy was in an expansion that ended up lasting 106 months. It started in1961 (IV) and continued through the 1964 and 1968 elections until 1969 (IV). Real GDP had been growing at high rates (1964, 5.8%, 1965, 6.4%, 1966, 6.6%) up until 1967 (2.5%). The year of the election, GDP shot back up for the first two quarters right before the election (1968 I, 8.4%, 1968 II, 7.1%). These two factors normally play a major part in elections but in this one they were offset by strongly criticized war policies by the incumbent administration, of which, Humphrey was a part of. The unemployment rate was not an issue since it had been steadily dropping each year until 1968. The unemployment rates leading up to the election were as follows: (1964, 5.2%), (1965, 4.5%), (1966, 3.8%), (1967, 3.8%), (1968, 3.6%). The inflation rates were more of an issue because they were increasing steadily each year, especially in 1968. Inflation rates leading up to the 1968 election were as follows: (1964, 1.37%), (1965, 1.62%), (1966, 2.92%), (1967, 2.84%), (1968, 4.26%).