Elección presidencial de los Estados Unidos de 1968 Gobierno de los Estados Unidos

Elección presidencial de Estados Unidos de 1968, elección presidencial estadounidense celebrada el 5 de noviembre de 1968, en la que el republicano Richard M. Nixon derrotó al demócrata Hubert H. Humphrey.

Antecedentes

El período previo a las elecciones de 1968 se transformó en 1967 cuando el senador demócrata de Minnesota, Eugene J. McCarthy, desafió a los presidentes demócratas. Lyndon B. Johnson sobre sus políticas de guerra de Vietnam. Johnson había sucedido a la presidencia en 1963, tras el asesinato de John F. Kennedy, y había sido reelegido abrumadoramente en 1964. Al principio de su mandato fue inmensamente popular, pero la participación de Estados Unidos en Vietnam, que se había incrementado de manera invisible durante las administraciones presidenciales de Tanto Dwight D. Eisenhower como Kennedy, se hicieron muy visibles con el rápido aumento de los peajes de muerte de Estados Unidos y, a medida que aumentaba la impopularidad de la guerra, también lo hizo Johnson.

Las elecciones de 1966 restablecieron a los republicanos como una gran minoría en el Congreso, y la legislación social se desaceleró, compitiendo con la Guerra de Vietnam por el dinero disponible. A pesar de la Ley de Derechos Civiles (1964) y la Ley de Derechos Electorales (1965), muchos afroamericanos se desencantaron con el progreso en materia de derechos civiles. Por lo tanto, surgió un movimiento de "Poder Negro", que alcanzó la popularidad de Johnson incluso entre los afroamericanos. Un aumento general de la delincuencia y la violencia esporádica en las ciudades aumentaron la aprensión en las comunidades blancas. La respuesta fue un llamado a “ley y orden”, y se convirtió no solo en un problema, sino que muchos creyeron, una palabra clave para la represión afroamericana.

A principios de 1968, el gobernador republicano de Michigan George Romney anunció su candidatura a la presidencia. Muchos creyeron que el gobernador de Nueva York, Nelson Rockefeller, también podría ser un retador, y George Wallace, ex gobernador demócrata de Alabama y segregacionista durante su mandato, comenzó a insinuar su interés en el cargo. Las facciones de paz y los militantes negros hablaron de nominar a sus propios candidatos, y una repetición de la carrera a cuatro bandas de 1948 parecía posible.

Primarias

In this setting, McCarthy, whose criticism of the administration on its Vietnam policies had become increasingly caustic, announced his candidacy for president and entered the New Hampshire primary—the first of the presidential primaries. Rockefeller denied that he was a candidate but said that he would accept a draft; 30 Republican leaders endorsed him. At this time Nixon, who had been Eisenhower’s vice president and who had narrowly lost to Kennedy in 1960, declared that new leadership could end the war; he announced his candidacy and entered the New Hampshire primary.

McCarthy was the only major Democrat on the New Hampshire ballot, but, shortly before the March 12 voting, Democratic regulars, alarmed by the effectiveness of McCarthy’s legion of young amateur campaign workers, mounted a desperate write-in campaign for the president. Johnson won 48 percent of the vote, but McCarthy, with 42 percent, won 20 of the 24 delegates. Nixon won the Republican primary; Romney, with polls indicating that he had little hope of winning, had withdrawn from the primary and the presidential race.

A few days later Robert F. Kennedy announced that he would enter the race on the Democratic side. On March 31 President Johnson stunned the country by announcing an end to the bombing of most of North Vietnam—and his decision not to seek reelection. Two days later McCarthy won a somewhat diluted triumph over the president in the Wisconsin primary.

The following Thursday, April 4, African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Grief and shock among African Americans turned to anger, which found expression in rioting and violence in more than 100 cities, leading many white voters to look more closely at Wallace, who was stressing “law and order” and promising to be on the ballot in 50 states.

After King’s funeral, McCarthy, unopposed, won a preferential primary but no delegates in Pennsylvania. However, he took all the delegates in the Massachusetts primary. The upset Republican winner in Massachusetts was Rockefeller, for whom a hasty write-in campaign had been contrived. Rockefeller beat Gov. John Volpe, who was on the ballot, and Richard Nixon, who was not, and reversed his decision not to run.

Johnson’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, took four weeks to assess his chances after Johnson’s withdrawal. Humphrey then declared his candidacy and hurriedly assembled an organization to hunt delegates. In the Indiana primary Kennedy defeated both McCarthy and Indiana Gov. Roger Branigan. He also won in Washington, D.C., and trounced McCarthy in Nebraska. In Oregon McCarthy won his only primary victory over an active opponent who was on the ballot, handing Kennedy his first election defeat and winning 45 percent of the vote to Kennedy’s 39 percent. The next week, on June 4, Kennedy scored a solid victory over McCarthy in California, but shortly after midnight, as the votes were still being counted, Kennedy was fatally shot.

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Nixon, meanwhile, won every Republican primary he entered; the Massachusetts write-in effort for Rockefeller was his only reverse. Rockefeller intensified his efforts and in mid-July finished a 44-state tour as his $3 million advertising campaign reached a peak.

Humphrey entered no primaries, but he was able to gain enough delegates in those states without primaries to give him apparent control over the convention. However, dissenters were taking an increasingly hard line against him and the administration. To ardent liberals, Humphrey—until recently denounced by rightists as a dangerous radical—was becoming the very image of the establishment.