1964 United States presidential election in Florida

The 1964 United States presidential election in Florida was held November 3, 1964. All contemporary fifty states and the District of Columbia took part, and Florida voters selected fourteen electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Main article: 1964 United States presidential election
1964 United States presidential election in Florida
November 3, 1964
Turnout74%
 
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote 14 0
Popular vote 948,540 905,941
Percentage 51.15% 48.85%
County results
President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

 Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elections in Florida
Government

Background

Like all former Confederate States, Florida following the end of Reconstruction had become a one-party Democratic state as the introduction of poll taxes and literacy tests effectively disfranchised the entire black population and many poor whites. Unlike southern states extending into the Appalachian Mountains or Ozarks, or Texas with its German settlements in the Edwards Plateau, Florida completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession. Thus its Republican Party between 1872 and 1888 was entirely dependent upon black votes, as one can see from the fact that so late as the landmark court case of Smith v. Allwright, half of Florida’s registered Republicans were still black[1] – although very few blacks in Florida had ever voted within the previous fifty-five years. Thus this disfranchisement of blacks and poor whites by a poll tax introduced in 1889[2] left Florida as devoid of Republican adherents as Louisiana, Mississippi or South Carolina.[3]

Immigration of northerners into the previously undeveloped areas of South Florida, along with fierce anti-Catholicism in the northern Piney Woods, did give Herbert Hoover a freakish victory in 1928,[4] but apart from that the Democratic Party lost only six counties at a presidential level between 1892 and 1944.[5]

Things began to change in the late 1940s, as new migrants from traditionally Republican northern states in Central Florida took their Republican voting habits with them at the presidential level,[6] restricting Harry Truman to under half the statewide vote in 1948 and allowing Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon to carry the state in the following three elections. The GOP reached over seventy percent in the retirement areas of the southwest coast, and its success was greatest in areas which had historically not had plantation agriculture and favoured little or no economic regulation.[7] In contrast, North Florida’s Piney Woods had remained loyal to the Democratic Party at all levels despite the 1960 Presidential ticket being headed by another Roman Catholic in John F. Kennedy.

Between the 1960 and 1964 elections, North Florida was severely affected by civil rights protests, especially over school and university integration.[8] Contrariwise, the retirement communities further south that had become powerfully Republican in presidential elections over the previous fifteen years were extremely hostile to GOP nominee Barry Goldwater’s desire to privatize Social Security.[9]

Vote

The two contrasting trends noted previously produced a major reversal in the voting patterns from the previous four presidential elections: indeed at a county level there was essentially zero correlation between 1960 and 1964 party percentages,[10] and as many as 43% of voters switched parties.[11]

Incumbent President Lyndon Johnson overall won Florida against Goldwater by 42,599 votes, a margin of 2.30%, or a swing of 5.32% from the 1960 result. Increased registration of black voters – it had reached 51% by the time of the election – was crucial to Johnson regaining Florida: in the northern counties of Lafayette and Liberty where no blacks were registered, swings toward Goldwater reached over 100 percentage points.[12]

Florida was the second-closest state win by Johnson after Idaho.[13] As of the 2016 presidential election, this is the last election in which the Democratic candidate carried Charlotte County.[14]

Results
1964 United States presidential election in Florida[13]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Democratic Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas Hubert Horatio Humphrey of Minnesota 948,540 51.15% 14 100.00%
Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona William E. Miller of New York 905,941 48.85% 0 0.00%
Total 1,854,841 100.00% 14 100.00%

Results by county
County Lyndon Baines Johnson
Democratic		 Barry Morris Goldwater
Republican		 Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # %
Alachua 13,483 54.73% 11,151 45.27% 2,332 9.47% 24,634
Baker 1,137 50.35% 1,121 49.65% 16 0.71% 2,258
Bay 7,846 37.91% 12,849 62.09% -5,003 -24.17% 20,695
Bradford 2,320 53.87% 1,987 46.13% 333 7.73% 4,307
Brevard 24,833 50.29% 24,551 49.71% 282 0.57% 49,384
Broward 68,406 44.51% 85,264 55.49% -16,858 -10.97% 153,670
Calhoun 980 35.34% 1,793 64.66% -813 -29.32% 2,773
Charlotte 4,831 53.71% 4,163 46.29% 668 7.43% 8,994
Citrus 2,521 51.98% 2,329 48.02% 192 3.96% 4,850
Clay 3,114 45.01% 3,805 54.99% -691 -9.99% 6,919
Collier 2,877 44.55% 3,581 55.45% -704 -10.90% 6,458
Columbia 3,249 43.94% 4,145 56.06% -896 -12.12% 7,394
Dade 208,941 64.01% 117,480 35.99% 91,461 28.02% 326,421
DeSoto 1,777 47.22% 1,986 52.78% -209 -5.55% 3,763
Dixie 923 50.41% 908 49.59% 15 0.82% 1,831
Duval 79,365 49.45% 81,116 50.55% -1,751 -1.09% 160,481
Escambia 25,371 43.91% 32,414 56.09% -7,043 -12.19% 57,785
Flagler 940 56.69% 718 43.31% 222 13.39% 1,658
Franklin 1,366 49.05% 1,419 50.95% -53 -1.90% 2,785
Gadsden 4,556 46.67% 5,207 53.33% -651 -6.67% 9,763
Gilchrist 711 56.83% 540 43.17% 171 13.67% 1,251
Glades 441 44.91% 541 55.09% -100 -10.18% 982
Gulf 1,659 45.33% 2,001 54.67% -342 -9.34% 3,660
Hamilton 1,302 52.93% 1,158 47.07% 144 5.85% 2,460
Hardee 1,908 45.12% 2,321 54.88% -413 -9.77% 4,229
Hendry 1,352 45.04% 1,650 54.96% -298 -9.93% 3,002
Hernando 2,320 49.82% 2,337 50.18% -17 -0.37% 4,657
Highlands 4,233 47.14% 4,747 52.86% -514 -5.72% 8,980
Hillsborough 71,289 58.48% 50,616 41.52% 20,673 16.96% 121,905
Holmes 1,193 27.00% 3,225 73.00% -2,032 -45.99% 4,418
Indian River 5,122 45.28% 6,191 54.72% -1,069 -9.45% 11,313
Jackson 4,386 38.31% 7,064 61.69% -2,678 -23.39% 11,450
Jefferson 1,504 47.18% 1,684 52.82% -180 -5.65% 3,188
Lafayette 545 45.68% 648 54.32% -103 -8.63% 1,193
Lake 7,773 37.61% 12,897 62.39% -5,124 -24.79% 20,670
Lee 10,204 44.19% 12,886 55.81% -2,682 -11.62% 23,090
Leon 10,927 41.85% 15,181 58.15% -4,254 -16.29% 26,108
Levy 1,986 55.69% 1,580 44.31% 406 11.39% 3,566
Liberty 377 29.29% 910 70.71% -533 -41.41% 1,287
Madison 2,121 42.91% 2,822 57.09% -701 -14.18% 4,943
Manatee 13,074 43.26% 17,147 56.74% -4,073 -13.48% 30,221
Marion 9,112 45.58% 10,879 54.42% -1,767 -8.84% 19,991
Martin 3,621 45.76% 4,292 54.24% -671 -8.48% 7,913
Monroe 8,936 64.86% 4,842 35.14% 4,094 29.71% 13,778
Nassau 2,781 47.02% 3,134 52.98% -353 -5.97% 5,915
Okaloosa 7,890 44.20% 9,961 55.80% -2,071 -11.60% 17,851
Okeechobee 1,016 43.57% 1,316 56.43% -300 -12.86% 2,332
Orange 38,248 43.90% 48,884 56.10% -10,636 -12.21% 87,132
Osceola 3,531 43.88% 4,516 56.12% -985 -12.24% 8,047
Palm Beach 43,836 46.91% 49,614 53.09% -5,778 -6.18% 93,450
Pasco 8,135 51.68% 7,606 48.32% 529 3.36% 15,741
Pinellas 98,381 55.02% 80,414 44.98% 17,967 10.05% 178,795
Polk 29,355 44.98% 35,906 55.02% -6,551 -10.04% 65,261
Putnam 4,995 49.62% 5,072 50.38% -77 -0.76% 10,067
St. Johns 4,357 36.90% 7,450 63.10% -3,093 -26.20% 11,807
St. Lucie 7,748 51.82% 7,204 48.18% 544 3.64% 14,952
Santa Rosa 3,570 37.37% 5,983 62.63% -2,413 -25.26% 9,553
Sarasota 13,937 38.87% 21,917 61.13% -7,980 -22.26% 35,854
Seminole 9,125 47.52% 10,078 52.48% -953 -4.96% 19,203
Sumter 2,259 58.07% 1,631 41.93% 628 16.14% 3,890
Suwannee 2,393 44.36% 3,002 55.64% -609 -11.29% 5,395
Taylor 1,708 39.09% 2,661 60.91% -953 -21.81% 4,369
Union 740 51.03% 710 48.97% 30 2.07% 1,450
Volusia 34,901 58.28% 24,988 41.72% 9,913 16.55% 59,889
Wakulla 753 37.22% 1,270 62.78% -517 -25.56% 2,023
Walton 2,449 39.49% 3,753 60.51% -1,304 -21.03% 6,202
Washington 1,500 35.50% 2,725 64.50% -1,225 -28.99% 4,225
Totals948,54051.15%905,94148.85%42,5992.30%1,854,481

References
  1. See Price, Hugh Douglas; ‘The Negro and Florida Politics, 1944-1954’; The Journal of Politics, Vol. 17, No. 2 (May, 1955), pp. 198-220
  2. Silbey, Joel H. and Bogue, Allan G.; The History of American Electoral Behavior, p. 210 ISBN 140087114X
  3. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
  4. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 212-214
  5. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 164-165 ISBN 0786422173
  6. Seagull, Louis M.; Southern Republicanism, p. 73 ISBN 0470768762
  7. Doherty, Herbert J. (junior); ‘Liberal and Conservative Politics in Florida’; The Journal of Politics, nol. 14, no. 3 (August 1952), pp. 403-417
  8. Encyclopedia of African American History: 5-Volume Set, p. 228 ISBN 0195167791
  9. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 224
  10. Lamis, Alexander P.; The Two-Party South, p. 180 ISBN 0195065794
  11. Gimpel, James Graydon and Schuknecht, Jason E.; Patchwork Nation: Sectionalism and Political Change in American Politics; pp. 102-103 ISBN 0472022911
  12. Bullock, Charles S. and Gaddie, Ronald Keith; The Triumph of Voting Rights in the South, p. 254 ISBN 0806185309
  13. Leip, David. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2017-04-07.
  14. Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
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