1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina explained

See main article: article and 1968 United States presidential election.

The 1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 5, 1968. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1968 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

For six decades up to 1950 South Carolina was a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession.^[1] Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote^[2] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population^[3] or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population.

48% of white voters supported Nixon, 41% supported Wallace, and 12% supported Humphrey. South Carolina was the only Deep South state not to support Wallace in this election.

Campaign

Although Nixon ignored the other Deep South states because he knew that he had no chance of competing with George Wallace, in South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, believing Wallace could not win the election and that northeastern urban liberalism would continue to dominate if he endorsed Wallace, took the stump for Nixon in South Carolina.^[4] The result was that Wallace's support in South Carolina plummeted rapidly, although in early September the Alabama governor predicted he would carry the state,^[5] an opinion backed up by early polling in mid-September.^[6] Other polls, however, had the race very close between the three candidates.^[7]

Nixon himself campaigned in the state, aided by Thurmond, at the end of September.^[8]

Predictions

The following newspapers gave these predictions about how South Carolina would vote in the 1968 presidential election:

Source	Ranking	As of
Special to The New York Times[9]		September 8, 1968
Lebanon Daily News[10]		September 17, 1968
Daily Press[11]		October 11, 1968
The Charlotte News[12]		October 12, 1968
The Record[13]		October 21, 1968
Shreveport Times[14]		November 3, 1968
The Selma Times-Journal[15]		November 3, 1968
The New York Times[16]		November 4, 1968

Results

1968 United States presidential election in South Carolina[17] [18]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Richard Nixon	254,062	38.09%	8
	Independent	George Wallace	215,430	32.30%	0
	Democratic	Hubert Humphrey	197,486	29.61%	0
	Write-ins	Various candidates	4	0.00%	0
Totals			666,978	100.00%	8
Voter turnout					-

Results by county

County	Richard Nixon Republican		George Wallace American Independent		Hubert Humphrey Democratic		Margin		Total votes cast
		%		%		%		%
	Abbeville		1,213		20.77%		3,201		54.82%		1,425		24.40%		-1,776		-30.42%		5,839
	Aiken		12,264		44.76%		8,815		32.17%		6,319		23.06%		3,449		12.59%		27,398
	Allendale		997		29.72%		820		24.44%		1,538		45.84%		-541		-16.12%		3,355
	Anderson		5,661		24.33%		12,384		53.23%		5,218		22.43%		-6,723		-28.90%		23,263
	Bamberg		1,327		27.70%		1,618		33.78%		1,845		38.52%		227		4.74%		4,790
	Barnwell		1,849		31.25%		2,351		39.74%		1,716		29.01%		-502		-8.49%		5,916
	Beaufort		2,983		36.29%		1,498		18.22%		3,740		45.49%		-757		-9.20%		8,221
	Berkeley		4,021		28.89%		4,808		34.55%		5,089		36.56%		281		2.01%		13,918
	Calhoun		885		28.74%		978		31.76%		1,216		39.49%		238		7.73%		3,079
	Charleston		24,282		43.45%		13,255		23.72%		18,343		32.83%		5,939		10.62%		55,880
	Cherokee		2,853		27.19%		5,642		53.77%		1,998		19.04%		-2,789		-26.58%		10,493
	Chester		2,862		33.71%		2,762		32.54%		2,865		33.75%		-3		-0.04%		8,489
	Chesterfield		2,564		25.47%		4,324		42.95%		3,180		31.59%		-1,144		-11.36%		10,068
	Clarendon		2,201		27.85%		2,097		26.53%		3,606		45.62%		-1,405		-17.77%		7,904
	Colleton		2,824		34.67%		2,670		32.78%		2,651		32.55%		154		1.89%		8,145
	Darlington		4,947		35.38%		5,231		37.42%		3,803		27.20%		-284		-2.04%		13,981
	Dillon		2,396		35.73%		2,132		31.79%		2,178		32.48%		218		3.25%		6,706
	Dorchester		3,354		31.21%		3,539		32.93%		3,855		35.87%		316		2.94%		10,748
	Edgefield		1,688		43.07%		1,006		25.67%		1,225		31.26%		463		11.81%		3,919
	Fairfield		1,619		27.14%		1,336		22.39%		3,011		50.47%		-1,392		-23.33%		5,966
	Florence		8,917		36.19%		7,642		31.02%		8,079		32.79%		838		3.40%		24,638
	Georgetown		3,269		32.62%		2,642		26.36%		4,110		41.01%		-841		-8.39%		10,021
	Greenville		31,652		52.91%		15,241		25.48%		12,928		21.61%		16,411		27.43%		59,821
	Greenwood		4,891		33.37%		6,024		41.10%		3,741		25.52%		-1,133		-7.73%		14,658
	Hampton		1,671		31.95%		1,452		27.76%		2,107		40.29%		-436		-8.34%		5,230
	Horry		3,924		26.97%		6,701		46.06%		3,924		26.97%		-2,777		-19.09%		14,549
	Jasper		633		20.31%		1,081		34.69%		1,402		44.99%		321		10.30%		3,116
	Kershaw		4,079		38.56%		3,960		37.44%		2,539		24.00%		119		1.12%		10,578
	Lancaster		4,874		37.75%		4,886		37.84%		3,151		24.41%		-12		-0.09%		12,911
	Laurens		4,813		39.75%		4,279		35.34%		3,016		24.91%		534		4.41%		12,108
	Lee		1,219		22.23%		2,113		38.54%		2,151		39.23%		38		0.69%		5,483
	Lexington		12,204		48.49%		8,907		35.39%		4,058		16.12%		3,297		13.10%		25,169
	Marion		2,512		36.85%		1,484		21.77%		2,821		41.38%		-309		-4.53%		6,817
	Marlboro		2,024		31.34%		2,140		33.14%		2,294		35.52%		154		2.38%		6,458
	McCormick		466		21.08%		757		34.24%		988		44.69%		231		10.45%		2,211
	Newberry		4,538		42.35%		3,734		34.85%		2,444		22.81%		804		7.50%		10,716
	Oconee		2,618		27.94%		4,742		50.61%		2,009		21.44%		-2,124		-22.67%		9,369
	Orangeburg		5,144		24.20%		7,144		33.60%		8,971		42.20%		1,827		8.60%		21,259
	Pickens		6,873		51.63%		4,424		33.23%		2,016		15.14%		2,449		18.40%		13,313
	Richland		26,215		50.96%		7,030		13.67%		18,198		35.37%		8,017		15.59%		51,445
	Saluda		1,466		30.53%		2,136		44.48%		1,200		24.99%		-670		-13.95%		4,802
	Spartanburg		18,183		38.69%		17,346		36.91%		11,467		24.40%		837		1.78%		46,996
	Sumter		5,451		33.43%		4,754		29.15%		6,103		37.42%		-652		-3.99%		16,308
	Union		3,011		30.50%		4,590		46.50%		2,271		23.00%		-1,579		-16.00%		9,872
	Williamsburg		3,029		28.08%		2,652		24.59%		5,106		47.33%		-2,077		-19.25%		10,787
	York		7,596		37.48%		7,102		35.04%		5,571		27.49%		494		2.44%		20,269
Totals	254,062	38.09%	215,430	32.30%	197,486	29.61%	38,632	5.79%	666,982

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Allendale
• Bamberg
• Beaufort
• Berkeley
• Calhoun
• Chester
• Clarendon
• Dorchester
• Georgetown
• Hampton
• Jasper
• Lee
• McCormick
• Marion
• Orangeburg
• Sumter
• Williamsburg

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Dillon
• Spartanburg
• York

Counties that flipped from Democratic to American Independent

• Abbeville
• Anderson
• Cherokee
• Chesterfield
• Lancaster
• Oconee
• Union

Counties that flipped from Republican to American Independent

• Barnwell
• Darlington
• Greenwood
• Horry
• Saluda

Results by congressional district

Nixon won three out of six congressional districts while Wallace won two congressional districts and Humphrey won a single congressional district, 6th. Candidates are ranked in which order they performed at nationally.^[19]

District	Nixon	Humphrey	Wallace
	1st		36.9%		36.3%		26.8%
	2nd		42.7%		32.2%		25.1%
	3rd		26.1%		23%		40.9%
	4th		46%		31%		23%
	5th		33.3%		29.2%		37.5%
	6th		32.4%		34.7%		32.9%

Works cited

• Book: Black . Earl . Earl Black (political scientist) . Black . Merle . Merle Black . The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected . . 1992 . 0674941306.

Notes and References

1. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210
2. Mickey, Robert; Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972, p. 440
3. Mickey; Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27
4. Perlstein, Rick; Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, pp. 344-345
5. Rouse, Mike; ‘Wallace IS Appealing for Vote of the “Doves” as Well as Others’; Danville Register, September 3, 1968, p. 12
6. ‘Four Polls Place Nixon in Lead’; Marshfield News-Herald, September 16, 1968, p. 3
7. ‘Face-to-Face: Humphrey Desires Debate with Nixon’; Cumberland Evening-Times, September 16, 1968, p. 3
8. ‘Nixon Proposes Anti-Crime Council’; The Waco News-Tribune, September 30, 1968, p. 5
9. News: Rugaber. Walter. September 8, 1968. Wallace and Nixon Vie in South; Conservatives Shun Humphrey: Ex-Alabama Governor Thought to Lead in 9 of 11 States of Old Confederacy, With Total of 91 Electoral Votes. Special to the New York Times. 78. The New York Times.
10. News: Politics…in County, State and Nation. Lebanon Daily News. Lebanon, Pennsylvania. September 17, 1968. 4.
11. News: Murray. David. Wallace Might Take 6 Southern States. 51. Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia.
12. News: In South It's Nixon vs. Wallace. The Charlotte News. Charlotte, North Carolina. October 12, 1968. 1, 3.
13. News: October 21, 1968. Nixon Leads in 26 States: Wallace Will Run Strong: AP. 3. The Record. Associated Press. Hackensack, New Jersey.
14. News: Broder. David S.. After Hoopla Finished, Nixon Still Winning, Survey Shows. Shreveport Times. November 3, 1968. 4-B.
15. News: Summary of 50 States on Coming Election. The Selma Times-Journal. Selma, Alabama. November 3, 1968. 5.
16. News: Weaver jr.. Warren . November 4, 1968. Nixon Holds Lead Over Humphrey in Late Survey: Contest Tightens — G. O. P. Nominee Put Ahead in 30 States and His Rival in 8. 1, 36. The New York Times.
17. Web site: 1968 Presidential General Election Results – South Carolina. 2016-08-25. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.
18. Web site: Woolley. John. Peters. Gehard. 1968 Presidential Election. The American Presidency Project. University of California, Santa Barbara. 26 August 2016.
19. Web site: 1968 United States Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District . November 25, 2024 . Western Washington University.