Civics Collection
The New Deal Political Realignment

The New Deal Political Realignment Ends

In 1968, Republican Richard Nixon won the presidential election, marking the end of the Democratic Party’s decades-long control of the executive branch. Many factors contributed to this:
  • The year 1968 was an especially turbulent year in U.S. history.
  • The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam increased from 16,000 in 1963 to over 500,000 by 1968.
  • President Johnson announced that he would not run for reelection, shocking the Democratic Party.
  • Disorder and violence at the Democratic National Convention were broadcast to the nation.
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, sparking riots in multiple cities.
A color-coded map of the 50 United States showing the 1968 presidential election results with red states as Republican wins, blue states as Democratic wins, and yellow states as Independent wins.
Five states that voted Independent were Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas. Thirteen states that voted Democrat were Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, Texas, and Hawaii. The remaining 32 states voted Republican. Information below the map includes: Republican winner for president Richard Nixon and vice president Spiro Agnew with 301 or 55.9 percent, of the electoral votes and 31,785,480 or 43.4 percent, of the popular vote. Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey and vice presidential candidate Edmund Muskie garnered 191 or 35.5 percent of the electoral votes and 31,275,166 or 42.7 percent of the popular vote. Independent presidential candidate George Wallace and vice presidential candidate Curtis LeMay garnered 45 or 8.4 percent of the electoral votes and 9,906,473 or 13.5 percent of the popular vote.

Richard Nixon stepped into this tumult promising to restore law and order to "crime-ravaged" cities. He also pledged to end America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and to restore traditional American values. These promises appealed to the “silent majority,” those law-abiding middle-class Americans who rejected radical social change. Nixon also used the “southern strategy,” an attempt to appeal to southern racists who resented civil rights activism and President Johnson’s federal antipoverty programs.
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Transcript
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(marching drums, piercing sounds)

(noise building)

RICHARD NIXON: It is time for an honest look at the problem of order in the United States.

Dissent is a necessary ingredient of change.

But in a system of government that provides for peaceful change, there is no cause that justifies resort to violence.

Let us recognize that the first civil right of every American is to be free from domestic violence.

So I pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States.

Nixon’s victory marked a conservative shift in American politics. Republicans dominated the White House until 1992, when Democrat Bill Clinton was elected for two terms.

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