1968 United States presidential election
46th quadrennial U.S. presidential election
Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1968. The Republican ticket of former Vice President Richard Nixon and Maryland governor Spiro Agnew defeated the Democratic ticket of incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Senator Edmund Muskie, and the American Independent Party ticket of former Alabama governor George Wallace and general Curtis LeMay. The election cycle was tumultuous and chaotic, and is often characterized as one of the most violent in American history. Later scholarship by historians cite the election as being one of the most important in the 20th century. It was marked by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in early April, and the subsequent riots across the United States; the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in early June; and widespread opposition to the Vietnam War across university campuses as well as at the Democratic National Convention, which saw police crackdowns on protesters, reporters, and bystanders.
Incumbent president Lyndon B. Johnson was the early frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, but withdrew from the race after only narrowly winning the New Hampshire primary. Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert F. Kennedy emerged as the three major candidates in the Democratic primaries until Kennedy was assassinated. Humphrey, who supported the Vietnam War, defeated the anti-war McCarthy to win the Democratic nomination, sparking protests. Humphrey's promise to continue the Johnson administration's War on Poverty and support for the civil rights movement eroded his support in the South, prompting a third-party run by Wallace that campaigned for racial segregation on the basis of "states' rights".
“1968 United States presidential election” enters the record as 46th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what United, States and presidential can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q693742. The Library of Congress control number is sh2008109960. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1968.
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