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138-645: This party system likely began as a result of a long-term realignment of conservative Southern Democrats into the Republican Party, who were disillusioned by the previous realignment of Progressives into the Democratic Party, though the exact timing of the realignment is usually called into question. Although Barry Goldwater was the first Republican to flip the Dixiecrats in the South in 1964,

276-537: A Republican candidate carried every single Southern state , continuing the region's transformation from a Democratic bastion into a Republican stronghold as Arkansas was carried by a Republican presidential candidate for the first time in a century. By this time, all the Southern states, except Arkansas and Texas, had been carried by a Republican in either the previous election or the one in 1964 (although Republican candidates carried Texas in 1928, 1952 and 1956). As

414-581: A 1970 New York Times article, Phillips stated his analysis based on studies of ethnic voting: From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act . The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner

552-536: A Republican faithless elector (see below). The Libertarian vice-presidential nominee Tonie Nathan became the first Jew and the first woman in U.S. history to receive an Electoral College vote. Linda Jenness was nominated by the Socialist Workers Party , with Andrew Pulley as her running-mate. Benjamin Spock and Julius Hobson were nominated for president and vice-president, respectively, by

690-408: A candidate that could unify delegations from the west and south would hold four-fifths of the required number of delegates for the nomination, taking power away from more liberal Republicans in the northeast. 270 of the 279 southern delegates gave their support to Barry Goldwater , 31% of his overall support. In 1932, less than 10% of the voting population in the peripheral south and less than 20% in

828-454: A college degree, while holding steady with evangelical voters. Another noteworthy feature of presidential elections in the 21st century is a consistent Democratic lean in the popular vote. Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last nine presidential elections. The re-elections of George W. Bush in 2004 and Donald Trump in 2024 have been the only Republican popular vote wins since 1988, standing in significant contrast to

966-526: A commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of 1968 . However, the new rules angered many prominent Democrats whose influence was marginalized, and those politicians refused to support McGovern's campaign (some even supporting Nixon instead), leaving the McGovern campaign at a significant disadvantage in funding, compared to Nixon. Some of

1104-594: A conservative, hawkish campaign that broadly opposed strong action by the federal government. Although he had supported all previous federal civil rights legislation, Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act and championed this opposition during the campaign. He believed that this act was an intrusion of the federal government into the affairs of state; and that the Act interfered with the rights of private people to do business, or not, with whomever they chose, even if

1242-412: A critical-election period. The new system of candidate-centered parties is so distinct and so portentous that one can no longer deny its existence or its character." The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History dates the start in 1980 , with the election of Reagan and a Republican Senate . Arthur Paulson argues that "[w]hether electoral change since the 1960s is called 'realignment' or not,

1380-611: A forceful campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was struck by five bullets and left paralyzed from the waist down. The day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign, and he pulled out in July. In the end, McGovern won the nomination by winning primaries through grassroots support, in spite of establishment opposition. McGovern had led

1518-723: A judge on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court. Carswell was a lawyer from north Florida with a mediocre record, but Nixon needed a Southerner and a "strict constructionist" to support his "Southern Strategy" of moving the region toward the GOP. Carswell was voted down by the liberal block in the Senate, causing a backlash that pushed many Southern Democrats into the Republican fold. The long-term result

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1656-434: A low of below 20% in the 1924 election. Increase voting rights in the 1950s and 1960s raised participation to 38% in 1952, and around 51% in 1968, the first time since 1896 that a majority voted. The percentage of black southerners who were registered to vote rose from around 20% in 1952, to 43% in 1964, and a majority in 1968. With control of powerful committees, Southern Democrats gained new federal military installations in

1794-879: A majority in Presidio County . More significantly, the 1972 election was the most recent time several highly populous urban counties – including Cook in Illinois, Orleans in Louisiana, Hennepin in Minnesota, Cuyahoga in Ohio, Durham in North Carolina, Queens in New York, and Prince George's in Maryland – have voted Republican. The Wallace vote had also been crucial to Nixon being able to sweep

1932-460: A new one to replace it. Ronald Inglehart and Avram Hochstein identify the time period of the American dealignment as 1958 to 1968. Although the dealignment interpretation remains the consensus view among scholars, a few political scientists argue that partisanship remained so powerful that dealignment was much exaggerated. Harris and Tichenor argue: "At the level of issues, the sixth party system

2070-566: A primary election or within 60 days of a general election. Two years before the decision, the 2008 presidential election saw spending independent of the parties of $ 144 million. In the 2012 presidential election, independent spending had soared to over $ 1 billion. At the state level, the 21st century saw a new electoral arena, with heavy fundraising and spending on advertising in campaigns for justices of state supreme courts. In 2016 and 2020, Bernie Sanders financed presidential campaigns heavily from small-dollar donations generated online. Since 1980,

2208-524: A result of this election, Massachusetts became the only state that Nixon did not carry in any of the three presidential elections in which he was a candidate. Notably, Nixon became the first Republican to ever win two terms in the White House without carrying Massachusetts at least once, and the same feat would later be duplicated by George W. Bush who won both the 2000 and 2004 elections without winning Massachusetts either time. This presidential election

2346-542: A reversal of the position held by Republicans since the Civil War. Some political analysts said this term was used in the 20th century as a "code word" to represent opposition to federal enforcement of civil rights for blacks and to federal intervention on their behalf; many individual southerners had opposed passage of the Voting Rights Act. During Reconstruction, the Republican Party built up its base across

2484-514: A risk of losing Agnew's base of conservative supporters. Seven members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War were brought on federal charges for conspiring to disrupt the Republican convention. They were acquitted by a federal jury in Gainesville , Florida . Overall, fifteen people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination. They were: Senate Majority Whip Ted Kennedy ,

2622-597: A second realignment occurred amongst Anderson and Perot voters in the North and West in 1980 , 1992 and 1996 . After these Independents /Reform voters realigned into the Democratic Party, which started in the 1996 election and finished in 2008, the Democrats made the Presidency competitive as a result of their new-found dominance in the North and West. The Sixth Party System is characterized by an electoral shift from

2760-677: A short time in Massachusetts. Nixon managed to win 18% of the African American vote (Gerald Ford would get 16% in 1976). Until 2024, he was the only Republican in modern times to threaten the oldest extant Democratic stronghold of South Texas : this is the last election when the Republicans have won Hidalgo or Dimmit counties, the only time Republicans have won La Salle County between William McKinley in 1900 and Donald Trump in 2020, and one of only two occasions since Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 that Republicans have gained

2898-400: A significant role in changing the Democratic nomination system after the 1968 presidential election , mobilized the anti-Vietnam War movement and other liberal supporters to win his party's nomination . Among the candidates he defeated were early front-runner Edmund Muskie , 1968 nominee Hubert Humphrey , governor George Wallace , and representative Shirley Chisholm . Nixon emphasized

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3036-519: A strong non-major-party vote. Nixon received the highest share of the popular vote for a Republican in history. Although the McGovern campaign believed that its candidate had a better chance of defeating Nixon because of the new Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution that lowered the national voting age to 18 from 21, most of the youth vote went to Nixon. This was the first election in American history in which

3174-455: Is the Republican Party's increased strength, exemplified by 20 majorities in the House and Senate in six straight elections (1994–2004), unprecedented since the fourth party system, [its] retaking of the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014 [...] and its sweeping national victory in 2016." Writing in 2020, political scientists Mark D. Brewer and L. Sandy Maisel argue "[i]t seems safe to state that

3312-586: The 1952 United States presidential election , Eisenhower placed first in 39 southern congressional districts, four in the Deep South. Only six Republicans were elected to the US House from the south, with five of them representing districts within the Blue Ridge Mountains . The Republicans made a net gain of one seat in the 1954 election , but did not win any additional seats for the rest of

3450-551: The Fourteenth Amendment has a provision to reduce the congressional representation of states that denied votes to their adult male citizens, this provision was never enforced. As African Americans could not be voters, they were also prevented from being jurors and serving in local offices. Services and institutions for them in the segregated South were chronically underfunded by state and local governments, from which they were excluded. Republicans rarely held seats in

3588-654: The Peace Corps , later accepted. He was officially nominated by a special session of the Democratic National Committee . By this time, McGovern's poll ratings had plunged from 41 to 24 percent. The only major third party candidate in the 1972 election was conservative Republican Representative John G. Schmitz , who ran on the American Independent Party ticket (the party on whose ballot George Wallace ran in 1968). He

3726-573: The People's Party . McGovern ran on a platform of immediately ending the Vietnam War and instituting a radical guaranteed minimum income for the nation's poor. His campaign was harmed by his views during the primaries (which alienated many powerful Democrats), the perception that his foreign policy was too extreme, and the Eagleton debacle. With McGovern's campaign weakened by these factors, with

3864-708: The Solid South , which had been pro-Democratic since the aftermath of the American Civil War . Under the Southern Strategy, Republicans would continue an earlier effort to make inroads in the South, Operation Dixie, by ending attempts to appeal to African American voters in the Northern states, and instead appeal to white conservative voters in the South. As documented by reporters and columnists, including Joseph Alsop and Arthur Krock , on

4002-691: The Southern strategy was a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans . As the civil rights movement and dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s visibly deepened existing racial tensions in much of the Southern United States, Republican politicians such as presidential candidate Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater developed strategies that successfully contributed to

4140-515: The United States on November 7, 1972. Incumbent Republican President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic Senator George McGovern in a landslide victory . With 60.7% of the popular vote, Richard Nixon won the largest share of the popular vote for the Republican Party in any presidential election. Nixon swept aside challenges from two Republican representatives in the Republican primaries to win renomination. McGovern, who had played

4278-520: The Watergate scandal Southern voters came out in support for the "favorite son" candidate, Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter . From 1948 to 1984, the Southern states, for decades a stronghold for the Democrats , became key swing states , providing the popular vote margins in the 1960 , 1968 and 1976 elections . During this era, several Republican candidates expressed support for states' rights ,

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4416-410: The drug culture and "free love" (sexual promiscuity ), in what was called the " hippie " counter-culture . These actions scandalized many Americans and created a concern about law and order. Nixon's advisers recognized that they could not appeal directly to voters on issues of white supremacy or racism. White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman noted that Nixon "emphasized that you have to face

4554-540: The political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South who had traditionally supported the Democratic Party so consistently that the voting pattern was named the Solid South . The strategy also helped to push the Republican Party much more to the right . By winning all of the South, a presidential candidate could obtain the presidency with minimal support elsewhere. The phrase "Southern strategy" refers primarily to "top down" narratives of

4692-429: The " religious right ", which is a combination of Catholics and Evangelical Protestants united on opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. Southern white voters started voting for Republican presidential candidates in the 1950s, and Republican state and local candidates in the 1990s. In the chaotic campaign for the Democratic nomination in 1968 , Hubert Humphrey won the nomination without entering any primaries. He

4830-562: The 'sixth party system' emerged between 1964 and 1972." Some scholars and pundits have also posited that the Sixth Party System has ended while the Seventh Party System is forming or has begun. Mark D. Brewer and L. Sandy Maisel speculate that "in the wake of Donald Trump 's 2016 presidential victory, there is now strengthening debate as to whether we are entering a new party system as Trump fundamentally reshapes

4968-616: The 1950s to the 1970s while South Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia remained static. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952, with strong support from the emerging middle class suburban element in the South. He appointed a number of Southern Republican supporters as federal judges in the South. They in turn ordered the desegregation of Southern schools in the 1950s and 1960s. They included Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judges John R. Brown , Elbert P. Tuttle and John Minor Wisdom as well as district judges Frank Johnson and J. Skelly Wright . Five of his 24 appointees supported segregation. In

5106-419: The 1960s, stating: "Although most in the field now believe we are in a sixth party system, there is a fair amount of disagreement about how exactly we arrived at this new system and about its particular contours. Scholars do, however, agree that there has been significant change in American electoral politics since the 1960s." Opinions on when the Sixth Party System began include the elections of 1966 to 1968,

5244-471: The 1964 convention the Georgia delegation was entirely white for the first time in fifty years. G. Alexander Heard stated that "the southern oligarchies have greatly bolstered the conservative wing of the Republican party". Eisenhower's victories in southern states increased their delegation sizes to account for 21% of the total delegates at the 1956 convention, the highest since the rule change. By 1964,

5382-443: The 1968 primary late and attempted to gain the support of the southern delegations, with Nixon stating that "it was Ronald Reagan who set the hearts of many Southern Republicans aflutter", but the delegations had committed to Nixon and Thurmond helped maintain their support for Nixon. Southern delegates accounted for 46% of the delegates needed to win the nomination at the 1968 convention. Nixon received his highest level of support from

5520-580: The 278 southern delegates, thirteen from Alabama and the entire twenty-two member Mississippi delegation, left the convention on July 15. The remaining southern delegates gave their support to Senator Richard Russell Jr. on the presidential ballot. The States' Rights Democratic Party met in Birmingham, Alabama, and nominated Strom Thurmond and Fielding L. Wright as its presidential ticket. The party supported racial segregation, poll taxes, and opposed anti-lynching legislation. They planned on winning

5658-461: The Democratic Party and joined the Republicans. Goldwater gave a televised speech in Columbia, South Carolina, that featured segregationist politicians on-stage with him, including Thurmond, Iris Faircloth Blitch , James F. Byrnes , James H. Gray Sr. , Albert Watson , and John Bell Williams , in which he criticized the Civil Rights Act. If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than

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5796-590: The Democratic dominance of the region. These delegates were viewed as rotten boroughs and gave their support to the incumbent or the frontrunner. Mark Hanna started to lobby southern Republicans in favor of William McKinley in 1895, and McKinley came to the 1896 Republican National Convention with control of all of the southern delegations, which accounted for almost half of the votes required to win, except for Texas. The issue of southern delegates exploded in 1912, when William Howard Taft used his 83% control of Southern delegations to defeat Theodore Roosevelt at

5934-465: The Democrats the presidency in 1948, soon dissolved, but the split lingered. Truman was the last Democratic presidential nominee to win a majority of the white vote in the south. In addition to the splits in the Democratic Party, the population movements associated with World War II had a significant effect in changing the demographics of the South. Starting during World War II, lasting from 1940 to 1970, more than 5 million African-Americans moved from

6072-427: The Democrats, but the Republicans won the elections of 2010 by their biggest landslide since 1946 and finished the 2014 elections with their greatest number of House seats since 1928. According to the 2017 edition of The Logic of American Politics , "a sixth party system is now in place." Although the precise starting date is a matter of debate, "the most salient difference between the current and New Deal party systems

6210-501: The Mississippi affiliate. Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia sent entirely white delegations to the 1920 convention. The Georgia Republican Party was restructured in 1921, with Warren G. Harding 's involvement, as a model for other southern states and this restructuring replaced the black majority state committee with one that only had two black members. Texas sent its first entirely white delegate in 1928. At

6348-501: The Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats. While Phillips sought to increase Republican power by polarizing ethnic voting in general, and not just to win the white South, the South was by far the biggest prize yielded by his approach. Its success began at

6486-453: The Nixon campaign as a speechwriter , said in 2006 that Nixon did not have a "Southern Strategy", but "Border State Strategy" as he said that the 1968 campaign ceded the Deep South to George Wallace. Hart suggested that the press called it a "Southern Strategy" as they are "very lazy". Nixon won 29% of the white vote in the Deep South compared to Wallace's 63%, but won 45% of the white vote in

6624-460: The North and West Coast shifting from competitive regions to Democratic strongholds after 2008, as well as explain the newly competitive nature of suburban states. One possible explanation for the lack of an agreed-upon beginning of the Sixth Party System is the brief period of dealignment immediately preceding it. Dealignment is a trend or process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan affiliation without developing

6762-553: The President’s Committee on Civil Rights in 1947. This report recommended the passage of civil rights legislation and ending segregation. The southern delegates planned on conducting a walkout during the roll call vote on the party's platform, which included support for civil rights, but Sam Rayburn , chair of the convention, instead used a voice vote as he believed a walkout would ruin Truman's presidential campaign. Only 35 of

6900-412: The Republican Party and instead joined the Democratic caucus. Nevertheless, he had a mostly conservative voting record especially on the trademark Byrd issue of the national deficit. At the local level, the 1970s saw steady Republican growth with this emphasis on a middle-class suburban electorate that had little interest in the historic issues of rural agrarianism and racial segregation. Nixon won 79% of

7038-615: The Republican Party lost its ability to effectively compete in the South. Because blacks were closed out of elected offices, the South's congressional delegations and state governments were dominated by white Democrats until the 1980s or later. Effectively, Southern white Democrats controlled all the votes of the expanded population by which congressional apportionment was figured. Many of their representatives achieved powerful positions of seniority in Congress, giving them control of chairmanships of significant congressional committees. Although

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7176-456: The Republican and Democratic parties, though several aspects of this view have been debated by historians and political scientists. The perception that the Republican Party had served as the "vehicle of white supremacy in the South", particularly during the Goldwater campaign and the presidential elections of 1968 and 1972 , made it difficult for the Republican Party to win back

7314-410: The Republican convention, with McCloskey receiving the vote of one delegate from New Mexico. Vice President Spiro Agnew was re-nominated by acclamation; while both the party's moderate wing and Nixon himself had wanted to replace him with a new running-mate (the moderates favoring Nelson Rockefeller , and Nixon favoring John Connally ), it was ultimately concluded that such action would incur too great

7452-430: The Republican party and the Democratic party responds and evolves as well." One argument for a Seventh Party System is a shift in demographics and voting patterns. Non-whites, who predominantly vote Democratic, have grown as a share of the population, and previously Republican-leaning secular college-educated whites have moved to the left. At the same time, Republicans have made significant inroads with white voters without

7590-510: The Republican victory streak in the late Fifth and early Sixth Party Systems. Under the theory that third party realignments determine the beginning of new party systems, it could be argued that the Seventh Party System began around 2008, when the Independents/Reform voters of 1980, 1992 and 1996 realigned into the Democratic Party, making the Democrats the dominant party in the White House since 2008. This realignment would explain

7728-565: The Republicans portraying McGovern as a radical left-wing extremist, Nixon led in the polls by large margins throughout the entire campaign. With an enormous fundraising advantage and a comfortable lead in the polls, Nixon concentrated on large rallies and focused speeches to closed, select audiences, leaving much of the retail campaigning to surrogates like Vice President Agnew. Nixon did not, by design, try to extend his coattails to Republican congressional or gubernatorial candidates, preferring to pad his own margin of victory. Nixon's percentage of

7866-428: The Senate. In the 1928 election, the Republican candidate Herbert Hoover rode the issues of prohibition and anti-Catholicism to carry five former Confederate states, with 62 of the 126 electoral votes of the section. After his victory, Hoover attempted to build up the Republican Party of the South, transferring his limited patronage away from blacks and toward the same kind of white Protestant businessmen who made up

8004-466: The South and controlled each state except Virginia, but from a national perspective, the Republicans gave priority to its much better established Northern state operations. Southerners distrusted the scalawags , found the carpetbaggers distasteful, and lacked respect for the black component of their Republican Party in the South. Richard Abbott says that national Republicans always "stressed building their Northern base rather than extending their party into

8142-648: The South and other federal investments during and after the war. Changes in industry and growth in universities and the military establishment in turn attracted Northern transplants to the South and bolstered the base of the Republican Party. In the post-war presidential campaigns, Republicans did best in those fastest-growing states of the South that had the most Northern transplants. In the 1952 , 1956 and 1960 elections , Virginia , Tennessee and Florida went Republican while Louisiana went Republican in 1956 and Texas twice voted for Dwight D. Eisenhower and once for John F. Kennedy . In 1956, Eisenhower received 48.9% of

8280-494: The South wavered between Republicans, Democrats, and Dixiecrats and wouldn’t fully realign into the GOP until 1984 with Reagan’s landslide victory. This Dixiecratic realignment - known as the Southern Strategy - would allow Republicans to dominate the White House from 1968 to 1992, and eventually Congress after the 1994 Republican Revolution, up until around the 2010s or 2020s. In addition to this Southern realignment,

8418-549: The South, and whenever the Northern and Southern needs conflicted the latter always lost". In 1868, the GOP spent only 5% of its war chest in the South. Ulysses S. Grant was reelected and the New York Tribune advised it was now time for Southern Republicans to "root, hog, or die!" (that is, to take care of themselves). During the 1876 United States presidential election , the Republican ticket of Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler (later known as members of

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8556-476: The Southern Strategy, including holding private meetings of the RNC and other key Republican leaders in late 1962 and early 1963 so they could decide whether to implement it. Overruling the moderate and liberal wings of the party, its leadership decided to pursue the Southern Strategy for the 1964 elections and beyond. Many states' rights Democrats were attracted to Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign . Goldwater

8694-595: The Southern vote, becoming only the second Republican in history (after Ulysses S. Grant ) to get a plurality of Southern votes. The 1956 election was the first time since 1872 that the Democratic presidential nominee failed to win a majority of the south's electoral votes. The white conservative voters of the states of the Deep South remained loyal to the Democratic Party, which had not officially repudiated segregation. Due to declines in population or smaller rates of growth compared to other states, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and North Carolina lost congressional seats from

8832-523: The U.S. House from the South during the Solid South period with the party only holding two seats in Tennessee between 1947 and 1952, out of the 105 seats in the south. Republicans won 80 of 2,565 congressional elections in the south during the first half of the 20th century. Between 1902 and 1950, all US Senators from the south were Democrats. Republicans held around 3% of state legislative seats in

8970-414: The U.S. House in twenty-three sessions. Between 1932 and 1992, the Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate for five out of thirty-one sessions and the U.S. House for two sessions. According to Boris Heersink and Jeffery A. Jenkins, blacks did have a voice in the Republican Party, especially in the choice of presidential candidates at the national convention. They argue that in 1880–1928 Republican leaders at

9108-452: The advent of popular presidential elections. In nineteen states, McGovern failed to carry a single county; he carried a mere one county-equivalent in a further nine states, and just two counties in a further seven. In contrast to Walter Mondale 's narrow 1984 win in Minnesota, McGovern comfortably did win Massachusetts, but lost every other state by no less than five percentage points, as well as 45 states by more than ten percentage points –

9246-595: The best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you. Goldwater performed well in the Deep South, but fared poorly in other southern states due to his conservative policies. Goldwater was an opponent of the Tennessee Valley Authority and stated that it "was a big fat sacred New Deal cow". He received significant criticism for this statement and later wrote that "You would have thought I had just shot Santa Claus" about

9384-424: The campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper's offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie later stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes, the press reported that Muskie broke down and cried, shattering the candidate's image as calm and reasoned. Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered

9522-566: The candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid". It became Humphrey's battle cry to stop McGovern—especially in the Nebraska primary. Alabama Governor George Wallace , an infamous segregationist who ran on a third-party ticket in 1968 , did well in the South (winning nearly every county in the Florida primary) and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the North . What might have become

9660-438: The choice is based on racial discrimination. Goldwater's position appealed to white Southern Democrats and Goldwater was the first Republican presidential candidate since Reconstruction to win the electoral votes of the Deep South states (Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina). Outside the South, Goldwater's negative vote on the Civil Rights Act proved devastating to his campaign. The only other state he won

9798-469: The comparably liberal " Half-Breed " faction) abandoned the party's pro-civil rights efforts of Reconstruction and made conciliatory tones to the South in the form of appeals to old Southern Whigs . In a series of compromises, such as the Compromise of 1877 , the Republicans withdrew military forces that had propped up their last three state governors and in return gained the presidency for Hayes. All

9936-492: The convention. Delegate allocation by state was altered after this election to be based on how well the party did electorally in those states. Southern delegate sizes fell from 23% of the total delegates in 1912, to 18% in 1916. The mixed-race Black-and-tan faction 's control of Republican parties in the south was ended by the Lily-white movement and according to V. O. Key Jr. by 1949, black Republicans only held power in

10074-558: The core of the Northern Republican Party. With the onset of the Great Depression , which severely affected the South, Hoover soon became extremely unpopular. The gains of the Republican Party in the South were lost. In the 1932 election , Hoover received only 18.1% of the Southern vote for re-election. From 1860 and 1930, the Republicans controlled the U.S. Senate in thirty-one of thirty-six sessions and

10212-516: The decade. There were only 15 Republican candidates for the US House in the entirety of the South in 1958. Tower's victory over interim appointee William A. Blakley in the 1961 United States Senate special election in Texas was made possible by a split among Democrats and a lack of liberal support for the conservative Blakley. This win made Tower the first Republican elected to the US Senate from

10350-454: The deep south lived in metropolitan areas. By 1956, metropolitan areas accounted for less than 40% and 30% respectively. This rose to around 60% and 40% respectively by 1976. Florida became the first urbanized state in the south in the 1930s. Republicans, such as John Tower and Howard Baker , performed well in these urban areas. The President's Committee on Civil Rights , organized by Truman, published To Secure These Rights: The Report of

10488-434: The early 21st century should see a Seventh Party System. Previous party systems ended with the dominant party losing two consecutive House elections by large margins, and also losing a presidential election coinciding with or immediately following the second House election, which are decisive electoral evidence of political realignment, as it happened in the 1896 election. Such a shift took place between 2006 and 2008 in favor of

10626-455: The election of 1972, the 1980s when both parties began to become more unified and partisan, and the 1990s due to cultural divisions. Political scientist Stephen C. Craig argues for the 1972 election , when Richard Nixon won a 49-state landslide. He notes that "[t]here seems to be consensus on the appropriate name for the sixth party system. [...] Changes that occurred during the 1960s were so great and so pervasive that they cry out to be called

10764-603: The electoral coalitions of the Fifth Party System during the New Deal . The Republican Party became the dominant party in the South , rural areas, and suburbs, and its voter base became shaped by White Evangelicals. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party became the dominant party in urban areas, and its voter base diversified to include trade unionists , urban knowledge workers , progressive intellectuals, as well as racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. A critical factor

10902-591: The electoral system allowed for the 15th Amendment to be circumvented using a white primary . Winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to winning the election during the period of the solid south. From 1890 to 1908, the white Democratic legislatures in every Southern state enacted new constitutions or amendments with provisions to disenfranchise most blacks and tens of thousands of poor whites. Provisions required payment of poll taxes , complicated residency, literacy tests and other requirements which were subjectively applied against blacks. As blacks lost their vote,

11040-683: The electorate. Nixon and his vice president Spiro Agnew both resigned from office within two years of the election. Agnew resigned due to a bribery scandal in October 1973, and Nixon resigned in the face of likely impeachment and conviction as a result of the Watergate scandal in August 1974. Republican House Minority Leader Gerald Ford replaced Agnew as vice president in December 1973, and thus replaced Nixon as president in August 1974. Ford remains

11178-467: The entirety of the south's 127 electoral votes in order to force a contingent election in the US House of Representatives. Thurmond ran using the Democratic ballot line in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The Dixiecrats were unsuccessful as Truman won reelection and they only received 39 of the south's electoral votes, only winning in states without Truman on the ballot. Failing to deny

11316-442: The events of their time either as the imminent breakup of the Fifth Party System, and the installation of a new one, or in terms of such transition taking place some time ago. In 2006, Arthur Paulson argued that a decisive realignment took place in the late 1960s. Other current writing on the Fifth Party System expresses admiration of its longevity, as the first four systems lasted about 30 to 40 years each, which would have implied that

11454-530: The exceptions being Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and his home state of South Dakota. This election also made Nixon the second former vice president in American history to serve two terms back-to-back, after Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804 , as well as the only two-term Vice President to be elected President twice. Since McGovern carried only one state, bumper stickers reading "Nixon 49 America 1", "Don't Blame Me, I'm From Massachusetts", and "Massachusetts: The One And Only" were popular for

11592-582: The fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognized this while not appearing to". With the aid of Harry Dent and South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who had switched to the Republican Party in 1964, Nixon ran his 1968 campaign on states' rights and "law and order". Liberal Northern Democrats accused Nixon of pandering to Southern whites, especially with regard to his "states' rights" and "law and order" positions, which were widely understood by black leaders to symbolize Southern resistance to civil rights. This tactic

11730-487: The first Asian American person to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary. Two days later, journalist Robert Novak quoted a "Democratic senator", later revealed to be Thomas Eagleton, as saying: "The people don't know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot. Once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he's dead." The label stuck, and McGovern became known as

11868-430: The first Republican to sweep the South , whereas McGovern took just 37.5% of the popular vote. This marked the most recent time that the Republican nominee carried Minnesota in a presidential election; it also made Nixon the only two-term vice president to be elected president twice. The 1972 election was the first since the ratification of the 26th Amendment , which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, further expanding

12006-644: The first time since 1828, Maine allowed its electoral votes to be split between candidates. Two electoral votes were awarded to the winner of the statewide race and one electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district. This was the first time the Congressional District Method had been used since Michigan used it in 1892. Nixon won all four votes. States where margin of victory was more than 5 percentage points, but less than 10 percentage points (43 electoral votes): Tipping point states: Counties with highest percentage of

12144-462: The four presidential elections which have been won by the campaign that raised less money have been the campaigns for Ronald Reagan, which in 1980 raised less money than Jimmy Carter's campaign; Bill Clinton, which in 1996 raised less money than Bob Dole's campaign; and Donald Trump, which in 2016 raised less money than Hillary Clinton's campaign and in 2024 raised less money than Kamala Harris's campaign. Southern strategy In American politics,

12282-417: The frustrations of African Americans at the slow process of change in gaining civil rights and social justice. African Americans pushed for faster change, raising racial tensions. Journalists reporting about the demonstrations against the Vietnam War often featured young people engaging in violence or burning draft cards and American flags. Conservatives were also dismayed about the many young adults engaged in

12420-546: The goal of taking over the entire statewide Byrd machine , but the Byrd leadership was basically conservative and more in line with the national Republican Party in economic and foreign policy issues. Republicans united behind A. Linwood Holton, Jr. in 1969 and swept the state. In the 1970 Senate elections , the Byrd machine made a comeback by electing Independent Harry Flood Byrd, Jr. over Republican Ray L. Garland and Democrat George Rawlings . The new Senator Byrd never joined

12558-447: The midterm elections. The strategy involved depicting Democratic candidates as permissive liberals. Republicans thereby managed to unseat Albert Gore, Sr. of Tennessee as well as Senator Joseph D. Tydings of Maryland. However, for the entire region the net result was a small loss of seats for the Republican Party in the South. Regional attention in 1970 focused on the Senate, when Nixon nominated Judge G. Harrold Carswell of Florida,

12696-404: The national popular vote, the lowest share received by a Democratic Party nominee since John W. Davis won only 28.8 percent of the vote in the 1924 election . The only major party candidate since 1972 to receive less than 40 percent of the vote was Republican incumbent President George H. W. Bush who won 37.4 percent of the vote in the 1992 election , a race that (as in 1924) was complicated by

12834-479: The only person in American history to become president without winning an election for president or vice president. Republican candidates: Nixon was a popular incumbent president in 1972, as he was credited with opening the People's Republic of China as a result of his visit that year, and achieving détente with the Soviet Union . Polls showed that Nixon held a strong lead in the Republican primaries. He

12972-459: The others being Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Donald Trump. The 520 electoral votes received by Nixon, added to the 301 electoral votes he received in 1968 , and the 219 electoral votes he received in 1960 , gave him the second largest number of electoral votes received by any presidential candidate (after Franklin D. Roosevelt 's 1,876 total electoral votes). For

13110-411: The peripheral south compared to Wallace's 31% and Humphrey's 24%. Numan V. Bartley and Hugh Davis Graham wrote that Nixon performed best in the metropolitan, urban, and suburban areas of the south where law and order rhetoric appealed better while performing worse in smaller cities and rural areas. Glen Moore argues that in 1970 Nixon and the Republican Party developed a "Southern Strategy" for

13248-441: The political realignment of the South which suggest that Republican leaders consciously appealed to many white Southerners' racial grievances to gain their support. This top-down narrative of the Southern Strategy is generally believed to be the primary force that transformed Southern politics following the civil rights era. The scholarly consensus is that racial conservatism was critical in the post- Civil Rights Act realignment of

13386-466: The popular vote was only marginally less than Lyndon Johnson's record in the 1964 election , and his margin of victory was slightly larger. Nixon won a majority vote in 49 states, including McGovern's home state of South Dakota . Only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia voted for the challenger, resulting in an even more lopsided Electoral College tally. McGovern garnered only 37.5 percent of

13524-416: The presidential level adopted a "Southern Strategy" by "investing heavily in maintaining a minor party organization in the South as a way to create a reliable voting base at conventions", causing federal patronage to go to Southern blacks as long as there was a Republican in the White House. Southern states sent delegations to Republican conventions that accounted for one-fourth of the overall number despite

13662-463: The presidential level. Gradually, Southern voters began to elect Republicans to Congress and finally to statewide and local offices, particularly as some legacy segregationist Democrats, such as Strom Thurmond , retired or switched to the GOP. In addition, the Republican Party worked for years to develop grassroots political organizations across the South, supporting candidates for local school boards and city and county offices as examples, but following

13800-631: The principles of the McGovern Commission have lasted throughout every subsequent nomination contest, but the Hunt Commission instituted the selection of superdelegates a decade later, in order to reduce the nomination chances of outsiders such as McGovern and Jimmy Carter . George McGovern George Wallace Shirley Chisholm Terry Sanford Henry M. Jackson Results: Most polls showed McGovern running well behind incumbent President Richard Nixon , except when McGovern

13938-489: The provisions of the Twenty-second Amendment as a result of his victory, became the first presidential candidate to win a significant number of electoral votes in three presidential elections since the ratification of that Amendment, only Donald Trump has done the same. As of 2024, Nixon was the seventh of eight presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections,

14076-493: The race as an anti-war, progressive candidate. McGovern was able to pull together support from the anti-war movement and other grassroots support to win the nomination in a primary system he had played a significant part in designing. On January 25, 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm announced she would run, and became the first African-American woman to run for a major-party presidential nomination. Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink also announced she would run, and became

14214-570: The reach of the Republican Party. George Wallace had exhibited a strong candidacy in that election, where he garnered 46 electoral votes and nearly 10 million popular votes, attracting mostly Southern Democrats away from Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey had the worst performance for a Democratic presidential nominee in the South since the 1868 election . The notion of Black Power advocated by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leaders captured some of

14352-465: The response. Peter O'Donnell , a financial backer of Goldwater's campaign, wrote a memo criticizing Goldwater for "shooting from the hip" and "kicking a sleeping dog". His initial lead in North Carolina was undone by his opposition to federal tobacco price support. He was hurt in Florida due to his desire to privatize Social Security and his criticism of the United States' space program . At

14490-547: The rural South to medium and major Northern industrial cities as well as mainly coastal munitions centers of the West during the Second Great Migration for jobs in the defense industry and later economic opportunities during the post-World War II economic boom. In 1876, over 70% of voters participated in the election, but declined to less than 60% by 1896, and less than 30% by 1904. Voter participation reached

14628-440: The same time, passage of the Civil Rights Act caused many black voters to join the Democratic Party, which moved the party and its nominees in a progressive direction. Johnson was concerned that his endorsement of civil rights legislation would endanger his party in the South. In the 1968 election , Richard Nixon saw the cracks in the Solid South as an opportunity to tap into a group of voters who had historically been beyond

14766-593: The sixth American party system featured strong divisions between Republicans and Democrats, rooted in cleavages based on social class, social and cultural issues, race and ethnicity, and the proper size and scope of the federal government." In Parties and Elections in America: The Electoral Process (2021), Brewer and Maisel argue that the consensus among experts is that the Sixth System is underway based on American electoral politics since

14904-622: The so-called " Canuck letter " was published in the Manchester Union-Leader . The letter, actually a forgery from Nixon's "dirty tricks" unit, claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians  – a remark likely to injure Muskie's support among the French-American population in northern New England . Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie's wife Jane , reporting that she drank and used off-color language during

15042-707: The south in 1948, and held zero seats in five states. Between 1880 and 1904, Republican presidential candidates in the South received 35–40% of that section's vote (except in 1892, when the 16% for the Populists lowered Republicans down to 25%). From 1904 to 1948, Republicans received more than 30% of the section's votes only in the 1920 (35.2%, carrying Tennessee) and 1928 elections (47.7%, carrying five states) after disenfranchisement. During this period, Republican administrations appointed blacks to political positions. Republicans regularly supported anti- lynching bills, but these were filibustered by Southern Democrats in

15180-455: The south since the end of Reconstruction. In the senate, he voted with southern Democrats in opposition to civil rights legislation. Tower was succeeded by Phil Gramm , a Republican who left the Democratic Party. The Democrats maintained control of Texas' other senate seat until 1993 . In the early 1960s, leading Republicans including Goldwater began advocating for a plan they called the 'Southern Strategy', an effort to make Republican gains in

15318-400: The south, which gave him 74% of their vote and accounted for 33% of his overall support. Nixon wrote in his memoir that the south was the most important region for winning both the nomination and the presidency. However, he had to concede the Deep South to Wallace and instead presented himself as a compromise between Wallace and Humphrey to the rest of the south. Nixon's campaign in the south

15456-435: The southern states were now under the control of the Democrats, who increased their control of virtually all aspects of politics in the ex- Confederate states during the ensuing decades. There were occasional pockets of Republican control, but they were usually in remote mountain districts. After 1890, the white Democrats used a variety of tactics to reduce voting by African Americans and poor whites. The rise of primaries in

15594-512: The southern white vote in the 1972 election, and received 86% of the white vote in the Deep South. CBS reported that Nixon won former Wallace voters three to one. Nixon's highest margins of victory in the national election were in Mississippi and Georgia. It was the first time that a Republican presidential candidate won the entirety of the south. 1972 United States presidential election Richard Nixon Republican Richard Nixon Republican Presidential elections were held in

15732-411: The states that had narrowly held out against him in 1968 (Texas, Maryland, and West Virginia), as well as the states Wallace won himself (Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia). The pro-Wallace group of voters had only given AIP nominee John Schmitz a depressing 2.4% of its support, while 19.1% backed McGovern, and the majority 78.5% broke for Nixon. Nixon, who became term-limited under

15870-444: The strong economy and his success in foreign affairs, while McGovern ran on a platform calling for an immediate end to the Vietnam War and the institution of a guaranteed minimum income . Nixon maintained a large lead in polling. Separately, Nixon's reelection committee broke into the Watergate complex to wiretap the Democratic National Committee 's headquarters as part of the Watergate scandal . McGovern's general election campaign

16008-677: The support of black voters in the South in later years. In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for exploiting racial polarization to win elections and for ignoring the black vote. Although the phrase "Southern Strategy" is often attributed to Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips , he did not originate it but popularized it. In an interview included in

16146-572: The surface the Southern Strategy would appeal to white voters in the South by advocating against the New Frontier programs of President John F. Kennedy and in favor of a smaller federal government and states' rights , while less publicly arguing against the Civil Rights movement and in favor of continued racial segregation . Congressman and Republican National Committee chairman William E. Miller concurred with Goldwater and backed

16284-429: The time found that 77 percent of the respondents said, "Eagleton's medical record would not affect their vote." Nonetheless, the press made frequent references to his "shock therapy", and McGovern feared that this would detract from his campaign platform. McGovern subsequently consulted confidentially with pre-eminent psychiatrists, including Eagleton's own doctors, who advised him that a recurrence of Eagleton's depression

16422-525: The time, Goldwater was at odds in his position with most of the prominent members of the Republican Party, dominated by so-called Eastern Establishment and Midwestern Progressives. A higher percentage of the Republicans and Democrats outside the South supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as they had on all previous Civil Rights legislation. The Southern Democrats mostly opposed the Northern and Western politicians regardless of party affiliation—and their Presidents (Kennedy and Johnson)—on civil rights issues. At

16560-472: The vice presidential slot was offered to Senator Thomas Eagleton from Missouri, who accepted the offer. With hundreds of delegates displeased with McGovern, the vote to ratify Eagleton's candidacy was chaotic, with at least three other candidates having their names put into nomination and votes scattered over 70 candidates. A grassroots attempt to displace Eagleton in favor of Texas state representative Frances Farenthold gained significant traction, though

16698-641: The vote in the North Dakota counties of Burke , Sheridan and Hettinger . Schmitz was endorsed by fellow John Birch Society member Walter Brennan , who also served as finance chairman for his campaign. John Hospers and Theodora "Tonie" Nathan of the newly formed Libertarian Party were on the ballot only in Colorado and Washington , but were official write-in candidates in four others, and received 3,674 votes, winning no states. However, they did receive one Electoral College vote from Virginia from

16836-468: The youngest brother of late President John F. Kennedy and late United States Senator Robert F. Kennedy , was the favorite to win the 1972 nomination, but he announced he would not be a candidate. The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Maine Senator Ed Muskie , the 1968 vice-presidential nominee. Muskie's momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when

16974-477: Was a realization by both parties that nominations to the Supreme Court could have a major impact on political attitudes in the South. In a year-by-year analysis of how the transformation took place in the critical state of Virginia, James Sweeney shows that the slow collapse of the old statewide Byrd machine gave the Republicans the opportunity to build local organizations county by county and city by city. The Democratic Party factionalized, with each faction having

17112-530: Was challenged by two candidates: liberal Pete McCloskey from California, and conservative John Ashbrook from Ohio. McCloskey ran as an anti-war candidate, while Ashbrook opposed Nixon's détente policies towards China and the Soviet Union. In the New Hampshire primary , McCloskey garnered 19.8% of the vote to Nixon's 67.6%, with Ashbrook receiving 9.7%. Nixon won 1323 of the 1324 delegates to

17250-415: Was characterized by clashes over what rights to extend to various groups in society. The initial manifestations of these clashes were race-based school desegregation and affirmative action , but women's issues, especially abortion rights, soon gained equal billing. [...] To these were added in the 1980s environmental defense and in the 1990s gay rights." New voter coalitions included the emergence of

17388-421: Was damaged early on by revelations about his running mate Thomas Eagleton , as well as the perception that McGovern's platform was radical. Eagleton had undergone electroconvulsive therapy as a treatment for depression, and he was replaced by Sargent Shriver after only nineteen days on the ticket. Nixon won the election in a landslide victory , taking 60.7% of the popular vote, carrying 49 states and becoming

17526-618: Was described in 2007 by David Greenberg in Slate as " dog-whistle politics ". According to an article in The American Conservative , Nixon adviser and speechwriter Pat Buchanan disputed this characterization. Nixon met with southern Republicans and party chairmen, including John Tower and Thurmond, on May 31, 1968, in Atlanta, Georgia, and promised to slow integration efforts and forced busing. Ronald Reagan entered

17664-477: Was his home one of Arizona and he suffered a landslide defeat. A Lyndon B. Johnson ad called " Confessions of a Republican ", which ran in Northern and Western states, associated Goldwater with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). At the same time, Johnson's campaign in the Deep South publicized Goldwater's support for pre-1964 civil rights legislation. In the end, Johnson swept the election. In September, Thurmond left

17802-516: Was managed by Harry S. Dent Sr. and Thurmond. Dent had Nixon used euphemisms in opposition to school desegregation and forced busing. The independent candidacy of George Wallace partially negated Nixon's Southern Strategy. With a much more explicit attack on integration and civil rights, Wallace won almost all of Goldwater's states. Nixon picked up Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida while Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey won only Texas. Writer Jeffrey Hart , who worked on

17940-404: Was notably more conservative than previous Republican nominees, such as President Eisenhower. Goldwater's principal opponent in the primary election, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was widely seen as representing the more moderate, pro-Civil Rights Act, Northern wing of the party (see Rockefeller Republican and Goldwater Republican ). In the 1964 presidential election, Goldwater ran

18078-489: Was on the ballot in 32 states and received 1,099,482 votes. Unlike Wallace, however, he did not win a majority of votes cast in any state, and received no electoral votes, although he did finish ahead of McGovern in four of the most conservative Idaho counties. Schmitz's performance in archconservative Jefferson County was the best by a third-party Presidential candidate in any free or postbellum state county since 1936 when William Lemke reached over twenty-eight percent of

18216-581: Was paired with Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy . McGovern and his campaign brain trust lobbied Kennedy heavily to accept the bid to be McGovern's running mate , but he continually refused their advances, and instead suggested U.S. Representative (and House Ways and Means Committee chairman) Wilbur Mills from Arkansas and Boston Mayor Kevin White . Offers were then made to Hubert Humphrey , Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff , and Minnesota Senator Walter Mondale , all of whom turned it down. Finally,

18354-697: Was possible and could endanger the country, should Eagleton become president. McGovern had initially claimed that he would back Eagleton "1000 percent", only to ask Eagleton to withdraw three days later. This perceived lack of conviction in sticking with his running mate was disastrous for the McGovern campaign. McGovern later approached six prominent Democrats to run for vice president: Ted Kennedy, Edmund Muskie , Hubert Humphrey, Abraham Ribicoff , Larry O'Brien , and Reubin Askew . All six declined. Sargent Shriver , brother-in-law to John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, former Ambassador to France , and former Director of

18492-714: Was rarely the site of bargaining and dealing, but instead became a ratification ceremony run by the winner in the primaries. Even more dramatic was the increase in spending thanks to new fund-raising techniques. The major growth was not in the business or labor sectors, but in the network organizations of political parties, and most particularly the national organizations of state elected and party officials. The U.S. Supreme Court gave decisive support to reducing limits in Citizens United v. FEC (2010). That decision enabled corporations, labor unions, and Super PACs, among others, to advertise as much as they please within 30 days of

18630-586: Was selected by state and local party officials. The old system of using county caucuses and state party conventions to pick the delegates largely gave way in 1972 to primaries , thanks to the reforms proposed by the McGovern–Fraser Commission for the Democrats. The Republicans followed suit. One result was that locally powerful politicians lost their power to shape national tickets, and their influence in Washington. The new-style national convention

18768-629: Was the first since 1808 in which New York did not have the largest number of electors in the Electoral College, having fallen to 41 electors vs. California 's 45. Additionally, this remains the last one in which Minnesota was carried by the Republican candidate. McGovern won a mere 130 counties, plus the District of Columbia and four county-equivalents in Alaska, easily the fewest counties won by any major-party presidential nominee since

18906-466: Was the major transformation of the political system in the Reagan Era of the 1980s and beyond. No clear disciplinary consensus has emerged pinpointing an electoral event responsible for shifting presidential and congressional control since the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the Fifth Party System emerged. Much of the work published on the subject has come from political scientists explaining

19044-428: Was ultimately unable to change the outcome of the vote. The vice-presidential balloting went on so long that McGovern and Eagleton were forced to begin making their acceptance speeches at around 2 am, local time. After the convention ended, it was discovered that Eagleton had undergone psychiatric electroshock therapy for depression and had concealed this information from McGovern. A Time magazine poll taken at

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