1964 United States presidential election in South Carolina
The 1964 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8[2] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
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 County Results
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| Elections in South Carolina |
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Background
Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote[3] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population.[4]
Roger Milliken invited Barry Goldwater to speak in South Carolina in 1959, and it was televised in the entire state. Milliken later financially supported Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.[5]
Campaign
U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party in September, to join 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.[6]
The Democratic Party, for its part, had struggled bitterly over whether to select electors pledged to incumbent President Lyndon Johnson due to his support for civil rights and desegregation; however, like Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi, South Carolina chose Democratic electors pledged to LBJ.[7] President Johnson did not campaign in the state, being hopeful that a black registration increased by more than Kennedy's 1960 margin[8] and support from economically liberal Senator Olin Johnston would help him win without campaigning.[9]
Early polls in the Palmetto State gave a substantial lead to Goldwater, but by the end of October, the state was viewed as similarly close to the 1952 and 1960 races where the Democrats won by under ten thousand votes.[10][11]
Goldwater received 70% of the white vote.[12]
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Barry Goldwater | 309,048 | 58.89% | |
| Democratic | Lyndon B. Johnson (inc.) | 215,700 | 41.10% | |
| Write-in | — | 8 | 0.00% | |
| Total votes | 524,756 | 100% | ||
Results by county
| County | Barry Morris Goldwater Republican |
Lyndon Baines Johnson Democratic |
Margin | Total votes cast | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Abbeville | 1,448 | 35.00% | 2,689 | 65.00% | -1,241 | -30.00% | 4,137 |
| Aiken | 17,467 | 69.62% | 7,622 | 30.38% | 9,845 | 39.24% | 25,089 |
| Allendale | 1,740 | 69.27% | 772 | 30.73% | 968 | 38.54% | 2,512 |
| Anderson | 8,398 | 41.85% | 11,670 | 58.15% | -3,272 | -16.30% | 20,068 |
| Bamberg | 2,366 | 62.51% | 1,419 | 37.49% | 947 | 25.02% | 3,785 |
| Barnwell | 3,670 | 72.64% | 1,382 | 27.36% | 2,288 | 45.28% | 5,052 |
| Beaufort | 3,432 | 55.54% | 2,747 | 44.46% | 685 | 11.08% | 6,179 |
| Berkeley | 6,100 | 63.30% | 3,537 | 36.70% | 2,563 | 26.60% | 9,637 |
| Calhoun | 1,591 | 72.22% | 612 | 27.78% | 979 | 44.44% | 2,203 |
| Charleston | 32,509 | 69.06% | 14,564 | 30.94% | 17,945 | 38.12% | 47,073 |
| Cherokee | 3,627 | 46.00% | 4,258 | 54.00% | -631 | -8.00% | 7,885 |
| Chester | 2,915 | 42.89% | 3,882 | 57.11% | -967 | -14.22% | 6,797 |
| Chesterfield | 2,449 | 34.58% | 4,634 | 65.42% | -2,185 | -30.84% | 7,083 |
| Clarendon | 2,960 | 78.06% | 832 | 21.94% | 2,128 | 56.12% | 3,792 |
| Colleton | 4,637 | 69.33% | 2,051 | 30.67% | 2,586 | 38.66% | 6,688 |
| Darlington | 6,717 | 57.28% | 5,010 | 42.72% | 1,707 | 14.56% | 11,727 |
| Dillon | 2,742 | 49.72% | 2,773 | 50.28% | -31 | -0.56% | 5,515 |
| Dorchester | 5,109 | 76.11% | 1,604 | 23.89% | 3,505 | 52.22% | 6,713 |
| Edgefield | 2,489 | 75.13% | 824 | 24.87% | 1,665 | 50.26% | 3,313 |
| Fairfield | 1,997 | 43.18% | 2,628 | 56.82% | -631 | -13.64% | 4,625 |
| Florence | 10,346 | 59.11% | 7,157 | 40.89% | 3,189 | 18.22% | 17,503 |
| Georgetown | 4,705 | 57.89% | 3,423 | 42.11% | 1,282 | 15.78% | 8,128 |
| Greenville | 29,358 | 62.96% | 17,275 | 37.04% | 12,083 | 25.92% | 46,633 |
| Greenwood | 5,653 | 50.78% | 5,479 | 49.22% | 174 | 1.56% | 11,132 |
| Hampton | 2,259 | 61.09% | 1,439 | 38.91% | 820 | 22.18% | 3,698 |
| Horry | 8,293 | 60.37% | 5,444 | 39.63% | 2,849 | 20.74% | 13,737 |
| Jasper | 1,593 | 61.39% | 1,002 | 38.61% | 591 | 22.78% | 2,595 |
| Kershaw | 5,617 | 63.94% | 3,168 | 36.06% | 2,449 | 27.88% | 8,785 |
| Lancaster | 4,742 | 48.83% | 4,970 | 51.17% | -228 | -2.34% | 9,712 |
| Laurens | 5,081 | 53.79% | 4,365 | 46.21% | 716 | 7.58% | 9,446 |
| Lee | 2,489 | 68.29% | 1,156 | 31.71% | 1,333 | 36.58% | 3,645 |
| Lexington | 12,041 | 71.47% | 4,807 | 28.53% | 7,234 | 42.94% | 16,848 |
| Marion | 3,197 | 60.98% | 2,046 | 39.02% | 1,151 | 21.96% | 5,243 |
| Marlboro | 1,864 | 43.49% | 2,422 | 56.51% | -558 | -13.02% | 4,286 |
| McCormick | 939 | 65.34% | 498 | 34.66% | 441 | 30.68% | 1,437 |
| Newberry | 5,571 | 63.35% | 3,222 | 36.64% | 2,349 | 26.71% | 8,794[lower-alpha 1] |
| Oconee | 2,712 | 32.79% | 5,560 | 67.21% | -2,848 | -34.42% | 8,272 |
| Orangeburg | 10,456 | 65.09% | 5,607 | 34.91% | 4,849 | 30.18% | 16,063 |
| Pickens | 5,882 | 62.63% | 3,506 | 37.33% | 2,376 | 25.30% | 9,391[lower-alpha 2] |
| Richland | 27,306 | 60.35% | 17,939 | 39.65% | 9,367 | 20.70% | 45,245 |
| Saluda | 2,524 | 64.17% | 1,409 | 35.83% | 1,115 | 28.34% | 3,933 |
| Spartanburg | 18,411 | 47.89% | 20,034 | 52.11% | -1,623 | -4.22% | 38,445 |
| Sumter | 7,729 | 67.19% | 3,775 | 32.81% | 3,954 | 34.38% | 11,504 |
| Union | 3,815 | 49.50% | 3,892 | 50.50% | -77 | -1.00% | 7,707 |
| Williamsburg | 4,810 | 68.15% | 2,248 | 31.85% | 2,562 | 36.30% | 7,058 |
| York | 7,292 | 46.62% | 8,346 | 53.36% | -1,054 | -6.74% | 15,642[lower-alpha 3] |
| Totals | 309,048 | 58.89% | 215,699 | 41.10% | 93,349 | 17.79% | 524,755 |
Analysis
The swing away from Johnson was general except in a few areas of substantial black voter registration increases, and Goldwater's lowcountry dominance easily offset Johnson's narrow edge amongst the poor whites of the upcountry who, despite their hostility to Johnson's civil rights measures, saw Goldwater as a Dixiecrat-style conservative committed to privatization of services poor whites viewed essential.[13] After narrow losses in 1952 and 1960, Goldwater became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry South Carolina since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876.
Goldwater was the first Republican to ever carry Florence, Greenwood, Lee, McCormick, and Saluda Counties.[14] He was the first national GOP nominee to carry Horry, Marion, and Laurens Counties since Ulysses S. Grant in 1872; Darlington County since Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876; and Berkeley County since Benjamin Harrison in 1892.[14]
Notes
- One write-in vote was recorded from this county.
- 3 write-in votes were recorded from this county.
- 4 write-in votes were recorded from this county.
References
- "United States Presidential election of 1964 - Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved May 27, 2017.
- "1964 Election for the Forty-Fifth Term (1965-69)". Retrieved May 27, 2017.
- Mickey, Robert (2015). Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972. p. 440. ISBN 0691149631.
- Mickey; Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27
- "The Man Who Launched the GOP's Civil War". Politico. October 1, 2015. Archived from the original on September 19, 2023.
- Black & Black 1992, p. 152-153.
- Congressional Quarterly, Incorporated; CQ Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, vol. 25 (1967), p. 1121
- Johnson, Robert David. All the Way with LBJ: The 1964 Presidential Election. p. 168. ISBN 0521737524.
- Johnson. All the Way with LBJ, p. 224
- "State by State Rundown Shows Johnson Way Out in Front". The Morning Call. Allentown, Pennsylvania. October 31, 1964. p. 11.
- Johnson. All the Way with LBJ, p. 275
- Black & Black 1992, p. 155.
- Phillips. The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 263-265
- Menendez, Albert J. (2005). The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 291–293. ISBN 0786422173.
Works cited
- Black, Earl; Black, Merle (1992). The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0674941306.
