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1964 United States presidential election in Virginia

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Main article: 1964 United States presidential election

The 1964 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 3, 1964. All 50 states and the District of Columbia were part of the 1964 United States presidential election. Virginia voters chose 12 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president of the United States.

1964 United States presidential election in Virginia
← 1960 November 3, 1964 1968 →
 
Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Texas Arizona
Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller
Electoral vote 12 0
Popular vote 558,038 481,334
Percentage 53.53% 46.17%
County and Independent City Results
President before election

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

Elected President

Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic

For the previous six decades Virginia had almost completely disenfranchised its black and poor white populations through the use of a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.[1] So restricted was suffrage in this period that it has been calculated that a third of Virginia's electorate during the first half of the twentieth century comprised state employees and officeholders.[1]

This limited electorate allowed Virginian politics to be controlled for four decades by the Byrd Organization, as progressive “antiorganization” factions were rendered impotent by the inability of almost all their potential electorate to vote.[2] Historical fusion with the “Readjuster” Democrats,[3] defection of substantial proportions of the Northeast-aligned white electorate of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia over free silver,[4] and an early move towards a “lily white” Jim Crow party[3] meant Republicans retained a small but permanent number of legislative seats and local offices in the western part of the state.[5]

In 1928, the GOP did carry the state's presidential electoral votes due to anti-Catholicism against Al Smith, but it was 1952 before any real changes occurred, as in-migration from the traditionally Republican Northeast[6] meant that growing Washington, D.C., and Richmond suburbs would turn Republican not just in presidential elections but in Congressional ones as well,[7] although the Republicans would not make significant gains in the state legislature. Opposition to the black civil rights legislation of Harry S. Truman meant that the Byrd Organization did not support Adlai Stevenson II or John F. Kennedy.[8] Although the Organization viewed the national Republican party as no better on civil rights—it opposed the “massive resistance” orchestrated by Senator Byrd after Brown v. Board of Education—Byrd's silence helped Eisenhower and Nixon win the state three consecutive times between 1952 and 1960.

For 1964, it was evident that Virginia's electorate would be substantially increased by the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which banned the poll tax in federal elections and allowed major increases in voter registration during the preceding year.[9] Efforts by civil rights groups to register black voters would help black voter registration double vis-à-vis 1960.[10] At the same time, Republican nominee Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act and targeted the South as critical to winning the election against incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson who signed that Act in August 1964, whilst most Byrd Democrats endorsed Johnson—this being the first time since 1936 the Organization had done so.[10]

Predictions

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Source Ranking As of
The Wall Street Journal[11] Likely R September 29, 1964
Honolulu Advertiser[12] Lean D (flip) October 18, 1964
The Progress-Index[13] Tilt D (flip) October 25, 1964
The Chicago Tribune[14] Tossup October 29, 1964
Fort Lauderdale News[15] Tilt R November 1, 1964
The Charlotte Observer[16] Lean D (flip) November 1, 1964
Los Angeles Times[17] Tossup November 1, 1964

Results

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1964 United States presidential election in Virginia[18]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic Lyndon B. Johnson (inc.) 558,038 53.53% 12
Republican Barry Goldwater 481,334 46.17% 0
Socialist Labor Eric Hass 2,895 0.28% 0
American Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell (Write-in) 212 0.02% 0
Totals 1,042,479 100.00% 12

Results by county or independent city

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County/City[19] Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic 		Barry Goldwater
Republican 		Eric Hass
Socialist Labor 		Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Accomack 3,528 52.79% 3,145 47.06% 10 0.15% 383 5.73% 6,683
Albemarle 3,062 48.49% 3,251 51.48% 2 0.03% -189 -2.99% 6,315
Alexandria 16,828 65.52% 8,825 34.36% 30 0.12% 8,003 31.16% 25,683
Alleghany 1,580 58.85% 1,104 41.12% 1 0.04% 476 17.73% 2,685
Amelia 884 39.48% 1,348 60.21% 7 0.31% -464 -20.73% 2,239
Amherst 2,730 50.46% 2,675 49.45% 5 0.09% 55 1.01% 5,410
Appomattox 1,339 35.32% 2,444 64.47% 8 0.21% -1,105 -29.15% 3,791
Arlington 33,567 61.75% 20,485 37.68% 311 0.57% 13,082 24.07% 54,363
Augusta 4,039 48.24% 4,327 51.68% 6 0.07% -288 -3.44% 8,372
Bath 770 59.88% 516 40.12% 0 0.00% 254 19.76% 1,286
Bedford 4,076 51.50% 3,806 48.09% 32 0.40% 270 3.41% 7,914
Bland 851 54.20% 717 45.67% 2 0.13% 134 8.53% 1,570
Botetourt 2,377 53.11% 2,098 46.87% 1 0.02% 279 6.24% 4,476
Bristol 2,429 65.24% 1,289 34.62% 5 0.13% 1,140 30.62% 3,723
Brunswick 1,883 42.35% 2,560 57.58% 3 0.07% -677 -15.23% 4,446
Buchanan 4,756 66.76% 2,349 32.97% 19 0.27% 2,407 33.79% 7,124
Buckingham 1,182 43.25% 1,547 56.60% 4 0.15% -365 -13.35% 2,733
Buena Vista 691 59.93% 459 39.81% 3 0.26% 232 20.12% 1,153
Campbell 3,401 37.19% 5,713 62.47% 31 0.34% -2,312 -25.28% 9,145
Caroline 2,064 63.64% 1,166 35.95% 13 0.40% 898 27.69% 3,243
Carroll 2,517 40.95% 3,617 58.85% 12 0.20% -1,100 -17.90% 6,146
Charles City 1,023 75.89% 323 23.96% 2 0.15% 700 51.93% 1,348
Charlotte 1,191 37.48% 1,974 62.11% 13 0.41% -783 -24.63% 3,178
Charlottesville 5,205 53.64% 4,415 45.50% 84 0.87% 790 8.14% 9,704
Chesapeake 9,532 51.19% 9,038 48.54% 51 0.27% 494 2.65% 18,621
Chesterfield 8,376 32.38% 17,486 67.59% 9 0.03% -9,110 -35.21% 25,871
Clarke 1,136 51.50% 1,068 48.41% 2 0.09% 68 3.09% 2,206
Clifton Forge 1,252 59.56% 850 40.44% 0 0.00% 402 19.12% 2,102
Colonial Heights 1,198 33.09% 2,420 66.85% 2 0.06% -1,222 -33.76% 3,620
Covington 2,055 64.10% 1,149 35.84% 2 0.06% 906 28.26% 3,206
Craig 767 61.66% 477 38.34% 0 0.00% 290 23.32% 1,244
Culpeper 1,886 51.46% 1,775 48.43% 4 0.11% 111 3.03% 3,665
Cumberland 871 44.06% 1,099 55.59% 7 0.35% -228 -11.53% 1,977
Danville 4,539 35.67% 7,900 62.09% 285 2.24% -3,361 -26.42% 12,724
Dickenson 3,485 61.80% 2,143 38.00% 11 0.20% 1,342 23.80% 5,639
Dinwiddie 2,182 50.92% 2,096 48.91% 7 0.16% 86 2.01% 4,285
Essex 760 49.03% 789 50.90% 1 0.06% -29 -1.87% 1,550
Fairfax 48,680 61.22% 30,755 38.68% 82 0.10% 17,925 22.54% 79,517
Fairfax City 2,835 59.48% 1,924 40.37% 7 0.15% 911 19.11% 4,766
Falls Church 2,371 63.96% 1,329 35.85% 7 0.19% 1,042 28.11% 3,707
Fauquier 3,506 62.46% 2,101 37.43% 6 0.11% 1,405 25.03% 5,613
Floyd 1,144 38.32% 1,836 61.51% 5 0.17% -692 -23.19% 2,985
Fluvanna County 1,008 54.96% 823 44.87% 3 0.16% 185 10.09% 1,834
Franklin 3,447 60.08% 2,279 39.72% 11 0.19% 1,168 20.36% 5,737
Franklin City 1,257 61.59% 783 38.36% 1 0.05% 474 23.23% 2,041
Frederick 2,880 52.61% 2,585 47.22% 9 0.16% 295 5.39% 5,474
Fredericksburg 2,410 61.35% 1,511 38.47% 7 0.18% 899 22.88% 3,928
Galax 717 50.64% 697 49.22% 2 0.14% 20 1.42% 1,416
Giles 3,133 60.63% 1,952 37.78% 82 1.59% 1,181 22.85% 5,167
Gloucester 1,949 54.40% 1,631 45.52% 3 0.08% 318 8.88% 3,583
Goochland 1,452 53.84% 1,241 46.01% 4 0.15% 211 7.83% 2,697
Grayson 3,238 50.98% 3,105 48.88% 9 0.14% 133 2.10% 6,352
Greene 460 41.67% 641 58.06% 3 0.27% -181 -16.39% 1,104
Greensville 2,262 50.06% 2,245 49.68% 12 0.27% 17 0.38% 4,519
Halifax 2,198 35.77% 3,928 63.93% 18 0.29% -1,730 -28.16% 6,144
Hampton 13,542 60.76% 8,731 39.17% 15 0.07% 4,811 21.59% 22,288
Hanover 2,864 36.95% 4,879 62.95% 8 0.10% -2,015 -26.00% 7,751
Harrisonburg 1,765 49.16% 1,820 50.70% 5 0.14% -55 -1.54% 3,590
Henrico 12,779 30.37% 29,286 69.59% 17 0.04% -16,507 -39.22% 42,082
Henry 5,295 64.70% 2,844 34.75% 45 0.55% 2,451 29.95% 8,184
Highland 476 48.13% 511 51.67% 2 0.20% -35 -3.54% 989
Hopewell 2,498 43.89% 3,183 55.93% 10 0.18% -685 -12.04% 5,691
Isle of Wight 2,656 60.38% 1,737 39.49% 6 0.14% 919 20.89% 4,399
James City 1,744 61.43% 1,092 38.46% 3 0.11% 652 22.97% 2,839
King and Queen 786 52.79% 699 46.94% 4 0.27% 87 5.85% 1,489
King George 1,085 62.75% 644 37.25% 0 0.00% 441 25.50% 1,729
King William 904 45.77% 1,065 53.92% 6 0.30% -161 -8.15% 1,975
Lancaster 1,245 42.77% 1,663 57.13% 3 0.10% -418 -14.36% 2,911
Lee 5,151 59.71% 3,463 40.15% 12 0.14% 1,688 19.56% 8,626
Loudoun 4,278 62.21% 2,594 37.72% 5 0.07% 1,684 24.49% 6,877
Louisa 1,731 55.78% 1,369 44.12% 3 0.10% 362 11.66% 3,103
Lunenburg 1,128 37.89% 1,847 62.04% 2 0.07% -719 -24.15% 2,977
Lynchburg 6,758 40.14% 10,044 59.66% 32 0.19% -3,286 -19.52% 16,834
Madison 862 44.83% 1,060 55.12% 1 0.05% -198 -10.29% 1,923
Martinsville 2,943 61.01% 1,805 37.42% 76 1.58% 1,138 23.59% 4,824
Mathews 1,137 49.74% 1,149 50.26% 0 0.00% -12 -0.52% 2,286
Mecklenburg 3,238 39.36% 4,976 60.48% 13 0.16% -1,738 -21.12% 8,227
Middlesex 973 48.77% 1,019 51.08% 3 0.15% -46 -2.31% 1,995
Montgomery 3,872 45.61% 4,604 54.23% 13 0.15% -732 -8.62% 8,489
Nansemond 4,804 64.79% 2,590 34.93% 21 0.28% 2,214 29.86% 7,415
Nelson 1,635 64.52% 893 35.24% 6 0.24% 742 29.28% 2,534
New Kent 684 50.11% 677 49.60% 4 0.29% 7 0.51% 1,365
Newport News 15,296 59.07% 10,584 40.87% 14 0.05% 4,712 18.20% 25,894
Norfolk 32,388 62.83% 18,429 35.75% 729 1.41% 13,959 27.08% 51,546
Northampton 1,516 48.86% 1,586 51.11% 1 0.03% -70 -2.25% 3,103
Northumberland 988 40.86% 1,423 58.85% 7 0.29% -435 -17.99% 2,418
Norton 824 68.90% 372 31.10% 0 0.00% 452 37.80% 1,196
Nottoway 2,138 47.52% 2,353 52.30% 8 0.18% -215 -4.78% 4,499
Orange 1,508 48.54% 1,595 51.34% 4 0.13% -87 -2.80% 3,107
Page 2,606 48.09% 2,804 51.74% 9 0.17% -198 -3.65% 5,419
Patrick 2,306 61.07% 1,468 38.88% 2 0.05% 838 22.19% 3,776
Petersburg 4,521 58.15% 3,253 41.84% 1 0.01% 1,268 16.31% 7,775
Pittsylvania 5,228 42.25% 7,120 57.54% 25 0.20% -1,892 -15.29% 12,373
Portsmouth 16,073 65.49% 8,420 34.31% 51 0.21% 7,653 31.18% 24,544
Powhatan 969 45.03% 1,182 54.93% 1 0.05% -213 -9.90% 2,152
Prince Edward 1,512 37.20% 2,545 62.62% 7 0.17% -1,033 -25.42% 4,064
Prince George 1,502 45.58% 1,790 54.32% 3 0.09% -288 -8.74% 3,295
Prince William 5,611 62.60% 3,343 37.30% 9 0.10% 2,268 25.30% 8,963
Pulaski 3,620 53.82% 3,101 46.10% 5 0.07% 519 7.72% 6,726
Radford 1,850 55.09% 1,505 44.82% 3 0.09% 345 10.27% 3,358
Rappahannock 675 59.89% 449 39.84% 3 0.27% 226 20.05% 1,127
Richmond 636 41.30% 901 58.51% 3 0.19% -265 -17.21% 1,540
Richmond City 35,662 56.71% 27,196 43.24% 32 0.05% 8,466 13.47% 62,890
Roanoke 8,808 45.09% 10,714 54.84% 14 0.07% -1,906 -9.75% 19,536
Roanoke City 15,314 53.74% 13,164 46.20% 18 0.06% 2,150 7.54% 28,496
Rockbridge 2,599 54.08% 2,200 45.78% 7 0.15% 399 8.30% 4,806
Rockingham 4,205 50.28% 4,155 49.68% 3 0.04% 50 0.60% 8,363
Russell 4,330 58.78% 3,012 40.89% 25 0.34% 1,318 17.89% 7,367
Scott 4,720 50.92% 4,533 48.90% 16 0.17% 187 2.02% 9,269
Shenandoah 3,184 44.42% 3,981 55.54% 3 0.04% -797 -11.12% 7,168
Smyth 4,113 51.72% 3,830 48.16% 9 0.11% 283 3.56% 7,952
South Boston 636 34.51% 1,206 65.44% 1 0.05% -570 -30.93% 1,843
Southampton 2,566 62.74% 1,520 37.16% 4 0.10% 1,046 25.58% 4,090
Spotsylvania 2,097 62.28% 1,261 37.45% 9 0.27% 836 24.83% 3,367
Stafford 2,469 56.58% 1,888 43.26% 7 0.16% 581 13.32% 4,364
Staunton 2,705 47.62% 2,969 52.27% 6 0.11% -264 -4.65% 5,680
Suffolk 1,579 51.87% 1,463 48.06% 2 0.07% 116 3.81% 3,044
Surry 1,131 52.85% 1,004 46.92% 5 0.23% 127 5.93% 2,140
Sussex 1,234 44.47% 1,537 55.39% 4 0.14% -303 -10.92% 2,775
Tazewell 6,081 64.57% 3,231 34.31% 105 1.12% 2,850 30.26% 9,417
Virginia Beach 12,892 55.00% 10,529 44.92% 21 0.09% 2,363 10.08% 23,442
Warren 2,494 56.81% 1,886 42.96% 10 0.23% 608 13.85% 4,390
Washington 5,070 54.95% 4,146 44.94% 10 0.11% 924 10.01% 9,226
Waynesboro 2,369 52.28% 2,107 46.50% 55 1.21% 262 5.78% 4,531
Westmoreland 1,312 52.50% 1,181 47.26% 6 0.24% 131 5.24% 2,499
Williamsburg 1,171 55.95% 906 43.29% 16 0.76% 265 12.66% 2,093
Winchester 2,254 50.80% 2,180 49.13% 3 0.07% 74 1.67% 4,437
Wise 7,220 68.51% 3,309 31.40% 10 0.09% 3,911 37.11% 10,539
Wythe 2,879 49.10% 2,958 50.45% 26 0.44% -79 -1.35% 5,863
York 3,385 52.98% 2,992 46.83% 12 0.19% 393 6.15% 6,389
Totals 558,038 53.54% 481,334 46.18% 2,895 0.28% 76,704 7.36% 1,042,267

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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Counties and Independent Cities that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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Analysis

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Virginia would be won by Johnson with 53.54 percent of the vote, making this the first time since 1948 that Virginia backed a Democratic presidential candidate. Johnson won the national election in a landslide with 61.05 percent of the vote, which actually made Virginia Goldwater's tenth-best state nationally, 15.22 percentage points more Republican than the nation at large. The state would not vote for another Democratic candidate until Barack Obama won the state in 2008. Johnson's victory saw major changes in Virginia voting patterns compared to previous presidential elections. Despite the state shifting from Richard Nixon to Johnson, nine counties in the Southside region, which had been the stronghold of the Byrd Organization, would shift from Kennedy to Goldwater due to opposition to Johnson's civil rights proposals by an almost exclusively white electorate.[20] In Charlotte County, Johnson lost 29 points from John F. Kennedy’s 1960 vote percentage.[19] At the same time, the Shenandoah Valley, where pietistic Protestant sects supportive of civil rights were influential,[9] alongside the heavily unionized southwestern coalfields and Northeastern-aligned Northern Virginia, would see a strong swing towards Johnson, aided by growth in poor white voter registration from the Twenty-Fourth Amendment.[10] Despite this, a majority of white Virginians undoubtedly backed Goldwater,[21] and a doubling of a black presidential vote that almost unanimously supported Johnson was critical for his win.[10]

As of the 2020 presidential election, this remains the last occasion when Amherst County, Bland County, Clarke County, Culpeper County, Fauquier County, Frederick County, Rockingham County, Washington County, York County and the city of Waynesboro have voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[22] Prince William County and Winchester City would not vote Democratic again until 2008.[20] Fairfax County, Virginia's most populous county, would not vote Democratic again until 2004, having previously voted Democratic in 1940.[20] The independent city of Virginia Beach would not vote Democratic again until 2020. This also remains the last time that Virginia and neighboring West Virginia would simultaneously vote Democratic in a presidential election.

References

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  1. ^ a b Kousser, J. Morgan. The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910. Yale University Press. pp. 178–181. ISBN 0-300-01696-4.
  2. ^ Key, Valdimer Orlando (1949). Southern Politics in State and Nation. pp. 20–25.
  3. ^ a b Heersink, Boris; Jenkins, Jeffrey A. Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968. pp. 217–221. ISBN 1107158435.
  4. ^ Moger, Allen. "The Rift in Virginia Democracy in 1896". The Journal of Southern History. 4 (3): 295–317.
  5. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210, 242 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  6. ^ Heinemann, Ronald L. (2008). Old Dominion, New Commonwealth: A History of Virginia, 1607-2007. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. p. 357. ISBN 0813927692.
  7. ^ Atkinson, Frank B. (2006). The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-party Competition in Virginia, 1945-1980. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742552098.
  8. ^ Ely, James W. (1976). The Crisis of Conservative Virginia: the Byrd Organization and the Politics of Massive Resistance. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press. p. 16. ISBN 0870491881.
  9. ^ a b Sweeney, James R. (1994). "A New Day in the Old Dominion". Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 102 (3): 307–348.
  10. ^ a b c d Davidson, Chandler; Grofman, Bernard (1994). Quiet revolution in the South: the impact of the Voting rights act, 1965-1990. pp. 275–276. ISBN 0691032475.
  11. ^ Sullivan, Joseph W. (September 19, 1964). "The GOP in Dixie: Civil Rights Stand Gives Goldwater a Wide Lead In Most of the South Survey Finds Senator Ahead Everywhere but in Texas; Other Republicans Benefit But Margin Has Narrowed". The Wall Street Journal. p. 1.
  12. ^ Carpenter, Leslie (October 18, 1964). "Somebody's Going To Be Jobless — "What Next" Is Question for the Losing Candidate". The Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser. Honolulu. p. A16.
  13. ^ Daffron, John F. (October 25, 1964). "State Return to Democrats Very Likely". The Progress-Index. Petersburg, Virginia. pp. 1, 6.
  14. ^ Manly, Chely (October 29, 1964). "Johnson Gains in South but Dixie Is Still Strong for Barry: Goldwater Keeps Loyal Army of Backers". The Chicago Tribune. p. 5.
  15. ^ "How Survey by United Press International Sees Presidential Race: State-by-State Outlooks for Elections Outcomes". Fort Lauderdale News. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. November 1, 1964. pp. C1.
  16. ^ "A State-by-State Report on How All Major Races Look". The Charlotte Observer. November 1, 1964. pp. 18A.
  17. ^ Kraslow, David (November 1, 1964). "How South Will Vote Remains Big Question: Goldwater "Fairly Safe" in Three States, Johnson in One, Rest Considered Toss-ups". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 17.
  18. ^ "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 3, 1964" (PDF). Clerk of the House of Representatives. p. 46.
  19. ^ a b "VA US President Race, November 03, 1964". Our Campaigns.
  20. ^ a b c Menendez, Albert J. (2005). The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. pp. 326–331. ISBN 0786422173.
  21. ^ Black, Earl (2021). "Competing Responses to the New Southern Politics: Republican and Democratic Southern Strategies, 1964-76". In Reed, John Shelton; Black, Merle (eds.). Perspectives on the American South: An Annual Review of Society, Politics, and Culture. ISBN 9781136764882.
  22. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
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