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 County Results
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| Elections in Idaho | ||
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The1964 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the1964 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states andWashington, D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Idaho was one of 44 states carried by incumbent PresidentLyndon B. Johnson amidst his national landslide. However, it was Johnson's narrowest victory in the election. He carried the state by a margin of 5,363 votes, or 1.83%, making Idaho about 20.75% more Republican than the nation. Johnson's strongest performances were inClearwater andLewis Counties in the heavily unionizedIdaho Panhandle logging country, where he took over 76% of the vote. Goldwater's strongest performance was in ancestrally RepublicanJerome County, with 63% of the vote. While Johnson carried slightly over half of the state's 44 counties, Goldwater carried most of the more populous counties (such asAda,Bonneville,Canyon andTwin Falls), thus keeping the vote close.
As of 2024, this is the only presidential race since1948 where Idaho voted Democrat, and although Goldwater lost, this election continued the solidification of Idaho as a Republican stronghold. The state trended 13.02% Republican relative to the national swing. Kennedy had lost the state by 7.5%in 1960, but that was in a nearly tied national environment, while Johnson only narrowly won it amidst a 23-point Democratic landslide nationwide. In nine counties,[a] Goldwater earned a higher share of the vote thanRichard Nixon had in 1960 – a result observed in only nine other counties outsideantebellum slave states.[1] Apart from heavily CatholicEmmons County, North Dakota,Camas andCuster in Idaho were the solitary counties outside antebellum slave states to vote for Kennedy in 1960 and Goldwater in 1964.[1]
No Democratic presidential nominee since Johnson in 1964 has been able to get even 40% of Idaho's popular vote, while the only Republicans to fail to pass 55% have beenGeorge H. W. Bush in1992 andBob Dole in1996,[2][3] in whichRoss Perot's andBo Gritz's third-party candidacies played a part.
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote | ||||
| Lyndon B. Johnson (incumbent) | Democratic | Texas | 148,920 | 50.92% | 4 | Hubert Humphrey | Minnesota | 4 |
| Barry Goldwater | Republican | Arizona | 143,557 | 49.08% | 0 | William E. Miller | New York | 0 |
| Total | 292,477 | 100% | 4 | 4 | ||||
| Needed to win | 270 | 270 | ||||||
| County | Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic | Barry Goldwater Republican | Margin | Total votes cast | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Ada | 19,639 | 43.60% | 25,404 | 56.40% | -5,765 | -12.80% | 45,043 |
| Adams | 750 | 52.12% | 689 | 47.88% | 61 | 4.24% | 1,439 |
| Bannock | 13,483 | 63.28% | 7,825 | 36.72% | 5,658 | 26.56% | 21,308 |
| Bear Lake | 1,857 | 56.86% | 1,409 | 43.14% | 448 | 13.72% | 3,266 |
| Benewah | 1,796 | 64.67% | 981 | 35.33% | 815 | 29.34% | 2,777 |
| Bingham | 5,231 | 49.37% | 5,364 | 50.63% | -133 | -1.26% | 10,595 |
| Blaine | 1,293 | 52.69% | 1,161 | 47.31% | 132 | 5.38% | 2,454 |
| Boise | 450 | 52.08% | 414 | 47.92% | 36 | 4.16% | 864 |
| Bonner | 4,328 | 59.26% | 2,975 | 40.74% | 1,353 | 18.52% | 7,303 |
| Bonneville | 9,637 | 47.30% | 10,736 | 52.70% | -1,099 | -5.40% | 20,373 |
| Boundary | 1,418 | 57.11% | 1,065 | 42.89% | 353 | 14.22% | 2,483 |
| Butte | 848 | 56.65% | 649 | 43.35% | 199 | 13.30% | 1,497 |
| Camas | 258 | 44.95% | 316 | 55.05% | -58 | -10.10% | 574 |
| Canyon | 10,601 | 44.05% | 13,466 | 55.95% | -2,865 | -11.90% | 24,067 |
| Caribou | 1,422 | 52.18% | 1,303 | 47.82% | 119 | 4.36% | 2,725 |
| Cassia | 2,608 | 39.41% | 4,009 | 60.59% | -1,401 | -21.18% | 6,617 |
| Clark | 186 | 41.52% | 262 | 58.48% | -76 | -16.96% | 448 |
| Clearwater | 2,446 | 76.13% | 767 | 23.87% | 1,679 | 52.26% | 3,213 |
| Custer | 714 | 49.79% | 720 | 50.21% | -6 | -0.42% | 1,434 |
| Elmore | 2,310 | 55.44% | 1,857 | 44.56% | 453 | 10.88% | 4,167 |
| Franklin | 1,583 | 39.74% | 2,400 | 60.26% | -817 | -20.52% | 3,983 |
| Fremont | 1,970 | 50.32% | 1,945 | 49.68% | 25 | 0.64% | 3,915 |
| Gem | 2,328 | 54.05% | 1,979 | 45.95% | 349 | 8.10% | 4,307 |
| Gooding | 1,848 | 42.24% | 2,527 | 57.76% | -679 | -15.52% | 4,375 |
| Idaho | 3,188 | 61.57% | 1,990 | 38.43% | 1,198 | 23.14% | 5,178 |
| Jefferson | 2,061 | 42.93% | 2,740 | 57.07% | -679 | -14.14% | 4,801 |
| Jerome | 1,828 | 37.00% | 3,113 | 63.00% | -1,285 | -26.00% | 4,941 |
| Kootenai | 8,215 | 57.40% | 6,096 | 42.60% | 2,119 | 14.80% | 14,311 |
| Latah | 5,249 | 60.17% | 3,475 | 39.83% | 1,774 | 20.34% | 8,724 |
| Lemhi | 1,067 | 41.63% | 1,496 | 58.37% | -429 | -16.74% | 2,563 |
| Lewis | 1,557 | 76.17% | 487 | 23.83% | 1,070 | 52.34% | 2,044 |
| Lincoln | 617 | 38.90% | 969 | 61.10% | -352 | -22.20% | 1,586 |
| Madison | 1,949 | 48.12% | 2,101 | 51.88% | -152 | -3.76% | 4,050 |
| Minidoka | 2,827 | 47.61% | 3,111 | 52.39% | -284 | -4.78% | 5,938 |
| Nez Perce | 9,245 | 70.27% | 3,912 | 29.73% | 5,333 | 40.54% | 13,157 |
| Oneida | 768 | 40.87% | 1,111 | 59.13% | -343 | -18.26% | 1,879 |
| Owyhee | 1,168 | 48.99% | 1,216 | 51.01% | -48 | -2.02% | 2,384 |
| Payette | 2,508 | 47.57% | 2,764 | 52.43% | -256 | -4.86% | 5,272 |
| Power | 1,161 | 54.58% | 966 | 45.42% | 195 | 9.16% | 2,127 |
| Shoshone | 5,194 | 64.30% | 2,884 | 35.70% | 2,310 | 28.60% | 8,078 |
| Teton | 598 | 46.98% | 675 | 53.02% | -77 | -6.04% | 1,273 |
| Twin Falls | 7,638 | 39.87% | 11,518 | 60.13% | -3,880 | -20.26% | 19,156 |
| Valley | 1,126 | 53.47% | 980 | 46.53% | 146 | 6.94% | 2,106 |
| Washington | 1,952 | 53.01% | 1,730 | 46.99% | 222 | 6.02% | 3,682 |
| Totals | 148,920 | 50.92% | 143,557 | 49.08% | 5,363 | 1.84% | 292,477 |
At a more local level, the only counties in Idaho to have ever given a Democrat a majority or plurality since1968 have been the ski resort counties ofTeton andBlaine; andBonner,Shoshone,Clearwater,Lewis,Nez Perce,Latah, andBenewah Counties in the Panhandle logging region.[4] Of these, Bonner County was carried only by a narrowBill Clinton plurality in 1992.[5] The Republicans would go on to sweep all 44 of Idaho's counties in1972,1980, and1984, and all but one, Blaine County, in2000 and2004. Since then, only Blaine, Latah, and Teton Counties have been carried by Democrats, although rapidly-urbanizingAda County (not carried by Johnson) has become strongly contested for Democrats since the late 2010s.[6]
As a result, this remains the last election in whichKootenai County,Bannock County,Elmore County,Gem County,Idaho County,Fremont County,Boundary County,Washington County,Valley County,Power County,Boise County,Caribou County,Bear Lake County,Adams County, andButte County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. This is the last time Democrats won any congressional district in the state.[4]
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