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 County Results
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| Elections in New Mexico |
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The1968 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 5, 1968. All fifty states andThe District of Columbia, were part of the1968 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to represent them in theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
New Mexico had been a long-time politicalbellwether, having supported the winning candidate in every presidential election since statehood in 1912. However, a definite Republican trend was detectable in1964, when Goldwater was able to win a vote share two percent above his national mean and Johnson feared losing traditionallySouthern Democratic "Little Texas".[1]
The 1966 midterm elections saw the state join with larger "Sunbelt" dynamics and Democratic candidates for statewide offices would lose twelve percent or more of their previous vote share,[2] in the process showing that Hispanic candidates were becoming a liability in Albuquerque and the east due to considerable in-migration,[3] and legislative GOP percentages reached levels not observed for over four decades.[4] Local issues of public school finance and land-grant claims for the Hispanic and Native American populations of the state proved a further liability for the incumbent Democratic Party.[5] The issue of the stalematedVietnam War was another problem for the Democratic Party in a state severely affected by poverty, and anti-warEugene McCarthy gained substantial support among New Mexico Democrats beforethe assassination of Bobby Kennedy largely turned them toward eventual nomineeHubert Humphrey.
Incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey and segregationistAmerican Independent Party candidate andformer Governor of Alabama George Wallace campaigned in New Mexico during the autumn, whilst running mate Spiro Agnew did all the campaigning for RepublicanRichard Nixon in the state.[5] Despite his failure to visit, New Mexico was won by formerVice President Nixon by a 12-point margin against Humphrey.[6] Wallace, far from his base in the Deep South, did well among working and lower-middle class unionized workers[7] and farmers in the "Little Texas" region, but received some of his poorest national percentages in the north-central highland regions –Mora County gave Wallace his eleventh-smallest vote share of any county in the country. Nixon was the first Republican to carry Lea and Eddy counties since 1928.
Nixon's victory was the first of six consecutive Republican victories in the state, as New Mexico would not vote for a Democratic candidate again untilBill Clinton in1992, after which it has always gone Democratic except in2004 whenGeorge W. Bush very narrowly won the state overJohn Kerry.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | 169,692 | 51.85% | +11.61 | ||
| Democratic | 130,081 | 39.75% | −19.47 | ||
| American Independent | 25,737 | 7.86% | N/A | ||
| People's Constitutional |
| 1,519 | 0.46% | N/A | |
| Socialist Workers | 252 | 0.08% | N/A | ||
| Total votes | 327,281 | 100.00% | |||
| Republicanwin | |||||
| County | Richard Nixon Republican | Hubert Humphrey Democratic | George Wallace American Independent | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Bernalillo | 56,234 | 54.96% | 40,835 | 39.91% | 4,920 | 4.81% | 332 | 0.32% | 15,399 | 15.05% | 102,321 |
| Catron | 674 | 62.29% | 278 | 25.69% | 128 | 11.83% | 2 | 0.18% | 396 | 36.60% | 1,082 |
| Chaves | 8,866 | 63.61% | 3,612 | 25.91% | 1,425 | 10.22% | 35 | 0.25% | 5,254 | 37.70% | 13,938 |
| Colfax | 2,212 | 44.39% | 2,477 | 49.71% | 263 | 5.28% | 31 | 0.62% | -265 | -5.32% | 4,983 |
| Curry | 5,562 | 53.99% | 2,915 | 28.30% | 1,754 | 17.03% | 71 | 0.69% | 2,647 | 25.69% | 10,302 |
| De Baca | 658 | 57.67% | 345 | 30.24% | 130 | 11.39% | 8 | 0.70% | 313 | 27.43% | 1,141 |
| Dona Ana | 10,824 | 54.15% | 7,658 | 38.31% | 1,453 | 7.27% | 55 | 0.28% | 3,166 | 15.84% | 19,990 |
| Eddy | 7,193 | 47.74% | 6,093 | 40.44% | 1,671 | 11.09% | 109 | 0.72% | 1,100 | 7.30% | 15,066 |
| Grant | 2,908 | 38.52% | 3,817 | 50.56% | 793 | 10.50% | 31 | 0.41% | -909 | -12.04% | 7,549 |
| Guadalupe | 1,176 | 51.42% | 1,027 | 44.91% | 77 | 3.37% | 7 | 0.31% | 149 | 6.51% | 2,287 |
| Harding | 450 | 57.69% | 284 | 36.41% | 44 | 5.64% | 2 | 0.26% | 166 | 21.28% | 780 |
| Hidalgo | 606 | 39.25% | 678 | 43.91% | 257 | 16.65% | 3 | 0.19% | -72 | -4.66% | 1,544 |
| Lea | 7,415 | 48.21% | 4,751 | 30.89% | 3,025 | 19.67% | 191 | 1.24% | 2,664 | 17.32% | 15,382 |
| Lincoln | 2,004 | 64.52% | 802 | 25.82% | 287 | 9.24% | 13 | 0.42% | 1,202 | 38.70% | 3,106 |
| Los Alamos | 3,447 | 54.92% | 2,552 | 40.66% | 268 | 4.27% | 9 | 0.14% | 895 | 14.26% | 6,276 |
| Luna | 1,952 | 50.10% | 1,438 | 36.91% | 490 | 12.58% | 16 | 0.41% | 514 | 13.19% | 3,896 |
| McKinley | 4,376 | 45.71% | 4,491 | 46.91% | 547 | 5.71% | 159 | 1.66% | -115 | -1.20% | 9,573 |
| Mora | 1,155 | 50.97% | 1,069 | 47.18% | 35 | 1.54% | 7 | 0.31% | 86 | 3.79% | 2,266 |
| Otero | 4,475 | 43.77% | 3,978 | 38.91% | 1,688 | 16.51% | 83 | 0.81% | 497 | 4.86% | 10,224 |
| Quay | 2,123 | 51.38% | 1,399 | 33.86% | 567 | 13.72% | 43 | 1.04% | 724 | 17.52% | 4,132 |
| Rio Arriba | 3,935 | 43.23% | 4,799 | 52.72% | 269 | 2.96% | 99 | 1.09% | -864 | -9.49% | 9,102 |
| Roosevelt | 3,256 | 58.11% | 1,547 | 27.61% | 773 | 13.80% | 27 | 0.48% | 1,709 | 30.50% | 5,603 |
| San Juan | 7,664 | 54.03% | 4,036 | 28.45% | 2,304 | 16.24% | 181 | 1.28% | 3,628 | 25.58% | 14,185 |
| San Miguel | 4,027 | 48.12% | 4,088 | 48.85% | 195 | 2.33% | 58 | 0.69% | -61 | -0.73% | 8,368 |
| Sandoval | 1,959 | 41.43% | 2,609 | 55.18% | 129 | 2.73% | 31 | 0.66% | -650 | -13.75% | 4,728 |
| Santa Fe | 9,359 | 48.12% | 9,544 | 49.07% | 492 | 2.53% | 54 | 0.28% | -185 | -0.95% | 19,449 |
| Sierra | 1,624 | 57.06% | 930 | 32.68% | 282 | 9.91% | 10 | 0.35% | 694 | 24.38% | 2,846 |
| Socorro | 2,230 | 52.07% | 1,871 | 43.68% | 173 | 4.04% | 9 | 0.21% | 359 | 8.39% | 4,283 |
| Taos | 3,119 | 49.89% | 2,993 | 47.87% | 124 | 1.98% | 16 | 0.26% | 126 | 2.02% | 6,252 |
| Torrance | 1,316 | 52.98% | 974 | 39.21% | 188 | 7.57% | 6 | 0.24% | 342 | 13.77% | 2,484 |
| Union | 1,217 | 55.42% | 678 | 30.87% | 279 | 12.70% | 22 | 1.00% | 539 | 24.55% | 2,196 |
| Valencia | 5,676 | 47.51% | 5,513 | 46.15% | 707 | 5.92% | 51 | 0.43% | 163 | 1.36% | 11,947 |
| Totals | 169,692 | 51.85% | 130,081 | 39.75% | 25,737 | 7.86% | 1,771 | 0.54% | 39,611 | 12.10% | 327,281 |
This table shows the results by congressional district. Nixon won both of New Mexico's congressional districts. The candidates are listed based on what place they got nationally.[8]
| District[8] | Nixon | Humphrey | Wallace |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 52.4% | 43.1% | 4.5% |
| 2nd | 51.8% | 36.4% | 11.9% |
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