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 County results Congressional district results
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The1964 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the1964 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8[2] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
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] South Carolina was aone-party state dominated by the Democrats due to thedisfranchisement of black voters.[5]
FollowingHarry S. Truman'sTo Secure These Rights in 1947, the following year South Carolina's GovernorStrom Thurmond, led almost all of the state Democratic machinery into theStates' Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats). As the Dixiecrat presidential candidate, Thurmond won 71 percent of the state's limited electorate and every county exceptpoor white industrialAnderson andSpartanburg.[6] During the 1950s, the state's wealthier and more urbanized whites became extremely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party and to a lesser extent with the federal administration of RepublicanDwight D. Eisenhower.[7]
Roger Milliken invitedBarry 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.[8] During the 1950s, wealthy textile mill owners in the upcountry developed a grassroots state Republican Party dedicated to the tenets of theJohn Birch Society. This group nominated the most conservative delegation atthe party's 1960 convention.[9] These wealthy businessmen would merge with hardline segregationists to draft Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination in 1960 and join forces therein by the time of the next presidential election.[9]
U.S. SenatorStrom Thurmond left the Democratic Party in September, to join the Republicans. Goldwater gave a televised speech inColumbia, South Carolina, that featured segregationist politicians on-stage with him, including Thurmond,Iris Faircloth Blitch,James F. Byrnes,James H. Gray Sr.,Albert Watson, andJohn Bell Williams, in which he criticized the Civil Rights Act.[10]
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.[11] President Johnson did not campaign in the state, being hopeful that a black registration increased by more than Kennedy's 1960 margin[12] and support from economically liberal SenatorOlin Johnston would help him win without campaigning.[13]
Early polls in South Carolina 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.[14][15] Goldwater received 70% of the white vote.[16]
| 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% | ||
| County | Barry Goldwater Republican | Lyndon B. 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[a] |
| 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[b] |
| 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[c] |
| Totals | 309,048 | 58.89% | 215,700 | 41.10% | 93,348 | 17.79% | 524,756 |
Goldwater carried 5 of the 6 congressional districts, which all elected Democrats.
| District[17] | Goldwater | Johnson |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 67.9% | 32.1% |
| 2nd | 65.7% | 34.3% |
| 3rd | 50.5% | 49.5% |
| 4th | 55.9% | 44.1% |
| 5th | 47.6% | 52.4% |
| 6th | 58.8% | 41.2% |
The swing away from Johnson was general except in a few areas of substantial black voter registration increases, and Goldwater'slowcountry dominance easily offset Johnson's narrow edge amongst thepoor whites ofthe 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.[18] South Carolina was one of five states that swung more Republican in 1964, alongside Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. After narrow losses in 1952 and 1960, Goldwater became the first Republican presidential candidate to carry South Carolina sinceRutherford B. Hayes in1876.
State and district results of the1964 United States presidential election | ||
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