1964 United States presidential election in Maine

The 1964 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all fifty states and D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Maine was won by incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas in a landslide over Republican U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Johnson took 68.8% of the vote to Goldwater's 31.14%, a victory margin of 37.66 percentage points, and the strongest-ever performance by a Democrat in the state. Johnson became the first Democrat since Woodrow Wilson in 1912 to carry this longstanding liberal Republican stronghold, and the first since Franklin Pierce in 1852 to win the state with an outright majority. Even amidst a national Democratic landslide, Maine weighed-in in this election as more than 15 points to the left of the nation at-large.

Johnson carried Maine by a wide margin of 37.66%, making him the first Democratic candidate since Franklin Pierce in 1852 to win a majority (Wilson won the state in 1912 with only a plurality of 39.43%). Johnson was also the first Democrat to sweep all of Maine's counties.^[1]

He was the first Democrat to carry Somerset County since Martin Van Buren in 1836,^[1] the first since Pierce to carry the counties of Franklin, Oxford, Penobscot and Piscataquis and the first since Winfield S. Hancock in 1880 to carry Aroostook County.^[2] Populous Cumberland County, along with Lincoln County, had last voted Democratic for Woodrow Wilson in 1912, while the counties of Hancock, Knox and Waldo had last supported a Democrat when giving Wilson a plurality in 1916.^[2]

This would prove the last occasion Waldo County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate until 1996,^[a] and last when Hancock, Knox, and Lincoln Counties would support a Democratic presidential nominee until Bill Clinton in 1992. Johnson's 80.14% in Androscoggin County is also the last time, as of 2020, that any candidate has broken 80% in any Maine county, and the first time that a Democrat has done so since 1836.

Results

1964 United States presidential election in Maine^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic (inc.)	Lyndon B. Johnson	262,264	68.80%	4
	Republican	Barry Goldwater	118,701	31.14%	0
	Write-ins	Write-ins	256	0.07%	0
Totals			381,221	100.00%	4
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered)					65%/73%

Results by county

County	Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic		Barry Goldwater Republican		Various Candidates Write-ins		Margin		Total votes cast
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Androscoggin	30,080	80.14%	7,441	19.82%	14	0.04%	22,639	60.32%	37,535
Aroostook	17,552	63.71%	9,994	36.28%	3	0.01%	7,558	27.43%	27,549
Cumberland	50,844	69.39%	22,365	30.52%	63	0.09%	28,479	38.87%	73,272
Franklin	5,784	66.69%	2,887	33.29%	2	0.02%	2,897	33.40%	8,673
Hancock	7,415	53.98%	6,304	45.89%	18	0.13%	1,111	8.09%	13,737
Kennebec	24,813	68.65%	11,307	31.28%	23	0.06%	13,506	37.37%	36,143
Knox	7,022	61.43%	4,404	38.53%	4	0.03%	2,618	22.90%	11,430
Lincoln	5,099	56.07%	3,984	43.81%	11	0.12%	1,115	12.26%	9,094
Oxford	13,616	71.76%	5,340	28.14%	19	0.10%	8,276	43.62%	18,975
Penobscot	28,766	66.54%	14,449	33.42%	17	0.04%	14,317	33.12%	43,232
Piscataquis	4,781	65.84%	2,473	34.06%	7	0.10%	2,308	31.78%	7,261
Sagadahoc	7,006	71.93%	2,733	28.06%	1	0.01%	4,273	43.87%	9,740
Somerset	10,694	70.11%	4,541	29.77%	18	0.12%	6,153	40.34%	15,253
Waldo	5,397	61.87%	3,324	38.11%	2	0.02%	2,073	23.76%	8,723
Washington	9,312	70.88%	3,816	29.05%	9	0.07%	5,496	41.83%	13,137
York	34,083	71.80%	13,339	28.10%	45	0.09%	20,744	43.70%	47,467
Totals	262,264	68.80%	118,701	31.14%	256	0.07%	143,563	37.66%	381,221

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Analysis

Ever since the Republican Party formed in 1854 to stop the spread of slavery into the territories, Maine and nearby Vermont had been rock-ribbed Republican, except during the split of 1912, when Maine went to Woodrow Wilson with less than forty percent of the vote. As recently as 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower had won over seventy percent of the vote in the state for the GOP.

However, at the same time the GOP was turning its attention from the declining rural Yankee counties to the growing and traditionally Democratic Catholic vote,^[4] along with the conservative Sun Belt whose growth was driven by air conditioning. This growth meant that activist Republicans centred in the traditionally Democratic, but by the 1960s, middle-class Sun Belt had become much more conservative than the majority of members in the historic Northeastern GOP stronghold.^[5]

The consequence of this was that a bitterly divided Grand Old Party was able to nominate the staunchly conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who ran with the equally conservative Republican National Committee chair, Congressman William E. Miller of New York. The staunch conservative Goldwater was widely seen in the liberal Northeastern United States as a right-wing extremist;^[6] he had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Johnson campaign portrayed him as a warmonger who as president would provoke a nuclear war.^[7]

In contrast to New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Michigan, Goldwater did not write upper New England off from the beginning of his presidential campaign before Kennedy's assassination.^[8] However, Goldwater's self-avowed extremism was such that he was the first Republican disendorsed by many newspapers in the region since the party was founded.^[9] Polls never gave any doubt that Goldwater would lose Maine, despite considerable September campaigning by running mate Miller.^[10]

Notes

^ Waldo County did give a plurality to Independent H. Ross Perot in 1992.

References

^ ^a ^b Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 90 ISBN 0786422173
^ ^a ^b Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in America; pp. 218-219
^ "1964 Presidential General Election Results – Maine". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
^ Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 55-60 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
^ Nexon, David; ‘Asymmetry in the Political System: Occasional Activists in the Republican and Democratic Parties, 1956-1964’, The American Political Science Review, vol. 65, No. 3 (Sep., 1971), pp. 716-730
^ Donaldson, Gary; Liberalism’s Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964; p. 190 ISBN 1510702369
^ Edwards, Lee and Schlafly, Phyllis; Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution; pp. 286-290 ISBN 162157458X
^ Kelley, Stanley junior; ‘The Goldwater Strategy’; The Princeton Review; pp. 8-11
^ Kabaservice, Geoffrey; Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party; p. 120 ISBN 1511399031
^ Andrew, John A.; The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics (Perspectives on the Sixties series) p. 274 ISBN 0813524016

[3] Waldo County did give a plurality to Independent H. Ross Perot in 1992.

[Geography90-1] Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 90 ISBN 0786422173

[Geography218219-2] Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in America; pp. 218-219

[4] "1964 Presidential General Election Results – Maine". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 7, 2013.

[5] Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 55-60 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6

[6] Nexon, David; ‘Asymmetry in the Political System: Occasional Activists in the Republican and Democratic Parties, 1956-1964’, The American Political Science Review, vol. 65, No. 3 (Sep., 1971), pp. 716-730

[7] Donaldson, Gary; Liberalism’s Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964; p. 190 ISBN 1510702369

[8] Edwards, Lee and Schlafly, Phyllis; Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution; pp. 286-290 ISBN 162157458X

[9] Kelley, Stanley junior; ‘The Goldwater Strategy’; The Princeton Review; pp. 8-11

[10] Kabaservice, Geoffrey; Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party; p. 120 ISBN 1511399031

[11] Andrew, John A.; The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics (Perspectives on the Sixties series) p. 274 ISBN 0813524016

[1]

[2]

[a]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

v t e (1963 ←) 1964 United States elections (→ 1965)
President	1964 United States presidential election Democratic primaries Republican primaries Democratic convention Republican convention
U.S. Senate	Arizona California Connecticut Delaware Florida Hawaii Indiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New Mexico (Special) New York North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma (Special) Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Tennessee (Special) Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
U.S. House	Alabama Alaska Arkansas Arizona California 5th sp 6th sp Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana 4th sp Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania 5th sp Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming
State governors	Arizona Arkansas Delaware Florida Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Louisiana Massachusetts Michigan Missouri Lt. Gov Montana Nebraska Lt. Gov New Hampshire New Mexico North Carolina Lt. Gov North Dakota Rhode Island South Dakota Texas Utah Vermont Washington West Virginia Wisconsin
State legislature	Arizona Arizona House Arizona Senate Illinois House Iowa Senate