Fort Towson

Add links

The 1964 United States presidential election in Idaho took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Idaho was one of 44 states carried by incumbent President Lyndon 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 in Clearwater and Lewis Counties in the heavily unionized Idaho Panhandle logging country, where he took over 76% of the vote. Goldwater’s strongest performance was in ancestrally Republican Jerome 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 as Ada, Bonneville, Canyon and Twin Falls), thus keeping the vote close.

This is the last presidential election where Idaho was carried by a 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. While Kennedy had lost the state by 7.5% in 1960, this was in a nearly tied national environment, while Johnson only just managed to carry it amidst a 23-point Democratic landslide nationwide. In eight counties,[a] Goldwater earned a higher share of the vote than Richard Nixon had – a result observed in only nine other counties outside antebellum slave states.[1] Apart from heavily Catholic Emmons County, North Dakota, Camas and Custer in Idaho were the solitary counties outside antebellum slave states to vote for Kennedy in 1960 and Goldwater in 1964.[1]

No Democrat since Johnson has been able to get forty percent of Idaho’s popular vote, while the only Republicans to fail to pass fifty-five percent have been George H. W. Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996,[2][3] in which Ross Perot's third-party candidacies (and that of Bo Gritz in 1992) played a part.

Results

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote
Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Lyndon B. Johnson 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

Results by county

County Lyndon Baines Johnson
Democratic
Barry Morris 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 26.55% 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 29.35% 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 4.17% 864
Bonner 4,328 59.26% 2,975 40.74% 1,353 18.53% 7,303
Bonneville 9,637 47.30% 10,736 52.70% -1,099 -5.39% 20,373
Boundary 1,418 57.11% 1,065 42.89% 353 14.22% 2,483
Butte 848 56.65% 649 43.35% 199 13.29% 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 4.37% 2,725
Cassia 2,608 39.41% 4,009 60.59% -1,401 -21.17% 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 10.87% 4,167
Franklin 1,583 39.74% 2,400 60.26% -817 -20.51% 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 -26.01% 4,941
Kootenai 8,215 57.40% 6,096 42.60% 2,119 14.81% 14,311
Latah 5,249 60.17% 3,475 39.83% 1,774 20.33% 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 52.35% 2,044
Lincoln 617 38.90% 969 61.10% -352 -22.19% 1,586
Madison 1,949 48.12% 2,101 51.88% -152 -3.75% 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 40.53% 13,157
Oneida 768 40.87% 1,111 59.13% -343 -18.25% 1,879
Owyhee 1,168 48.99% 1,216 51.01% -48 -2.01% 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 9.17% 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 -6.05% 1,273
Twin Falls 7,638 39.87% 11,518 60.13% -3,880 -20.25% 19,156
Valley 1,126 53.47% 980 46.53% 146 6.93% 2,106
Washington 1,952 53.01% 1,730 46.99% 222 6.03% 3,682
Totals 148,920 50.92% 143,557 49.08% 5,363 1.83% 292,477

Analysis

At a more local level, the only counties in Idaho to have ever given a Democrat a majority or plurality since 1968 have been the ski resort counties of Teton and Blaine; and Bonner, Shoshone, Clearwater, Lewis, Nez Perce, Latah, and Benewah Counties in the Panhandle logging region.[4] Of these, Bonner County was carried only by a narrow Bill Clinton plurality in 1992.[5] The Republicans would go on to sweep all forty-four of Idaho's counties in 1972, 1980, and 1984, and all but one, Blaine County, in 2000 and 2004. Since then, only Blaine, Latah, and Teton Counties have been carried by Democrats, although rapidly-urbanizing Ada 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 which Kootenai 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, and Butte County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[4]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Idaho counties giving a higher proportion of their vote to Goldwater than Nixon were Camas, Lemhi, Custer, Lincoln, Jefferson, Jerome, Butte and Gooding.

References

  1. ^ a b Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 87 ISBN 0786422173
  2. ^ "1964 Presidential General Election Results - Idaho". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  3. ^ "1964 Presidential General Election Data Graphs – Idaho". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  4. ^ a b Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  5. ^ 1992 Presidential General Election Data Graphs – Idaho by County
  6. ^ "Idaho Election Results". The New York Times. November 3, 2020. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 5, 2021.

External links