1964 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania explained

See main article: 1964 United States presidential election.

Election Name:	1964 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
Country:	Pennsylvania
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	1960 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
Previous Year:	1960
Next Election:	1968 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania
Next Year:	1968
Election Date:	November 3, 1964
Image1:	37 Lyndon Johnson 3x4 (cropped).jpg
Nominee1:	Lyndon B. Johnson
Party1:	Democratic Party (United States)
Home State1:	Texas
Running Mate1:	Hubert Humphrey
Electoral Vote1:	29
Popular Vote1:	3,130,954
Percentage1:	64.92%
Nominee2:	Barry Goldwater
Party2:	Republican Party (United States)
Home State2:	Arizona
Running Mate2:	William E. Miller
Electoral Vote2:	0
Popular Vote2:	1,673,657
Percentage2:	34.70%
Map Size:	300px
President
Before Election:	Lyndon B. Johnson
Before Party:	Democratic
After Election:	Lyndon B. Johnson
After Party:	Democratic

The 1964 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania took place on November 3, 1964, and was part of the 1964 United States presidential election. Voters chose 29 representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Pennsylvania overwhelmingly voted for the Democratic nominee, President Lyndon B. Johnson, over the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater. Johnson won Pennsylvania by a margin of 30.22%. Apart from William Howard Taft in 1912 (when third-party candidates obtained substantial minorities of the vote), Goldwater's 34.7% of the vote is easily the worst showing for a Republican in the state since the party was founded.^[1] Even relative to Johnson's popular vote landslide, Pennsylvania came out as 7.64% more Democratic than the nation at-large; the only occasion under the current two-party system that the state has been more anomalously Democratic than this was in Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide.

During the 1960s the Republican Party was turning its attention from the declining rural Yankee counties to the growing and traditionally Democratic Catholic vote,^[2] along with the conservative Sun Belt whose growth was driven by lower taxes, warm weather, and air conditioning. This growth meant that activist Republicans centered in the Sun Belt had become much more conservative than the majority of members in historic Northeastern GOP strongholds.^[3]

The consequence of this was that a bitterly divided Republican 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, for president in 1964. Goldwater was widely seen in the liberal Northeastern United States as a right-wing extremist or at least an inexperienced nominee prone to gaffes;^[4] he had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Johnson campaign portrayed him as liable to provoke a nuclear war.^[5] Goldwater wrote Pennsylvania off from the very beginning of his campaign.^[6] Pennsylvania Republicans had generally preferred moderate Governor William Scranton for the nomination, who was unsuccessfully encouraged to run by Dwight D. Eisenhower.^[7] Many Pennsylvania Republicans, such as Representative James G. Fulton, refused to endorse Goldwater.^[8]

Results

1964 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	Lyndon B. Johnson (incumbent)	3,130,954	64.92%	29
	Republican	Barry Goldwater	1,673,657	34.70%	0
	Militant Workers	Clifton DeBerry	10,456	0.22%	0
	Socialist Labor	Eric Hass	5,092	0.11%	0
	Write-ins	Write-ins	2,531	0.05%	0
Totals			4,822,690	100.00%	29
Voter turnout (voting age/registered)					68%/84%

Results by county

County	Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic		Barry Goldwater Republican		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
County		%		%		%		%	Total votes cast
	Adams		11,148		56.13%		8,617		43.39%	95	0.48%	2,531	12.74%	19,860
	Allegheny		475,207		66.03%		241,707		33.58%	2,811	0.39%	233,500	32.45%	719,725
	Armstrong		21,098		66.37%		10,618		33.40%	74	0.23%	10,480	32.97%	31,790
	Beaver		60,492		72.02%		23,174		27.59%	327	0.39%	37,318	44.43%	83,993
	Bedford		9,165		53.45%		7,968		46.47%	14	0.08%	1,197	6.98%	17,147
	Berks		73,444		66.38%		36,726		33.19%	476	0.43%	36,718	33.19%	110,646
	Blair		26,157		51.76%		24,301		48.09%	73	0.14%	1,856	3.67%	50,531
	Bradford		10,714		50.63%		10,434		49.31%	14	0.07%	280	1.32%	21,162
	Bucks		78,287		60.60%		50,243		38.89%	646	0.50%	28,044	21.71%	129,176
	Butler		27,267		60.97%		17,360		38.82%	95	0.21%	9,907	22.15%	44,722
	Cambria		55,183		67.63%		26,281		32.21%	134	0.16%	28,902	35.42%	81,598
	Cameron		1,904		57.96%		1,376		41.89%	5	0.15%	528	16.07%	3,285
	Carbon		15,416		67.49%		7,309		32.00%	116	0.51%	8,107	35.49%	22,841
	Centre		16,556		63.20%		9,481		36.19%	158	0.60%	7,075	27.01%	26,195
	Chester		47,940		54.10%		40,280		45.46%	390	0.44%	7,660	8.64%	88,610
	Clarion		9,235		60.01%		6,143		39.92%	11	0.07%	3,092	20.09%	15,389
	Clearfield		19,211		62.67%		11,338		36.99%	103	0.34%	7,873	25.68%	30,652
	Clinton		10,038		69.84%		4,298		29.91%	36	0.25%	5,740	39.93%	14,372
	Columbia		13,885		60.63%		8,982		39.22%	36	0.16%	4,903	21.41%	22,903
	Crawford		18,212		62.82%		10,664		36.78%	115	0.40%	7,548	26.04%	28,991
	Cumberland		26,633		52.71%		23,685		46.88%	207	0.41%	2,948	5.83%	50,525
	Dauphin		46,119		51.57%		42,718		47.77%	594	0.66%	3,401	3.80%	89,431
	Delaware		147,189		56.81%		111,189		42.91%	717	0.28%	36,000	13.90%	259,095
	Elk		10,455		70.51%		4,354		29.36%	19	0.13%	6,101	41.15%	14,828
	Erie		72,944		69.55%		31,393		29.93%	549	0.52%	41,551	39.62%	104,886
	Fayette		45,155		73.35%		16,127		26.20%	276	0.45%	29,028	47.15%	61,558
	Forest		1,249		57.99%		900		41.78%	5	0.23%	349	16.21%	2,154
	Franklin		19,332		58.68%		13,525		41.06%	85	0.26%	5,807	17.62%	32,942
	Fulton		2,180		55.37%		1,747		44.37%	10	0.25%	433	11.00%	3,937
	Greene		11,412		74.46%		3,896		25.42%	19	0.12%	7,516	49.04%	15,327
	Huntingdon		7,435		52.96%		6,571		46.81%	33	0.24%	864	6.15%	14,039
	Indiana		17,568		59.92%		11,706		39.92%	46	0.16%	5,862	20.00%	29,320
	Jefferson		10,851		56.34%		8,373		43.47%	37	0.19%	2,478	12.87%	19,261
	Juniata		4,138		57.19%		3,087		42.67%	10	0.14%	1,051	14.52%	7,235
	Lackawanna		88,131		73.73%		31,272		26.16%	137	0.11%	56,859	47.57%	119,540
	Lancaster		53,041		50.27%		52,243		49.52%	224	0.21%	798	0.75%	105,508
	Lawrence		29,092		64.35%		15,998		35.39%	117	0.26%	13,094	28.96%	45,207
	Lebanon		15,882		46.93%		17,891		52.86%	72	0.21%	−2,009	−5.93%	33,845
	Lehigh		60,377		64.86%		32,245		34.64%	471	0.51%	28,132	30.22%	93,093
	Luzerne		106,397		69.97%		43,895		28.86%	1,779	1.17%	62,502	41.11%	152,071
	Lycoming		25,879		57.58%		19,011		42.30%	55	0.12%	6,868	15.28%	44,945
	McKean		10,950		57.61%		7,948		41.82%	109	0.57%	3,002	15.79%	19,007
	Mercer		32,199		63.68%		18,153		35.90%	211	0.42%	14,046	27.78%	50,563
	Mifflin		8,811		59.31%		6,006		40.43%	39	0.26%	2,805	18.88%	14,856
	Monroe		10,622		62.41%		6,281		36.91%	116	0.68%	4,341	25.50%	17,019
	Montgomery		135,657		56.74%		102,714		42.96%	704	0.29%	32,943	13.78%	239,075
	Montour		3,683		59.27%		2,527		40.67%	4	0.06%	1,156	18.60%	6,214
	Northampton		58,818		73.08%		21,048		26.15%	619	0.77%	37,770	46.93%	80,485
	Northumberland		28,082		62.07%		17,046		37.68%	116	0.26%	11,036	24.39%	45,244
	Perry		6,054		52.86%		5,364		46.84%	34	0.30%	690	6.02%	11,452
	Philadelphia		670,645		73.42%		239,733		26.24%	3,094	0.34%	430,912	47.18%	913,472
	Pike		2,753		50.74%		2,651		48.86%	22	0.41%	102	1.88%	5,426
	Potter		3,652		52.86%		3,232		46.78%	25	0.36%	420	6.08%	6,909
	Schuylkill		50,560		65.63%		26,386		34.25%	96	0.12%	24,174	31.38%	77,042
	Snyder		4,199		44.59%		5,195		55.17%	22	0.23%	−996	−10.58%	9,416
	Somerset		17,934		54.65%		14,817		45.15%	63	0.19%	3,117	9.50%	32,814
	Sullivan		1,690		55.63%		1,344		44.24%	4	0.13%	346	11.39%	3,038
	Susquehanna		7,838		54.37%		6,567		45.55%	12	0.08%	1,271	8.82%	14,417
	Tioga		7,415		51.16%		7,064		48.73%	16	0.11%	351	2.43%	14,495
	Union		4,262		46.25%		4,944		53.65%	10	0.11%	−682	−7.40%	9,216
	Venango		13,065		56.75%		9,873		42.89%	84	0.36%	3,192	13.86%	23,022
	Warren		10,598		63.62%		5,965		35.81%	94	0.56%	4,633	27.81%	16,657
	Washington		63,482		72.34%		24,127		27.49%	147	0.17%	39,355	44.85%	87,756
	Wayne		5,781		46.89%		6,512		52.82%	35	0.28%	−731	−5.93%	12,328
	Westmoreland		107,131		71.70%		41,493		27.77%	792	0.53%	65,638	43.93%	149,416
	Wyoming		4,268		52.41%		3,864		47.45%	12	0.15%	404	4.96%	8,144
	York		58,787		63.30%		33,677		36.26%	408	0.44%	25,110	27.04%	92,872
Totals	3,130,954	64.92%	1,673,657	34.70%	18,079	0.37%	1,457,297	30.22%	4,822,690

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Analysis

Johnson won all but four counties in Pennsylvania: the central Pennsylvania counties of Snyder and Union, which have not voted Democratic since the Civil War;^[10] northeastern Wayne County, which has never voted Democratic since Grover Cleveland won it in 1892; and Lebanon County, which has only once voted Democratic since 1856 (when Franklin D. Roosevelt narrowly won it in his 1936 landslide).^[11] This was the last presidential election in which Philadelphia was not the most Democratic county in Pennsylvania. This is also the only occasion since 1856 when Somerset, Lancaster, and Huntingdon counties have not voted for the Republican presidential candidate, and marked the first time since that election when suburban Delaware County had not voted Republican.^[12]

Six other counties including Butler, Bradford, Tioga, Potter, Cameron and McKean cast their solitary vote for a Democratic presidential candidate since at least the Civil War in this election. In addition, much of the Susquehanna Valley and Appalachia (comprising York County, Cumberland County, Franklin County, Adams County, Blair County, Lycoming County, Northumberland County, Bedford County, Butler County, Clarion County, Crawford County, Fulton County, Pike County, Venango County, Mifflin County, Perry County, Jefferson County, Susquehanna County, Wyoming County, Juniata County, Montour County, and Sullivan County) has never voted for a Democratic candidate since.^[10]

This was the last occasion until 2008 that the Democrats won Dauphin County, Berks County, Monroe County, or Chester County.^[13]

Notes and References

Web site: Pennsylvania Voting Results and Participants . 2024-01-27 . CountingTheVotes.com . en-US.
Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 55–60, .
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 (September 1971), pp. 716–730.
Donaldson, Gary; Liberalism's Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964; p. 190, .
Edwards, Lee and Schlafly, Phyllis; Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution; pp. 286–290, .
Kelley, Stanley junior; 'The Goldwater Strategy'; The Princeton Review; pp. 8–11.
Donaldson; Liberalism's Last Hurrah, chapter 3.
Donaldson; Liberalism's Last Hurrah, p. 180.
Web site: Tim Murphy. David Leip's Atlas of US Presidential Elections. 1964 Presidential General Election Results – Pennsylvania. 2018-03-25.
Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016.
Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 381, .
Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, pp. 287–290, .
Web site: Evie Stone. NPR. 372 Counties Flipped In '08. 2024-05-03.