Claim: Ronald Reagan was president of the United States.

The United States presidential election of 1964 was the 45th quadrennial presidential election . It was held on Tuesday , November 3 , 1964 . Democratic candidate and incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson had come to office less than a year earlier following the assassination of his predecessor John F. Kennedy . Johnson , who had successfully associated himself with Kennedy 's popularity , won 61.1 % of the popular vote , the highest win by a candidate since James Monroe 's re-election in 1820 . It was the most lopsided US presidential election in terms of popular votes , and the tenth-most lopsided presidential election in the history of the United States in terms of electoral votes . No candidate for president since has equalled or surpassed Johnson 's percentage of the popular vote , and since 1820 , only Abraham Lincoln in 1864 , Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 , Richard Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 have won by a greater electoral vote margin .   The Republican candidate , Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona , suffered from a lack of support from his own party and his deeply unpopular political positions . Johnson 's campaign advocated a series of anti-poverty programs collectively known as the Great Society , and successfully portrayed Goldwater as being a dangerous extremist . Johnson easily won the Presidency , carrying 44 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia , which voted for the first time in this election . Goldwater carried the remaining six states in what would be the first election to see a total of fifty states carried by presidential candidates .   Goldwater 's unsuccessful bid influenced the modern conservative movement and the long-time realignment within the Republican Party , which culminated in the 1980 presidential victory of Ronald Reagan . His campaign received considerable support from former Democratic strongholds in the Deep South and was the first Republican campaign to win Georgia in a presidential election . Conversely , Johnson won Alaska for the Democrats for the first -LRB- and only -RRB- time , as well as Maine -LRB- for the first time since 1912 -RRB- and Vermont -LRB- for the first time since the Democratic Party was founded -RRB- . Since 1992 , Vermont and Maine have rested solidly in the Democratic column for presidential elections , and Georgia has remained in the Republican presidential fold since 1996 .   No post-1964 Democratic presidential candidate has been able to match or better Johnson 's performance in the electoral college -LRB- the only candidates to do so since have been Nixon in 1972 and Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 , both of whom were Republicans -RRB- , or Johnson 's performance in the Mountain and Midwestern regions of the United States .   As of 2017 , this is the last time Alaska , Idaho , Kansas , Nebraska , North Dakota , Oklahoma , South Dakota , Utah and Wyoming voted for the Democratic candidate .