page_title: 1964 Democratic Party presidential primaries
section_title: Vice-presidential choice and Wallace's withdrawal
hierarchical_section_title: 1964 Democratic Party presidential primaries / Vice-presidential choice and Wallace's withdrawal
caption_attribution_description: English: Hubert Humphrey's vice presidential portrait
context_page_description: The 1964 Democratic presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 1964 U.S. presidential election. Incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 1964 Democratic National Convention held from August 24 to August 27, 1964, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
context_section_description: With Kennedy out of the way, the question of Johnson's choice of running mate provided some suspense for an otherwise uneventful convention. However, Johnson also became concerned that Kennedy might use a scheduled speech at the 1964 Democratic Convention to create a groundswell of emotion among the delegates to nominate him as Johnson's running mate; Johnson prevented this by scheduling Kennedy's speech on the last day of the convention, by which time the vice-presidential nomination would have been made. Shortly after the convention, Kennedy decided to leave Johnson's cabinet and run for the U.S. Senate in New York, where he won the general election in November. Johnson chose Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, a liberal and civil rights activist, as his running mate.
  Meanwhile, the Republicans had nominated the conservative Goldwater, who shared Wallace's opposition to the Civil Rights Act on the basis of states' rights and found considerable support among southerners. This caused a precipitous drop in support for Wallace's threatened general election campaign, and on June 18, Wallace biographer Dan T. Carter notes that Goldwater gave "a brief speech which — in substance if not tone — could have been written by George Wallace." By July 13, Gallup polls showed that Wallace support in a general election match-up had plummeted to below 3% outside the south. Even in the south, he polled third in a three-way race against Johnson and Goldwater. Goldwater reportedly welcomed Wallace's support but firmly refused him a spot as vice-presidential candidate. With a conservative already facing off against Johnson, Wallace stayed his nascent plans for a third-party run until the 1968 election, ending his campaign with an appearance on Face the Nation on July 19; however, he did not endorse Goldwater. In the general election, Goldwater repudiated Wallace and denied courting his vote, which Wallace took as a personal insult.
caption: Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's vice presidential running mate
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