1964 United States presidential election in Vermont

← 1960 November 3, 1964 1968 →

Nominee Lyndon B. Johnson Barry Goldwater Party Democratic Republican Home state Texas Arizona Running mate Hubert Humphrey William E. Miller Electoral vote 3 0 Popular vote 108,127 54,942 Percentage 66.30% 33.69%

County Results Municipality Results Johnson   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Goldwater   50–60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90% Tie   50%

President before election Lyndon Johnson Democratic Elected President Lyndon Johnson Democratic

Elections in Vermont
Federal government Presidential elections 1792 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Presidential primaries Democratic 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Republican 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 U.S. Senate elections 1791 1794 1796 1796 sp 1797 sp 1800 1801 sp 1802 1806 1807 sp 1808 1809 1812 1814 1817 sp 1818 1818 sp 1821 1825 1827 1831 1833 1833 sp 1837 1839 1842 sp 1843 1845 1848 1850 1854 sp 1855 1856 1861 1862 1866 1866 sp 1868 1872 1874 1878 1880 1884 1886 1890 1892 1892 sp 1896 1898 1900 sp 1902 1904 1908 1908 sp 1909 sp 1910 1914 1916 1920 1922 1923 sp 1926 1928 1931 sp 1932 1934 1934 sp 1938 1940 1940 sp 1944 1946 1946 sp 1950 1952 1956 1958 1962 1964 1968 1970 1972 sp 1974 1976 1980 1982 1986 1988 1992 1994 1998 2000 2004 2006 2010 2012 2016 2018 2022 2024 2028 U.S. House elections 1791 1793 1794/95 1796/97 1797 2nd sp 1798 1800 1802/03 1804/05 1806 1808 1st sp 1810 1812 1814 1816 1818 1820/21 1822 1824 AL sp 1826/27 1828/29 1830/32 1831 2nd sp 1832 1st sp 1833 1834 5th sp 1836 1838 1840 1843 1844 1846 1848 1849 3rd sp 1850 1852 1854 1856 1858 1860 1863 1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1923 2nd sp 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 AL sp 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 AL sp 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
State government General elections 2002 2004 2006 2008 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 Gubernatorial elections 1778 1779 1780 1781 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786 1787 1788 1789 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799 1800 1801 1802 1803 1804 1805 1806 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 1812 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817 1818 1819 1820 1821 1822 1823 1824 1825 1826 1827 1828 1829 1830 1831 1832 1833 1834 1835 1836 1837 1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Lieutenant gubernatorial elections 2022 Attorney General elections 2022 Senate elections 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 House of Representatives elections 2016 2018 2020 2022
Burlington Mayoral elections 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018 2021 2024

The 1964 United States presidential election in Vermont took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Vermont voters chose 3 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson and his running mate, Senate Majority Whip Hubert Humphrey, against Republican challenger and Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona and his running mate and Chair of the Republican National Committee, William E. Miller. It was the first time in Vermont's history that the state voted for the Democratic Party.

Vermont voted overwhelmingly for Lyndon B. Johnson with 66.30% of the vote to Goldwater's 33.69%, a Democratic victory margin of 32.61%.^[1] With this decisive win, Johnson became the first Democratic presidential candidate to ever win Vermont, breaking a Republican voting streak of 104 years, beginning in 1856. Johnson's landslide margin of victory in this traditional Republican stronghold even made the state ten percentage points more Democratic than the national average in the 1964 election.^[2] Along with winning the state for the first time, Johnson was also the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Addison, Bennington, Caledonia, Rutland, Orange, Orleans, Windham and Windsor Counties. Had Goldwater won the state, Vermont would have remained for the longest streak for every consecutive Republican until 1992.

Vermont historically was a bastion of Northeastern Republicanism, and by 1964 it had gone Republican in every presidential election since the founding of the Republican Party. However, in 1964 this streak came to an end when the GOP nominated staunch conservative Barry Goldwater, who was widely seen in the liberal Northeastern United States as a right-wing extremist;^[3] 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.^[4] Thus, Goldwater performed especially weakly in liberal northeastern states like Vermont, and for the first time in history, a Democratic presidential candidate swept every Northeastern state in 1964. Not only did Johnson win every Northeastern state, but he won all of them with landslides of over 60% of the vote, including Vermont, which weighed in as the ninth most Democratic state in the nation. Goldwater lost the 1964 election in a nationwide landslide, but the loss in Vermont was especially severe from a historical perspective.

Johnson swept all 14 counties in Vermont, breaking 60% of the vote in 11 of them. In the northwestern part of the state, Johnson broke 70% of the vote in 2 counties: Chittenden County, the most populous county, home to the state's largest city, Burlington, as well as Franklin County. The northwestern three counties of Vermont had long been Democratic enclaves in an otherwise Republican state, and remained the most Democratic region in 1964, even as the rest of the state finally joined them in voting Democratic. Johnson's weakest performance was in Lamoille County, where he carried 53.85% of the vote to Goldwater's 46.15% – a strong performance for the Democrats nonetheless.

Results[edit]

Results by county[edit]

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic[edit]

• Addison (largest town: Middlebury)
• Bennington (largest town: Bennington)
• Caledonia (largest town: St. Johnsbury)
• Essex (largest town: Lunenburg)
• Lamoille (largest town: Morristown)
• Orange (largest town: Randolph)
• Orleans (largest city: Newport)
• Rutland (largest city: Rutland)
• Washington (largest city: Barre)
• Windham (largest town: Brattleboro)
• Windsor (largest town: Hartford)

^[5][1]

Analysis[edit]

After 1964, the state would revert to voting GOP again in 1968 and remain in the Republican column for another twenty-year streak through 1988, although the Republicans would never recover the overwhelming margins by which they once dominated Vermont. The results of 1964, with Goldwater dominating the Deep South while losing the Northeast, would foreshadow the future political trajectory of the nation. Like the rest of the Northeast, Vermont would finally flip to the Democrats for good in 1992, ultimately forming what would be known as the Blue Wall. As the GOP became increasingly dominated by Southerners, conservatives, and evangelicals, the 1964 election would foreshadow Vermont's modern-day status as one of the most Democratic and left-wing states in the nation.

Johnson's landslide win in Vermont would remain the strongest Democratic victory in the state until the elections of Barack Obama, who outperformed Johnson in Vermont in both 2008 and 2012. In 2020, Joe Biden outperformed Johnson's margin but not his vote share (though due to that election being significantly closer, Vermont was still the most Democratic state in the union), This marked the end of the longest presidential voting streak of any party in any state.

Vermont was one of the three states that voted with a certain party for the first time in this election, the other two being Alaska and Georgia.

See also[edit]

• United States presidential elections in Vermont

References[edit]