1968 United States presidential election

==American Independent Party nomination==
{{See also|George Wallace 1968 presidential campaign}}
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"
|-
| style="background:#f1f1f1;" colspan="30"|[[File:American Independent Party Logo.png|94x94px]]
<big> '''1968 American Independent Party ticket'''</big>
|-
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#ff7f00; width:200px;"| [[George Wallace|{{color|white|George Wallace}}]]
! style="width:3em; font-size:135%; background:#ff7f00; width:200px;"| [[Curtis LeMay|{{color|white|Curtis LeMay}}]]
|- style="color:#000; font-size:100%; background:#faaf64;"
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for President'''''
| style="width:3em; width:200px;"|'''''for Vice President'''''
|-
| [[File:George Wallace (D-AL) (3x4).jpg|center|220x220px]]
| [[File:Curtis LeMay (USAF) (cropped closein 3x4).jpg|center|200x200px]]
|-
| [[List of Governors of Alabama|45th]]<br />[[Governor of Alabama]]<br /><small>(1963–1967)</small>
| [[Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force]]<br /><small>(1961–1965)</small>
|-
| colspan=2 |[[George Wallace 1968 presidential campaign|'''Campaign''']]
|-
| colspan=2 |[[File:Wallace Lemay bumper sticker.svg|200x200px]]
|-
|}

The [[American Independent Party]], which was established in 1967 by [[Bill Shearer|Bill]] and Eileen Shearer, nominated former Alabama Governor [[George Wallace]] – whose pro-[[racial segregation]] policies had been rejected by the mainstream of the Democratic Party – as the party's candidate for president. The impact of the Wallace campaign was substantial, winning the electoral votes of several states in the [[Deep South]]. He appeared on the ballot in all fifty states, but not the District of Columbia. Although he did not come close to winning any states outside the South, Wallace was the 1968 presidential candidate who most disproportionately drew his support from among young men.<ref name="'70s">{{cite book|title= How We Got Here: The '70s|last= Frum|first= David|author-link= David Frum|year= 2000|publisher= Basic Books|location= New York|isbn= 978-0-465-04195-4|page= xxi|url= https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum}}</ref> Wallace also proved to be popular among [[blue-collar]] workers in the North and Midwest, and he took many votes which might have gone to Humphrey.<ref>{{cite book|author1=B. Dan Wood|author2=Soren Jordan|title=Party Polarization in America: The War Over Two Social Contracts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=diAzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|year=2017|page=165|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108171212}}</ref>

Wallace was not expected to win the election – his strategy was to prevent either major party candidate from winning a preliminary majority in the [[U.S. Electoral College|Electoral College]]. Although Wallace put considerable effort into mounting a serious general election campaign, his presidential bid was also a continuation of Southern efforts to elect [[unpledged electors]] that had taken place in every election from [[1956 United States presidential election|1956]] – he had his electors promise to vote not necessarily for him but rather for whomever he directed them to support – his objective was not to move the election into the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] where he would have had little influence, but rather to give himself the bargaining power to determine the winner. Wallace's [[running mate]] was retired four star General [[Curtis LeMay]].

Prior to deciding on LeMay, Wallace gave serious consideration to former U.S. senator, governor, and Baseball Commissioner A. B. [[Happy Chandler]] of Kentucky as his running mate.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A. B. "Happy" Chandler, George C. Wallace, and the Presidential Election of 1968 |date=December 16, 2002 |doi=10.1111/1540-6563.00010 |volume=64 |issue=34 |journal=The Historian |pages=667–685|last1=Hill |first1=John Paul |s2cid=145329893 }}</ref> Chandler and Wallace met a number of times; however, Chandler said that he and Wallace were unable to come to an agreement regarding their positions on racial matters. Paradoxically, Chandler supported the segregationist [[Dixiecrat]]s in the 1948 presidential elections. However, after being re-elected [[Governor of Kentucky]] in 1955, he used [[National Guard of the United States|National Guard]] troops to enforce school integration.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/105414/Happy-Chandler |title=Happy Chandler &#124; biography – American politician and baseball commissioner |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=June 15, 1991 |access-date=August 25, 2015}}</ref> Other considerations included [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] newscaster [[Paul Harvey]] of Oklahoma, former [[United States Secretary of Agriculture|Secretary of Agriculture]] [[Ezra Taft Benson]] of Utah, former Governor of Arkansas [[Orval Faubus]], and even [[Kentucky Fried Chicken]] founder [[Colonel Sanders]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,902367,00.html |title=The Campaign: George's General |magazine=Time |date=October 11, 1968 |access-date=April 12, 2023}}</ref>

LeMay embarrassed Wallace's campaign in the fall by suggesting that [[nuclear weapons]] could be used in Vietnam.

===Other parties and candidates===
Also on the ballot in two or more states were black activist [[Eldridge Cleaver]] (who was ineligible to take office, as he would have only been 33 years of age on January 20, 1969) for the [[Peace and Freedom Party (United States)|Peace and Freedom Party]]; [[Henning A. Blomen|Henning Blomen]] for the [[Socialist Labor Party of America|Socialist Labor Party]]; [[Fred Halstead]] for the [[Socialist Workers Party (United States)|Socialist Workers Party]]; [[E. Harold Munn]] for the [[Prohibition Party]]; and [[Charlene Mitchell]] – the first African-American woman to run for president, and the first woman to receive valid votes in a general election – for the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]]. Comedians [[Dick Gregory]] and [[Pat Paulsen]] were notable [[write-in candidate]]s. A facetious presidential candidate for 1968 was a pig named [[Pigasus (politics)|Pigasus]], as a political statement by the [[Yippies]], to illustrate their premise that "one pig's as good as any other".<ref name="Perlstein">{{cite book|first=Rick| last=Perlstein|title=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America|year=2008| title-link=Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America}}</ref>{{page needed|date=March 2013}}