1968 United States presidential election

===Campaign strategies===
Nixon developed a "[[Southern strategy]]" that was designed to appeal to conservative white southerners, who had traditionally voted Democratic, but were opposed to Johnson and Humphrey's support for the [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] movement, as well as the rioting that had broken out in most large cities. Wallace, however, won over many of the voters Nixon targeted, effectively splitting that voting bloc. Wallace deliberately targeted many states he had little chance of carrying himself in the hope that by splitting as many votes with Nixon as possible he would give competitive states to Humphrey and, by extension, boost his own chances of denying both opponents an Electoral College majority.<ref>Joseph A. Aistrup, ''The southern strategy revisited: Republican top-down advancement in the South'' (2015).</ref>

Since he was well behind Nixon in the polls as the campaign began, Humphrey opted for a slashing, fighting campaign style. He repeatedly – and unsuccessfully – challenged Nixon to a televised debate, and he often compared his campaign to the successful underdog effort of President [[Harry Truman]], another Democrat who had trailed in the polls, in the 1948 presidential election. Humphrey predicted that he, like Truman, would surprise the experts and win an upset victory.<ref>{{cite book|author=Daniel S. Margolies|title=A Companion to Harry S. Truman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcLeZ7MLvM0C&pg=PT264|year=2012|pages=264 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781118300756}}</ref>