1968 Republican Party presidential primaries


The 1968 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 1968 U.S. presidential election. Former Vice President Richard Nixon was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 1968 Republican National Convention held from August 5 to August 8, 1968, in Miami Beach, Florida.

Schedule and results


The following political leaders were candidates for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination:

Major candidates

These candidates participated in multiple state primaries or were included in multiple major national polls.

Favorite sons

The following candidates ran only in their home state's primary, caucus, or convention. They ran for the purpose of controlling their state's respective delegate slate at the national convention and did not appear to be considered national candidates by the media.
The following persons were listed in two or more major national polls or were the subject of media speculation surrounding their potential candidacy, but declined to actively seek the nomination.

National polling

Before November 1966

After November 1966

Head-to-head polling

Nixon v. Romney
Poll sourceDate
GallupNov. 25, 196555%38%7%
GallupJuly 10, 196655%40%5%
GallupNov. 196765%31%4%
GallupJan. 31, 196868%26%6%

Statewide polling

New Hampshire

Primary race

Nixon was the front-runner for the Republican nomination and to a great extent the story of the Republican primary campaign and nomination is the story of one Nixon opponent after another entering the race and then dropping out.
Nixon's first challenger was Michigan Governor George W. Romney. A Gallup poll in mid-1967 showed Nixon with 39%, followed by Romney with 25%. However, in a slip of the tongue, Romney told a news reporter that he had been "brainwashed" by the military and the diplomatic corps into supporting the Vietnam War; the remark led to weeks of ridicule in the national news media. As the year 1968 opened, Romney was opposed to further American intervention in Vietnam and had decided to run as the Republican version of Eugene McCarthy. Romney's support slowly faded and he withdrew from the race on February 28, 1968..
Nixon won a resounding victory in the important New Hampshire primary on March 12, winning 78% of the vote. Anti-war Republicans wrote in the name of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the GOP's liberal wing, who received 11% of the vote and became Nixon's new challenger. Nixon led Rockefeller in the polls throughout the primary campaign. Rockefeller defeated Nixon in the Massachusetts primary on April 30 but otherwise fared poorly in the state primaries and conventions.
By early spring, California Governor Ronald Reagan, the leader of the GOP's conservative wing, had become Nixon's chief rival. In the Nebraska primary on May 14, Nixon won with 70% of the vote to 21% for Reagan and 5% for Rockefeller. While this was a wide margin for Nixon, Reagan remained Nixon's leading challenger. Nixon won the next primary of importance, Oregon, on May 15 with 65% of the vote and won all the following primaries except for California, where only Reagan appeared on the ballot. Reagan's margin in California gave him a plurality of the nationwide primary vote, but when the Republican National Convention assembled, Nixon had 656 delegates according to a UPI poll.
Four candidates won states in the primary, a record not equaled in Republican primaries until 2016 when four candidates won at least one state. won states and a fourth won a contest in a territory, the Virgin Islands. For comparison, the 1968 Democratic primary saw five candidates win states.
Total popular vote
At the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida, Reagan and Rockefeller planned to unite their forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the strategy fell apart when neither man agreed to support the other for the nomination. Nixon won the nomination on the first ballot. Nixon then chose Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew to be his Vice-Presidential candidate, despite complaints from within the GOP that Agnew was an unknown quantity, and that a better-known and more popular candidate, such as Romney, should have been the Vice-Presidential nominee.
It was also reported that Nixon's first choice for running mate was his longtime friend and ally, Robert Finch, who was Lt. Governor of California since 1967 and later his HEW Secretary, but Finch declined the offer and, in any case, had he run he would have put the Republican ticket at a disadvantage as the Constitution prevents a member of the Electoral College from voting for both President and Vice-President from the Elector's home state.
PresidentVice PresidentVice-Presidential votes
Richard M. Nixon6921238Spiro T. Agnew1119
Nelson Rockefeller27793George Romney186
Ronald Reagan1822John V. Lindsay10
Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes55—Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke1
Michigan Governor George Romney50—James A. Rhodes1
New Jersey Senator Clifford Case22—Not Voting16
Kansas Senator Frank Carlson20——
Arkansas Governor Winthrop Rockefeller18——
Hawaii Senator Hiram Fong14——
Harold Stassen2——
New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay1——