Lyndon B. Johnson 1964 presidential campaign

Lyndon B. Johnson for President 1964
Campaign	1964 Democratic primaries 1964 U.S. presidential election
Candidate	Lyndon B. Johnson 36th President of the United States (1963–1969) Hubert Humphrey U.S. Senator from Minnesota (1949–1964)
Affiliation	Democratic Party
Status	Official nominee: August 27, 1964 Won election: November 3, 1964 Inaugurated: January 20, 1965
Key people	Oliver Quayle (pollster)
Slogan	All the way with LBJ[1] LBJ for the USA
Theme song	Hello, Lyndon![2]

The 1964 presidential campaign of Lyndon B. Johnson was a successful campaign for Johnson and his running mate Hubert Humphrey for their election as president and vice president of the United States. They defeated Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and vice presidential nominee William Miller. Johnson, a Democrat and former vice president under John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as president upon Kennedy's assassination. In 1964, Johnson did not look optimistically upon the prospect of being elected president in his own right. Despite Johnson's uncertainty about running, he was seen as the most likely candidate to get the nomination. He entered the primaries starting with New Hampshire and won the state by almost 29,000 votes. Johnson's main opponent in the primaries was Alabama Governor George Wallace, who had announced his intention to seek the presidency even before Kennedy's assassination.

Johnson didn't campaign extensively for primaries, and his surrogates (stand-in candidates) continued to win many contests. By the end of the primaries, Johnson received 17.7% of the vote to Wallace's 10.8%. The 1964 Democratic National Convention convened at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey from August 24 to 27. With the opening of the convention, Johnson needed to decide on a running mate. He considered Hubert Humphrey, and Eugene McCarthy after the announcement that Robert F. Kennedy and the Cabinet were out of consideration. He felt that the presence of any member from Kennedy's family in the ticket would have raised questions about his capacity to win on his own. He finally selected Hubert Humphrey as the vice presidential nominee.

Major Republican contenders for presidency included Barry Goldwater, Nelson Rockefeller, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., and William W. Scranton.^[3] Initially, Rockefeller was considered the front-runner, but Goldwater ultimately won the nomination with William Miller as his running mate. Johnson began his vote drive by a rally in Detroit. Appearing before a crowd of about 100,000 in Cadillac square, he said "no president of the United States can give up responsibility for deciding when or if to use nuclear weapons". Goldwater attacked Johnson for his policies, saying "the interim president has declared a moratorium on government. He desperately hopes to keep out of trouble if he does nothing until the election is over." The most famous and effective advertisement of Johnson campaign was the Daisy ad, which was aired in early September. Although it was aired only once on September 7, 1964, it is considered to be one of the most important factors in the campaign.

On election day, Johnson won a landslide winning 486 electoral votes and 61% of the popular vote to Goldwater's 38% of the popular vote, and 52 electoral votes. Johnson went from his victory in the 1964 election to launch the Great Society program at home, signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and starting the War on Poverty.