Taking the Democrats" place were the Republicans, the party of Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator. Barry Goldwater was the perfect representative to lead the Republican Party under their new racial edict. The presidential race of 1964 has been described as, "a decisive turning point in the political evolution of racial issues" (Carmines, Stimson, 47).

             The debate, passage, and signing of the Civil Rights Act divided the country with the longest congressional debate in the nation"s history (Black and Black, 149). While Senator Goldwater was one of the few non-Southerners who voted against the Civil Rights Act, he was not a racist, although he did become a frequent companion to the Southern Congressmen and white Southern segregationists (Black and Black, 150). Many of Goldwater"s supporters believed that he would collect the majority"s vote from his home region, and it was thought he could get the Midwest vote as well. With no chance to win electoral votes from California or New York, Goldwater knew he had to win the South to win the election. Goldwater hoped that his position as a right-winged Republican, who opposed the New Deal and The Great Society legislation, would win him the Southern vote. He also sought to exploit other issues important to white southerners, such as his opposition to many of Kennedy and Johnson"s foreign policies, but especially the federal government"s involvement in racial change in America (Nelson, 386). .

             After Johnson assumed the presidency after Kennedy"s assassination in 1963, there was little doubt that he would be the Democratic nominee in 1964. The only minor dissent by a Democrat was from Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama. Wallace entered three primaries, polling 43 percent in Maryland. He talked of establishing a third-party candidacy, but eventually backed off (Nelson, 386).

             During the Republican Convention in San Francisco, there was a lot of tension between Goldwater and many other members of the Party.