Eugene Mc Carthy Presidential Campaign, 1968 - Post-Johnson Campaign

Post-Johnson Campaign

Since President Johnson had dropped out immediately prior to the Wisconsin Primary, McCarthy easily won although he did not face his new challenger, Robert Kennedy, who was ineligible for the ballot because he entered the race following the filing deadline. Polls suggested that McCarthy benefited the most from Johnson's withdrawal, reached 22 percent among the Democratic field, up eleven points, and two behind the still-undeclared Humphrey and fifteen behind Kennedy. He traveled to Pennsylvania later in the month, to prepare for the state's primary in late April. While there, he discussed North Korea's seizing of the USS Pueblo, stating that the United States should "expect once in awhile to pay ransom...if you have ships adjacent to countries that don't respect international law." He clarified that he was not suggesting that the ransom should be paid, and agreed that President Johnson's use of negotiation was correct. He then compared his record of service to Kennedy, articulating that his accomplishments on civil rights paralleled a longer period of time than the senator. On April 23, McCarthy won the Pennsylvania Primary, receiving more votes than Kennedy, whose name did not appear on the ballot but ran as a write-in candidate.

The next month, McCarthy took advantage of Robert Kennedy's decline in the polls, trailing the former frontrunner by two points for second place in the race behind Vice President Humphrey. At the time, polls suggested that McCarthy was more likely than his Democratic rivals to defeat Republican frontrunner Richard Nixon in a head to head matchup, leading 40 to 37 percent in a Harris poll. While campaigning in South Bend, Indiana prior to the state's primary, McCarthy criticized the approach of his two closest Democratic rivals. He stated that there were three kinds of national unity; Humphrey's approach of "run things together indiscriminately," Kennedy's approach of a "combination of separate interests...or groups," and his own approach of "call upon everyone...to be as fully responsible as can be," which the candidate labeled as the approach for 1968. McCarthy lost in Indiana but received 27 percent of the vote to Kennedy's 42 percent. Four days later, McCarthy received the most votes in Time Magazine's national presidential primary. The poll counted votes of over 1 million students in more than 1,200 campuses. Kennedy came in second, trailing by more than 70,000 votes. In regards to the results, McCarthy commented, "We've tested the enemy now, and we know his techniques...we know his weaknesses." The next day, Kennedy defeated McCarthy in the Nebraska primary but it did not stall his effort. He reaffirmed that he would compete with Kennedy in Oregon, California and South Dakota. He ended the month by defeating Kennedy in the Oregon primary by a margin of 45 to 39 percent. The victory allowed for the media to observe that McCarthy was "back in the race as a major contender." and forced an attention shift to the looming primaries in South Dakota and California, scheduled for the next month.