Endorsing Goldwater For President
In the fall of 1964, Aycock endorsed Republican presidential nominee Barry M. Goldwater of Arizona, rather than his fellow Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson. Governor John J. McKeithen, many of whose backers also voted for Aycock for the second position, remained neutral in the presidential race. The states' two powerful Democratic senators, Allen J. Ellender of Houma and Russell B. Long of Baton Rouge, however, endorsed the Johnson-Humphrey elector slate. Goldwater won Louisiana's ten electoral votes: he was only the second Republican to have done so in modern times, the other having been Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.
Several other Democrats joined Aycock in supporting Goldwater: Secretary of State Wade O. Martin, Jr., former Governors Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles and Robert Kennon of Minden, Caddo Parish Sheriff J. Howell Flournoy, Monroe Mayor W.L. "Jack" Howard, and Plaquemines Parish political "boss" Leander H. Perez. The Republicans held a rally at Tulane University in New Orleans to honor Goldwater and former Democrat-turned-Republican Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as well as the defecting Louisiana Democrats, with then congressional candidate David C. Treen acting as master of ceremonies. Goldwater and Thurmond also made a stop thereafter in Shrevport.
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