President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race sent shock waves through the political landscape with Democrats scrambling to find a replacement just months ahead of the November showdown with Republican Donald Trump.

While other Commanders in Chief have opted not to run for a second term – James K. Polk, James Buchanan, Rutherford B. Hayes, Calvin Coolidge and Harry Truman – it was the 1968 decision by Lyndon Baines Johnson that led to one of Alabama’s most high-profile forays into national politics during a tumultuous time in American history.

George, Lurleen and the race for the White House

A former State Representative, Barbour County native George Wallace had lost the 1958 Alabama gubernatorial election before adopting his hard-line segregationist stance and winning the job in 1962. He made an ill-fated bid for the presidency in 1964 when he unsuccessfully took on Johnson. Term limits restricted him to one four-year term as Alabama’s governor, so his wife, Lurleen, ran for and easily won the post in 1966.  With his wife as governor, Wallace’s thoughts turned to the White House.

Doctors had identified cancer in Lurleen Wallace as early as 1961, but had informed her husband and not her. Throughout her race for governor, the couple kept her worsening health a secret. George Wallace maintained his campaign schedule even as the cancer spread and Lurleen became extremely ill. Her last public appearance as governor was at a 1967 football game and campaign appearance for George Wallace’s presidential bid. Wallace continued to make campaign appearances during the final weeks of her life until he canceled a Michigan stop, on her request, on May 5. Lurleen Wallace died May 7, 1968 at age 41.

Johnson steps aside

Johnson took office in 1963 following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Johnson won his own complete term in 1964 but, weighed down by controversy involving the Vietnam War, announced on March 31, 1968 he would not seek or accept the nomination of his party for another term as president. Johnson’s exit – along with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968 – set the stage for the presidential showdown between Republican Richard Nixon, Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Wallace, who ran under the American Independent banner.

The American Independent Party, founded in 1967, was a far-right response to the growing unrest in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Early on, its main purpose was to support Wallace and his segregationist views. Wallace had ran as a Democrat in 1964 and would again in 1972 but formed AIP as Democrats moved towards desegregation.

Humphrey’s running mate was Maine Senator Edmund Muskie; Nixon’s was Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew. Wallace tapped retired U.S. Air Force General Curtis LeMay. LeMay, of Ohio, later caused controversy when he called for the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam.

It took Wallace quite a while to choose a running mate. He considered radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, former Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson and A.B. “Happy” Chandler, governor of Kansas. He even considered Harland Sanders, better known as Col. Sanders of KFC fame.

Wallace’s platform featured hard lines on law and order, state’s rights and segregation. He quickly gained support in the South as well as with northern unions.

On Vietnam, Wallace pledged the immediate withdrawal of troops if the war was not won in 90 days.

Wallace was at his most confident when he addressed blue collar voters angered by both the Republican and Democratic parties. He once told a crowd of protestors “you young people seem to know a four letter words. But I have two four-letter words you don’t know: S-O-A-P and W-O-R-K.”

Early momentum and Wallace’s goal

Wallace’s goal wasn’t necessarily to win the White House outright. Instead, his strategy was to receive enough electoral votes to force the House of Representatives to decide the race. By doing that, Wallace hoped the Southern states would be able to use their votes –  and bargaining power – to stop federal efforts towards desegregation. Wallace’s campaign enjoyed momentum early – peaking at 21 percent in the polls  – but struggled to keep up with Humphrey and Nixon down the stretch.

Election day was Nov. 5, 1968 but the close race meant it was Nov. 6 before a winner –  Nixon –  was announced. Nixon’s bid was bolstered by tight wins in California, Ohio and Illinois. If Humphrey had carried all three states, he would likely have won the election. If he’d carried two, Wallace’s bid to push the election into the House of Representatives – then controlled by Democrats – would have been successful.

Eight years after being defeated by President John F. Kennedy, Nixon won the White House. Nixon and Humphrey each gained about 43 percent of the popular vote but Nixon’s electoral college distribution gave him the victory.

‘Most influential loser’

Wallace won five states – Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi – and 46 electoral votes compared to Nixon’s 32 states and 301 electoral votes and Humphrey’s 13 states and 191 electoral votes. Wallace received 9.9 million votes – or roughly 14 percent of all those cast. He remains the last third-party candidate to win at least one state in the presidential election.

Wallace’s success with the popular vote was less than that enjoyed by independent Ross Perot in 1992 but, unlike Wallace, Perot didn’t win any electoral votes.

A  biographer later called Wallace “the most influential loser” in the history of American politics.

Wallace after the election

Wallace was re-elected Alabama’s governor in 1970 and sought the presidential nomination – this time as a Democrat – again in 1972 before his campaign was cut short when he was shot and paralyzed by would-be assassin Arthur Bremer. He won re-election as governor in 1974 and made another unsuccesful bid for the presidency in 1976. Wallace was elected to his fourth and final term as governor in 1982, by this point renouncing his segregationist past.

Wallace died Sept. 13, 1998, 25 years after Johnson, the man he had hoped to succeed in the White House, died at the age of 64. Nixon – who resigned from the White House in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal – died in 1994.

Parts of this story first appeared on AL.com on Aug. 28, 2018.