Fifty years ago this week, just as it is this year, Tennessee was seen as a key state in national politics.
This year, polls say a U.S. Senate seat in the state is up for grabs in what already is a closely divided Senate. Although the Volunteer State has become reliably Republican, the relative popularity of a former two-term, moderate Democratic governor has given Democrats a shot at winning the state and potentially controlling the Senate.
A half century ago, Tennessee was seen as critical in the presidential sweepstakes. Although practically all statewide officeholders were Democrats, the state nevertheless had voted – barely – for Republican Dwight Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 and – solidly – for Richard Nixon in 1960. It also had given Republican Barry Goldwater a strong 44.5 percent of the vote in 1964 and then had, shockingly to many observers, elected Republican Howard Baker to the U.S. Senate in 1966.
That’s why Nixon, the Republicans’ presidential candidate once again, had scheduled a campaign appearance in Chattanooga on Sept. 27, 1968.
“To Nixon and campaign staffers,” reads “Nixon’s Comeback,” an article on the website of the Richard Nixon Foundation, “the [polling] numbers were strong but a cause of uneasiness.”