June 7, 1964 - Governor George Wallace of Alabama, a national crusader against civil rights, announced today that he would be a candidate for President this autumn in every state where his name could be legally placed on the ballot.
He estimated that this might mean 30 states.
The Governor, who amassed a large vote in the Democratic Presidential primaries in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Maryland, said at the National Governors Conference in Cleveland that he would run as an “Alabama Democrat.”
Wallace contended that he would win enough Southern and border states to achieve approximately 70 Electoral College votes.
This, he explained at a news conference, should be sufficient to realize his objective: to prevent the election of either President Johnson or the Republican nominee and leave the choice to the House of Representatives.
Under the Constitution, when no candidate has a clear majority of the nation’s 538 Electoral College votes, the House of Representatives elects the President, with each state casting one vote.
Wallace was the only Democrat at the conference to sound a discordant political note within his party so far. His 33 Democratic colleagues appeared to be united, at least in public, behind the election of President Johnson.
Wallace, who is often picketed by civil rights groups, said he had not yet determined whether to attend the Democratic National Convention at Atlantic City beginning Aug. 24.
“I’m not sure I’ll get in through the pickets,” he remarked.
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