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1964 United States presidential election in Rhode Island
Johnson 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% 90–100%
President before election; Lyndon B. Johnson; Democratic	President-elect ; Lyndon B. Johnson; Democratic

The 1964 United States presidential election in Rhode Island took place on November 3, 1964, as part of the 1964 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all 50 states and D.C. Voters chose four representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Rhode Island voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic nominee, incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, over the Republican nominee, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Johnson ran with Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, while Goldwater's running mate was Congressman William E. Miller of New York.

Johnson carried Rhode Island in a landslide, taking 80.87% of the vote to Goldwater's 19.13%,^[1] a Democratic victory margin of 61.74%. This made Rhode Island Lyndon Johnson's strongest state in the nation: even in the midst of a massive nationwide Democratic landslide, Rhode Island weighed in as 39% more Democratic than the national average during the 1964 election.^[2]

The staunch conservative Goldwater was widely seen in the Northeastern United States as a right-wing extremist;^[3] he had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Johnson campaign portrayed him as a warmonger who as president would provoke a nuclear war.^[4] While John F. Kennedy had won 63.63% in Rhode Island in 1960 mostly by sweeping the ethnic Catholic vote, for 1964, this traditional Democratic coalition was joined by mass defections of moderate Yankee Republicans who had voted for Eisenhower and Nixon but could not support Goldwater.^[3] His landslide was so large, he won a record 315,463 votes, a record that still has not been beaten. The closest any candidate has come since then was in 2020, when Joe Biden took 307,486 votes.^[5] Consequently, the incumbent Johnson was able to take more than 80% of the vote in liberal Rhode Island.

Results

Electoral results
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Count	Percentage	Electoral vote	Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Lyndon B. Johnson	Democratic	Texas	315,463	80.87%	4	Hubert Humphrey	Minnesota	4
Barry Goldwater	Republican	Arizona	74,615	19.13%	0	William E. Miller	New York	0
Total			390,078	100%	4			4
Needed to win					270			270

By county

County	Lyndon B. Johnson Democratic		Barry Goldwater Republican		Various candidates Other parties		Margin		Total votes cast
County	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Bristol	14,306	76.21%	4,466	23.79%	0	0.00%	9,840	52.42%	18,772
Kent	44,476	78.34%	12,297	21.66%	0	0.00%	32,179	56.68%	56,773
Newport	19,782	73.65%	7,078	26.35%	0	0.00%	12,704	47.30%	26,860
Providence	219,465	83.48%	43,432	16.52%	0	0.00%	176,033	66.96%	262,897
Washington	17,434	70.37%	7,342	29.63%	0	0.00%	10,092	40.74%	24,776
Totals	315,463	80.87%	74,615	19.13%	13	0.00%	240,848	61.74%	390,091

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

Washington

Analysis

Johnson swept all five counties in Rhode Island with over 70% of the vote. In Providence County, the most populated county, home to the state's capital and largest city, Providence, Johnson took 83.5% of the vote.^[1] Washington County voted Democratic for the first time since 1852. This was the strongest showing ever for a Democratic presidential candidate in Providence County and the strongest performance of any candidate of any party in any county in Rhode Island. Johnson's 80.87% remains the highest vote share percentage any presidential candidate of either party has ever received in Rhode Island,^[2] and his 61.74% victory margin remains the widest margin by which any candidate of either party has ever won the state. Additionally, Johnson's victory, alongside Goldwater's victory in Mississppi marked the last time a Presidential nominee won over 80% of the vote in a state.

References

^ ^a ^b David Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; 1964 Presidential General Election Data Graphs – Rhode Island
^ ^a ^b Counting the Votes; Rhode Island Archived 2017-01-11 at the Wayback Machine
^ ^a ^b Donaldson, Gary; Liberalism’s Last Hurrah: The Presidential Campaign of 1964; p. 190, ISBN 1510702369.
^ Edwards, Lee and Schlafly, Phyllis; Goldwater: The Man Who Made a Revolution; pp. 286–290 ISBN 162157458X.
^ "Rhode Island Election Results". The New York Times. November 3, 2020. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 15, 2020.