Nelson Rockefeller's Running Mate in 1964

[rbt48]

Imagine that Happy hadn't given birth just before the California WTA primary in 1964and Rocky had won that states primary a week later instead of a narrow loss (probably because the birth highlighted that he was the first divorced/remarried man to come so close to being nominated by a major party).  Then envision that Rockefeller narrowly wins the nomination over Goldwater on the strength of that victory and just enough uncommitted delegates going for him.

Who do you think Rockefeller would have chosen as his running mate?  Bill Scranton, Jim Rhodes, George Romney, Mark Hatfield?  Or perhaps a Senator (there weren't many GOP Senators in 1964):  Thruston Morton, John Tower, Hugh Scott?

[Lincoln Republican]

Senator Thomas Kuchel of California

Graduate University of Southern California Law School

California State Assembly 1937-1941
California State Senate 1941-1945

Lieutenant Commander U.S. Naval Reserves

Member of the United States Senate from California since 1953

[Kingpoleon]

Baltimore Mayor Theodore McKeldin, Gerald Ford, or Mark Hatfield seem most likely.

[rbt48]

I like all the VP inputs I've seen thus far. 

I wonder how the general election versus Johnson would have turned out.  Certainly, Rockefeller wouldn't have carried any of the southern states that Goldwater did.

[Lincoln Republican]

In 1964, popular sentiment for the assassinated JFK, and riding a wave of support for LBJ as the one who would carry on the JFK legacy, there is no way that any Republican, not even Rocky, would be able to win.

Of course, the 1964 electoral map would look markedly different than the real one with Rocky as the nominee, but he still loses by a wide margin to LBJ.

I believe Rocky could have won the Presidency in 1968 if he had been able to secure the nomination.

[swky_0rn]

Even with  the happy scandal and  alienating conservatives?

[Mr. Smith]

My guess is that he'd pick Bill Knowland or Everett Dirksen.

And given LBJ's popularity, the result would look like

this.

[rbt48]

My guess is that he'd pick Bill Knowland or Everett Dirksen.

And given LBJ's popularity, the result would look like

this.

I basically agree with this map, though I would have added Ohio, South Dakota, and Arizona to the GOP states.

[Lincoln Republican]

Even with  the happy scandal and  alienating conservatives?

Well, we have to consider how deeply unpopular LBJ was by 1968, and the Democratic nominee was his Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, who I am sure Rocky would have tide closely to LBJ and his disastrous Vietnam policies.   

[Mr. Smith]

My guess is that he'd pick Bill Knowland or Everett Dirksen.

And given LBJ's popularity, the result would look like

this.

I basically agree with this map, though I would have added Ohio, South Dakota, and Arizona to the GOP states.

Considering the prairie populism in South Dakota, Arizona being ancestrally Democratic with literally Barry Goldwater and a few proteges to hold up the GOP there, and the blue-collar areas still being strongly D...yeah no.