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The 1968 Democratic Primaries Results Breakdown

New Hampshire
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Lyndon Johnson - 27,520 (49.6%)
Eugene McCarthy - 23,263 (41.9%)

What began as President Lyndon Johnson's mosey to renomination instantly derailed with the New Hampshire primary. McCarthy famously exceeded all expectations by winning forty-two percent of the vote next to Johnson's fifty percent. Including write-ins by Republican primary voters, McCarthy came within less than one percent of beating Johnson. Relying almost entirely on his local organization, McCarthy emphasized the cost of the war to appeal to the fiscally conservative voters of New Hampshire, and gained significant support from the anti-Johnson vote, most of whom actually wanted a more aggressive stance on the Vietnam War. McCarthy performed best in the suburban areas, with his best results being in Grafton County (54.67% or 1639 votes). McCarthy came within less than half a percent of also winning Cheshire County. His worst result in New Hampshire's urban centre, Hillsborough County (34.1% or 7684 votes). Johnson got most of his votes from Manchester, the largest city in New Hampshire, and located in Hillsborough County.

McCarthy also placed third in the Republican primary, entirely through write-ins, getting five percent of the vote, next to Nelson Rockefeller's ten percent and Richard Nixon's seventy-eight percent.

Wisconsin
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Eugene McCarthy - 412,160 (56.2%)
Lyndon Johnson - 253,696 (34.6%)

Held shortly after Johnson announced that he would not be seeking a second term, McCarthy trounced the President in the Wisconsin primary, winning all but Milwaukee County. The results were actually on the lower end of the expected results; if Johnson had stayed in the race, McCarthy was expected to get as high as sixty-six percent of the vote. While a blowout victory, Wisconsin still showed that McCarthy performed the worst in large cities, where his weakest demographics, black and unionized voters, lived in the largest numbers. McCarthy remained strongest in suburban counties, such as Kewaunee County, where he got over seventy percent of the vote. McCarthy's weakest showing was in the incredibly sparsely populated Menominee County, getting seventy-five votes total in the county, which equated to thirty-eight percent, rounded up. His low margin was due to Bobby Kennedy receiving fifty-six votes, which equated to twenty-eight percent in the county. McCarthy received an outright majority in nearly every county he won, with the exception being a handful of low-population rural counties where even a mild concentration of Kennedy write-ins could greatly affect the percentages, just like in Menominee County.

While Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy after the Wisconsin primary but before the next primary in Indiana, he decided to not compete in any of the primary states. In Indiana, Ohio, Florida, and California, favourite son candidates acted as stand-ins for him.

Indiana
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Robert Kennedy - 328,118 (42.3%)
Roger Branigin - 238,700 (30.7%)
Eugene McCarthy - 209,695 (27.0%)

In the first primary where McCarthy was running against active candidates, he placed a dismal third. McCarthy's Indiana plan had been called the 'Rural Strategy' by his campaign. The plan was that McCarthy would focus on racking up his margins in rural counties, leaving Kennedy and Indiana's governor and favourite son, Roger Branigin, to compete in the major cities. This strategy backfired, as a bitter internal rivalry between McCarthy's national campaign and Indiana campaign left the candidate's schedule completely unplanned. Many times, McCarthy could only put together a crowd of a few hundred, or even a few dozen people, as his appearance had not been advertised to wherever he went on any given day. McCarthy barely won in Adams and Wells counties, nearly losing to Kennedy. His best result was in Monroe County, where the college town of Bloomington was located. Many of the subrurban voters around Indianapolis who might otherwise have voted for him instead went to Branigin. There is some disagreement on who would have won if Branigin had not been a candidate. Exit polling indicated that in a race between just Kennedy and McCarthy, Kennedy would have won with around sixty percent. Veterans of the McCarthy campaign in Indiana have argued that that number is not accurate, as they would have used a different strategy focused on suburban voters if Branigin had not been a candidate.

Oregon
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Eugene McCarthy - 163,990 (44.0%)
Robert Kennedy - 141,631 (38.0%)

Following another defeat to Kennedy in the Nebraska primary, McCarthy restructured his campaign for the West Coast. Under the command of his new campaign coordinator, Tom Finney, McCarthy began adopting populist rhetoric, and finally decided on a theme for his campaign, titled New Politics. Demographically speaking, Oregon was ideal for McCarthy, being one of the most suburban states in America and with one of the lowest black populations. This was something frequently lamented by Kennedy and his team during their time in the state. Appropriately enough, McCarthy did exceptionally well in the college town of Eugene, in Lane County. For the first time in the year's primaries, McCarthy won the most populous city in a state. In this case, Portland.

The 1968 Oregon Democratic primary was the first election ever lost by a Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson remained on the ballot in Oregon, and placed third with twelve percent of the vote.

California
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Eugene McCarthy - 1,624,316 (48.6%)
Robert Kennedy - 1,428,903 (42.8%)
Thomas Lynch - 227,177 (6.8%)

California was the culmination of the Democratic primaries; it was considered the most important by both the McCarthy and Kennedy campaigns, and Kennedy had pledged to drop out of the race if he lost there. Despite entering the state with a lead in the polls, Kennedy also agreed to a debate with McCarthy, something he had been actively avoiding up until that point. In California, McCarthy turned to his preferred campaigning medium of television to do most of the work for him, while Kennedy prioritized in-person campaign rallies. Kennedy rested his hopes on racial and ethnic minority voters to carry him forward, particularly with blacks and Latinos. However, Kennedy's affinity for black and Latino voters caused a white backlash against his candidacy to begin to stir. Polling remained inconclusive with less than a week until voting day, but the debate proved decisive. McCarthy's clear victory over Kennedy in the debate triggered the feared white backlash. Turnout was somewhat higher than expected in McCarthy's favour. Likewise, many voters would otherwise have voted for Humphrey's surrogate, California Attorney General Thomas Lynch, instead voted for McCarthy. The impact of the anti-Kennedy surge was most strongly felt in the Central Valley region, where closer-than-expected margins in counties Kennedy won, and a few upset wins for McCarthy in counties expected to go to Kennedy, such as Fresno, signified the broader McCarthy victory elsewhere in the state.