If Republicans sign Civil Rights and Democrats are no different either (maybe more pro-Civil Rights Democrats become President), how do you think will DC and Maryland vote?
Question on Washington, DC and Maryland...
- Thread starter Nightingale
- Start date
Like Republicans sign the Civil Rights Act, but Democrats don't get led by a neo-racist like George Wallace in New Deal Coalition Retained.
For example, Nixon signs Civil Rights in 1964. By 1968, Hubert Humphrey wins the Presidency over the Republican. Both are pro-Civil Rights.
In this ATL 1968 election after Republicans sign Civil Rights, how will D.C. and Maryland vote? Will they be solidly Republican, slightly Republican, slightly Democratic or swing?
Maryland will be swing territory, IMO, with the Democrats split on the short term (extending the circumstances around the 1966 gubernatorial election to a wider application). Old school Marylanders, especially on the Eastern Shore, might as well have been from Mississippi given their attitudes on race at the time (indeed, many affected Dixie accents you could cut with a saw). They'd be just about neck-and-neck with more progressive elements around Baltimore and the surrounding counties (see, for example, Hyman Pressman as a leader) in the Democrat ranks. Republicans, led by Theodore McKeldin, Rogers Morton and (heaven help us all) Spiro Agnew would have the balance of voters. It would all depend on who's sore at whom when as to how any given state-wide results would go. Maryland would be one of the most difficult states to forecast at least on the short term. The thing is, with Maryland's long history of close relations with the Democrats (for as long as I've been alive, the Dems' primaries in MD have been tantamount to the general election), I can't see the state going Republican even mildly / even for a short term. And I say all this as someone who grew up in suburban Baltimore in the 1950s and 1960s.
That is certainly interesting. Blacks won't make it so Republican, eh?
How about Washington, DC? This is addressed to everyone now.
How about Washington, DC? This is addressed to everyone now.
They didn't even in the days when blacks were predominantly Republican.