Bliss, had of necessity moved away from the strident conservatism of Goldwater. Given Wallace's firmly established reputation as a segregationist, it was inevitable that he would be endorsed by Mississippi's established Democratic Party leadership, and this happened in September. William Winter, the losing candidate for Governor the previous year, did support Democratic nominee and sitting Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, but knew that it would be too risky to actively campaign for him. Vote By August, there was virtual unanimity that Wallace would carry Mississippi by a large margin, as apart from a small number of wealthy urban communities, he had captured a virtual monopoly of the state's white electorate, including the small minority who had backed Johnson. Wallace was the only candidate to do any campaigning: Nixon did not campaign in the state at all, and won more than twenty percent of the vote in just four of the state's 82 counties. This was the second presidential election which Richard Nixon came in third place in Mississippi. Humphrey improved upon the support gained by Johnson, but this was entirely due to the huge increases in black voter registration – exit polls suggest the national Democratic nominee received less than 5 percent of the white vote. In fact, so marked was the reversal of voting patterns from the previous five presidential elections that Humphrey did worst in the counties where Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson and Harry S. Truman had run best. With 63.46% of the popular vote, Mississippi would prove to be Wallace's second strongest state in the 1968 election after neighboring Alabama. , this is the last election in which the following counties did not vote for the Republican presidential candidate: Forrest, Lowndes, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lincoln, Newton, Rankin, Scott, Simpson, Harrison, Jackson, Choctaw, Jones, and Smith. It is also the last election in which the Republican nominee won the presidency without carrying Mississippi. Results Results by county Notes References 1968 Mississippi 1968 Mississippi elections