 On the last day of April , Rockefeller announced that he would campaign for the presidency , despite his previous statement to the contrary . Immediately following his entrance , he defeated Nixon in the Massachusetts primary 30 % to 26 % . New Harris polls found that Rockefeller fared better against Democratic candidates than Nixon , but the outlook started to appear better for Nixon after he won the Indiana primary over Rockefeller . Off the victory , Nixon campaigned in Nebraska where he criticized the three leading Democratic candidates as " three <unk> in a <unk> , prisoners of the policies of the past . " He then proposed a plan to tackle crime that included <unk> , legislation to reverse previous Supreme Court decisions , and the formation of a congressional committee targeting crime and reforms to the criminal justice system . He did not connect crime to racial rioting , drawing praise from Civil Rights leaders . Nixon won the primary in Nebraska , defeating the <unk> Reagan 71 % to 22 % . At the following primary in Oregon , Reagan seemed more willing to compete with Nixon , and Rockefeller sat out . But Nixon won with 72 % , fifty points ahead of Reagan . 
