CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Fifty years later, the 1968 New Hampshire presidential primaries are being remembered as pivotal for reasons both political and personal.
Secretary of State Bill Gardner led a panel discussion Monday bringing together former lawmakers and activists who got their start in politics campaigning for Republican Richard Nixon, Democratic president Lyndon Johnson and Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy.
McCarthy’s surprise second-place finish helped push Johnson, a sitting president, out of the race.
Gardner called the 1968 primaries a turning point. Only 14 states had primaries that year, and there were five weeks between New Hampshire’s election and the next state to vote, giving the nation time to ponder the results.
“New Hampshire was all alone, and the whole country was watching and analyzing what happened in New Hampshire,” he said. “That’s what set the change forever, because people were amazed at what happened. They were pleased that the little guy could really change the course of history.”
McCarthy was helped by hordes of young anti-war activists, many of whom were too young to vote but were inspired by his campaign. State Rep. Chuck Grassie, a Democrat from Rochester, described campaigning for McCarthy as a 15-year-old high school student.
“We stood on the streets with signs; we did as much as we could to promote an anti-war candidate,” he said. “Normally 15-year-olds don’t get involved in that kind of stuff.”
In addition to serving in the House, Grassie also had a long tenure as a city councilor in Rochester.
“It’s certainly something that inspired me to go on,” he said.
The Republican race had been expected to be close, but Nixon won the primary in a landslide over George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller. Former Executive Councilor Ruth Griffin remembered former Gov. Walter Peterson, a Nixon backer, encouraging her and other young people to build up the Republican Party as part of a group called the Committee to Do the Right Thing. She described going to a Nixon rally one night in Portsmouth after attending a gathering with Rockefeller earlier in the evening.
“I think had my first martini in that hotel,” she said.
While there was plenty of turmoil on the Democratic side between the primaries and the general election, Griffin said it would be wrong to conclude Republicans were asleep during that time.
“We were actually the sleeping giants who came forth on primary day and again in November,” she said. “They were so selective in what they did and made sure that Richard Nixon became our next president.”
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