Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United
States over a deeply divided Democratic Party, becoming the
first Republican to win the presidency.

Lincoln received only 40 percent of the popular vote but handily
defeated the three other candidates: Southern Democrat John
C. Breckinridge, Constitutional Union candidate John Bell, and
Northern Democrat Stephen Douglas, a U.S. senator for Illinois.

Winning one of the closest elections in U.S. history,
Republican challenger Richard Nixon defeated Vice
President Hubert Humphrey. Because of the strong
showing of third-party candidate George Wallace,
neither Nixon nor Humphrey received more than 50
percent of the popular vote; Nixon beat Humphrey

Nixon campaigned on a platform designed to reach
the “silent majority” of middle class and working
class Americans. He promised to “bring us together
again.”

The United States presidential election of 1968 was
the 46th quadrennial United States presidential
election.