<P> Richard Nixon Republican </P> <P> The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968 . The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon, defeated the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey . Analysts have argued the election of 1968 was a major realigning election as it permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years . </P> <P> Incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson had been the early front - runner for his party's nomination, but he announced his withdrawal from the race after anti-Vietnam War candidate Eugene McCarthy finished second in the New Hampshire primary . McCarthy, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Vice President Humphrey emerged as the three major candidates in the Democratic primaries until Kennedy was assassinated in June 1968 . Humphrey won the presidential nomination at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, which saw numerous anti-war protests . Nixon entered the 1968 Republican primaries as the front - runner, and he defeated Nelson Rockefeller, Ronald Reagan, and other candidates at the 1968 Republican National Convention to win his party's nomination . Governor George Wallace of Alabama ran on the American Independent Party ticket, campaigning in favor of racial segregation . </P> <P> The election year was tumultuous; it was marked by the assassination of Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., subsequent King assassination riots across the nation, the assassination of Kennedy, and widespread opposition to the Vietnam War across university campuses . Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore law and order to the nation's cities and provide new leadership in the Vietnam War . A year later, he would popularize the term "silent majority" to describe those he viewed as being his target voters . He also pursued a "Southern strategy" designed to win conservative Southern white voters who had traditionally supported the Democratic Party . Humphrey promised to continue Johnson's War on Poverty and to support the Civil Rights Movement . Humphrey trailed badly in polls taken in late August but narrowed Nixon's lead after Wallace's candidacy collapsed and Johnson suspended bombing in the Vietnam War . </P>

Who was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the presidency