Midterm Elections: 1966 Midterms Signal a Realignment, Shaping Today’s Parties
OverviewThis nine-minute video examines the compelling regional story within Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964 – that many voters in the Deep South, long loyal to a conservative wing of the Democratic Party, voted for the Republican candidate. Two years later, the 1966 midterm elections would continue that trend, with voters across the South electing Republicans to offices for the first time in nearly 100 years. It was a key moment that affects American politics today, as the two parties began to sort themselves out regionally and ideologically into two distinctly partisan camps.
Objectives
Students will:
- Evaluate election results from 1964 to make predictions about future elections.
- Judge the impact of the Civil Rights movement and legislation on elections in the mid-1960s and beyond.
- Compare and contrast the political issues of the 1966 midterm election with the 2022 election cycle.
- Civics & Government
- U.S. History
- AP U.S. History
- AP U.S. Government & Politics
- U.S. History
- Civics and Government
- Political Parties
- Campaigns and Elections
- 1960s America
- Lyndon Johnson
- Conservatism
- Ronald Reagan
- Race in U.S. History
Essential Questions
- What is a realigning election?
- How can midterm elections shape the course of American politics and political parties?
- How did the Civil Rights movement affect American politics in the 1966 midterm election and beyond?
Additional Resources
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including analyzing how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term over the course of a text (e.g., how Madison defines faction in Federalist No. 10).
Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem
Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
Analyze the role of citizens in the U.S. political system, with attention to various theories of democracy, changes in Americans’ participation over time, and alternative models from other countries, past and present.
Apply civic virtues and democratic principles when working with others.
Evaluate social and political systems in different contexts, times, and places, that promote civic virtues and enact democratic principles.
Analyze the impact and the appropriate roles of personal interests and perspectives on the application of civic virtues, democratic principles, constitutional rights, and human rights.
Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
Analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights.
Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.
Analyze complex and interacting factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
Topic 5.3: Political Parties
Topic 5.8: Electing a President
Topic 5.9: Congressional Elections
Topic 5.10: Modern Campaigns
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