National Democratic Party of Alabama

The National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA) was a political party active in the U. S. state of Alabama that opposed the segregationist former governor George Wallace.

During the 1968 Presidential election, Alabama's Democratic Party supported the former Governor George Wallace who was the presidential nominee of the American Independent Party. The supporters of the national Democratic Party nominee, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, left the party to support the national slate.

In 1968 led by John L. Cashin, Jr., a dentist from Huntsville who had been active in the voter registration group the Alabama Democratic Conference, Democrats loyal to Humphrey and national Democratic Party formed the NDPA as a vehicle to field a slate of electors pledged to him and not to Wallace. Although national Democratic Party supported Humphrey, Wallace was put on ballot in his home state as official Democratic nominee. Also, in 1964, the Democratic Party of Alabama's electors were unpledged instead of being pledged to Lyndon Johnson, a moot point since Alabama voted in large numbers for Barry Goldwater.

There were precedent for the behavior of the state party machinery such as when Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond was the Democratic nominee in 1948 in some southern states despite Harry S. Truman being the Democratic nominee. In 1960, Democrat John F. Kennedy was on the ballot and carried the state, but most of his electors were unfaithful, opting for Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd in the electoral college. In 1964, the Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson was not in ballot in Alabama, and an unpledged electors slate was officially nominated by Alabama's Democrats.

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