Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign, 1968
| Robert Kennedy for President 1968 | |
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| Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 1968 |
| Candidate |
Robert F. Kennedy U.S. Senator from New York (1965–1968) U.S. Attorney General (1961–1964) |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party |
| Status | Announced: March 16, 1968 Ended: June 6, 1968. |
The Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign began on March 16, 1968. Robert Francis Kennedy, a U.S. Senator from New York who won a Senate seat in 1964, faced what was widely considered an unrealistic race against an incumbent, President Lyndon B. Johnson. After Johnson's announcement on March 31 that he would not seek re-election, Kennedy still faced Johnson's leading challenger, Eugene McCarthy, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who entered the race following Johnson's withdrawal, for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Kennedy and McCarthy remained the main challengers to Humphrey and the policies of the Johnson administration. Throughout the spring of 1968, Kennedy campaigned in presidential primary elections, especially those in Indiana, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, California, and Washington, D.C. He had made progress in achieving Democratic support for the nomination until his assassination on June 5, 1968, in Los Angeles, California.
Kennedy was a late entry in the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1968. By late 1967 Kennedy had not made a decision, even under pressure from his political advisors who feared time to announce a candidacy was running out. Kennedy and his advisors knew it would not be easy to beat the incumbent president Lyndon Johnson. However, Kennedy had not ruled out entering the race. Following U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy's announcement on November 30, 1967, of his intention to run against Johnson for the Democratic nomination, Kennedy remarked to U.S. Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, "I'm worried about you and other people making early commitment to him because it may be hard for all of us later on." At a breakfast with reporters at the National Press Club on January 30, 1968, Kennedy still indicated that he had no plans to run, but a few weeks later he had changed his mind about entering the race.
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