June 29, 1963 - If Senator Barry Goldwater is nominated for President in 1964, Republicans in Austin say he would beat a Kennedy-Johnson ticket by 300,000 votes in Texas if the election were held today. The Democratic ticket won in 1960 by 46,000 votes. Some Democrats, particularly those of liberal leanings, are wondering about Vice President Johnson’s value to a national Democratic ticket in 1964. In 1960, he persuaded all the important Southern leaders except Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia that liberalism in Washington could be held in check. His influence and resourcefulness paid off. However, his current position on civil rights is so far to the left that his value to the national ticket is undergoing reappraisal. If the solid South is to be written off in 1964, the question is whether Mr. Johnson will be retained on the ticket and, if so, what his function will be. One Democratic professional politician even suggested that the Vice President may be getting into position to run for the Senate in case he is pushed from the national ticket or decides to leave it. That would pit Mr. Johnson against Senator Ralph Yarborough in a primary. Whatever happens, President Kennedy will miss the unifying force of the late Speaker Sam Rayburn in Texas politics. This makes the Vice President’s role all the more crucial in Mr. Kennedy’s 1964 quest for Texas’s 25 electoral votes.
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