The Republican Party was badly divided in 1964 between its conservative and moderate to liberal factions. Former Vice President Richard Nixon, who had been beaten by John F. Kennedy in the extremely close 1960 presidential election and subsequently mounted a failed bid for Governor of California in 1962, decided not to run. A moderate with ties to both wings of the Republican Party, Nixon had previously been able to unite the factions in 1960; his absence and the lack of an endorsement by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower cleared the way for the two factions to battle for the nomination. The early frontrunner, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, faced an insurgency from supporters of Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, in addition to criticism of his recent divorce and remarriage. Despite Goldwater's initial refusal to run, the conservatives staged a successful draft movement and won control of the party.
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Republican Presidential Primaries, 1964|
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Following the death of Senator Robert Taft, Goldwater had become the champion of the conservatives within the party. They favored low taxes and a small federal government which supported individual rights and business interests, and opposed social welfare programs. Since 1940, the Eastern moderates had successfully defeated conservative presidential candidates at the GOP's national conventions. The conservatives believed the Eastern moderates were little different from liberal Democrats in their philosophy and approach to government. Despite his initial frontrunner status, the negative publicity Rockefeller received from his remarriage combined with the effort of a grassroots conservative movement that ultimately defeated him in the California primary. The party's moderates and liberals turned to William Scranton, the Governor of Pennsylvania, in the hopes that he could stop Goldwater. However, the convention nominated Goldwater, who went on to lose a landslide general election against Lyndon B. Johnson