Johnson ran with Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota, while Goldwater's running mate was Congressman William E. Miller of New York.

Johnson carried Rhode Island in a landslide, taking 80.87% of the vote to Goldwater's 19.13%,[1] a Democratic victory margin of 61.74%.

[2] The staunch conservative Goldwater was widely seen in the Northeastern United States as a right-wing extremist;[3] he had voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Johnson campaign portrayed him as a warmonger who as president would provoke a nuclear war.

[4] While John F. Kennedy had won 63.63% in Rhode Island in 1960 mostly by sweeping the ethnic Catholic vote, for 1964, this traditional Democratic coalition was joined by mass defections of moderate Yankee Republicans who had voted for Eisenhower and Nixon but could not support Goldwater.

Johnson's 80.87% remains the highest vote share percentage any presidential candidate of either party has ever received in Rhode Island,[2] and his 61.74% victory margin remains the widest margin by which any candidate of either party has ever won the state.