Governor Nelson Rockefeller angered conservatives by refusing to support Republican nominee Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential election.

Polling showed Rockefeller behind Eugene Nickerson, Frank D. O'Connor, Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., Howard J. Samuels, or Robert F. Wagner Jr. if they were the Democratic nominee.

However, O'Connor voted to end cross-endorsements in the state legislature and was close to bosses Charles A. Buckley and Irwin Steingut, who the Liberals opposed.

Roosevelt claimed that O'Connor was secretly promised the gubernatorial nomination in exchange for withdrawing from the 1965 New York City mayoral election.

Louis Stulberg and other leaders of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union opposed Roosevelt due to him not staying with the party after the 1949 election.