Humphrey took 49.76% of the vote to Nixon's 44.30% in New York, while former Alabama Governor George Wallace won 5.29% as the nominee of the American Independent Party.

Wallace ran a segregationist and right-wing populist campaign which failed to gain much traction in the Northeast.

Humphrey was seen by many as promising to continue the legacy of president Lyndon B. Johnson,[5] and this garnered him strong support from liberal voters across America.

This was the first time since Samuel J. Tilden won the state in 1876 that New York voted for a losing Democratic candidate.

As of 2020[update], this remains the last time that New York had the largest number of electoral votes in the nation, as California would overtake it after the 1970 census.