American Party candidate and former and future Alabama Governor George Wallace also appeared on the ballot, finishing with 9.62 percent of the popular vote.

[3][4] West Virginia was Wallace's weakest antebellum slave state, whilst it was Humphrey's strongest as it had been for outgoing President Johnson.

Strong unionisation meant that the state's predominant poverty-stricken white population did not turn to Wallace in significant numbers.

[5] The state's relative loyalty to Humphrey was enhanced by its deep ties to the New Deal and the resultant unionisation, as in all of Appalachian coal country between the 1930s and 1990s.

[6] This was helped by the fact that Johnson focused on this state, alongside Texas and culturally allied Kentucky, as critical for Humphrey's hope of regaining the White House.