The predicted racial backlash from urban Polish-Americans, seen in the 1964 primaries when George Wallace received over 30 percent of Wisconsin's vote,[1] did not affect Lyndon B. Johnson's big victory in the state in 1964, but would have severe effects when racial unrest began in 1966.

Anti-war Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy would easily win Wisconsin's 1968 Democratic presidential primary against incumbent President Johnson, who soon announced he would not run for re-election in 1968.

[5] Hopes remained dim as the election neared despite the belief by local Representative Clement J. Zablocki that the independent candidacy of George Wallace was losing its impact in the racial-unrest-stricken southern urban counties around Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha,[6] where Wallace had campaigned extensively in September in his effort to put the election into the House of Representatives.

Wallace fared best in rural northern areas away from Lake Superior and in southern suburbs affected by racial conflict.

This was the last election until 1996 that Wisconsin was the most Republican of the three Rust Belt swing states (also consisting of Michigan and Pennsylvania).