[1] Brewer, hoping to build a broad alliance between blacks and white working class voters, unveiled a progressive platform and accused Wallace of spending too much time outside the state, saying "Alabama needs a full-time governor.".

[2] Republican President Richard Nixon endorsed Brewer in order to break Wallace's political career and secure Deep South votes for himself in the next presidential election.

[3][4] It was later discovered that Nixon had directed his reelection campaign to donate $400,000 to Brewer in secret cash payments.

[5] Wallace, whose presidential ambitions would have been destroyed with a defeat, ran a very aggressive and dirty campaign using racist rhetoric while proposing few original ideas of his own.

and circulated an ad showing a white girl surrounded by seven black boys, with the slogan "Wake Up Alabama!