for RFK, whom they considered a twerp nepotismed into power by his big brother. Moreover, they were pretty happy with Nixon, who they thought had been jobbed in ‘60.

That was pretty much what Virginia Republicans thought, in 1967 and 1968 in the run-up to the ‘68 election, as the last vestiges of the conservative Democrat Byrd machine fell away in the face of the emerging liberal coalition takeover of the Democratic Party nationally precipitated the “Southern strategy” and the divorce of Southern conservative Democrats from their erstwhile party.

I’m really, really surprised at any Goldwater Republicans voting for a liberal-for-his-time Democrat, and Nixon was NOT unpopular in either ‘68 (when RFK might have won the Dem nomination had he not been assassinated) or ‘72, all pre-Watergate.

Your father was an interesting case, running against the grain there, for sure. Would love to have heard his reasoning. Our old friend MSGHoofan was another Goldwater/RFK voter as well, you probably remember, may he rest in peace.