Firing Line With William F. Buckley: The Future of the GOP With Richard Nixon (1966)

1966 is where Richard Nixon rebuilt his political career as someone who can not only raise a lot of money, but build up a lot of support not just for himself, but for candidates he endorsed and use that influence to get other Republicans elected and reelected. To the point that so many Republicans in Congress by 1968 owed the former Vice President lots of favors and he had countless political endorsements he could count on when he ran for president against in 1968.

Dick Nixon spent a lot of 1966 campaigning for Republicans especially in Congress and campaigning for Congressional Republican candidates to the point that House Republicans picked up forty-seven seats in 1966. And Senate Republicans picked up four seats and this was when House Republicans only had one-hundred forty seats out of 435 in the House of Representatives in 1965-66 and only had thirty-two seats out of a hundred in the Senate.

1966 is where we get a real good look at the American political landscape changing and where we were no longer a country dominated by Democrats politically. Because Republicans moved into the South and West by winning races there not just in Congress, but at the state level as well with Ronald Reagan being elected Governor of California. And at the same time Republicans were able to hold on and manage their strength in the Northeast and Midwest.