June 12, 1964 | Gov. Scranton Announces Candidacy for GOP Nomination

June 12, 1964 - Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania, ripping harshly into the “weird parody” of Republican beliefs championed by Senator Barry Goldwater, today announced his candidacy for the GOP Presidential nomination.
The 46-year-old GOP moderate, rising overnight from the political shambles left by Republican governors in Cleveland earlier in the week as the liberal element sought to head off a Goldwater bandwagon, laid down his challenge to the Arizona Senator in a keynote address before the Maryland GOP convention.
Scranton had been tempted to denounce the Goldwater candidacy in a telecast last Sunday. Then, reportedly at the behest of former President Eisenhower, he dropped the plan at the last moment and declared once more that he was merely available.
It was a different Scranton who pushed his way into the Maryland convention this afternoon and declared himself. He was interrupted 25 times in 15 minutes by cheering and applause and standing ovations. He also drew some hearty boos and great cries of “Goldwater” and “We want Barry.”
Scranton warned bluntly that the Republican party was in danger and could send down to defeat some of its best men in Congress by choosing the wrong Presidential nominee.
He assumed his share of responsibility for failure to act before now in speaking his own mind.
“A stand must be made,” he said, “but the hour is late. I have come here to offer our party a real choice. I reject the echo we have thus far been handed, the echo of fear, of reaction, the echo from the never-never land that puts our nation on the road backward to a lesser place in the world of free men.
“I come here to announce I am a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. I am not entering this crusade for the privilege of presiding over a whipped minority.”

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