Sister was a Goldwater Girl from Tucson; As a 9 year old, mom and I canvassed our precinct for Barry. Of course, it being Tucson, it wasn't particularly hard....mostly a foregone conclusion.
The bumper stickers my father's car had:
AuH2O
In your heart, you know he's right
Left them there till 1970.
Nice to see some people here on FR like Barry. The other day I made some flattering remarks about him and was immediately flamed. "worst campaign ever". "went for gay rights". "supported a Democrat". "supported abortion".
Yeah, that was Goldwater. Got older, still being a contrarian. So he went against the grain occasionally, even the conservative grain. I don't think his core principals changed. Read "With No Apologies". The prescience is remarkable. He was, of course, Right.
Under Democratic Gov. Richard Hughes, New Jersey was difficult and unfriendly turf for finding Goldwater voters. Even in the Catholic high school I attended, the priests were all New Deal liberals who unabashedly advocated socialism as the solution to everything. It was a difficult time for a virgin political effort if you were a conservative.