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Goldthwaite was elected as a Democrat to the state House of Representatives in 1958 and again in 1962, corresponding with the successful candidacies of [[governor|gubernatorial]] nominees John Malcolm Patterson (1921-2021) and [[George Wallace|George C. Wallace]], respectively. He changed parties in 1964 even before [[Strom Thurmond]] made the famous defection in September 1964 and endorsed U.S. Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] in the presidential election against the Democrat [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. At the time of his own party bolt, Goldthwaite felt compelled to describe himself as "neither a rabble-rouser nor a demagogue" but one "committed to fiscal responsibility".<ref name=jdm>Billy Hathorn, "James Douglas Martin and the Alabama Republican Resurgence, 1962-1965," ''Gulf Coast Historical Review,'' Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring 1993), p. 61.</ref> In 1965, Goldthwaite and another Republican representative, [[Tandy Little]], also from Montgomery who was elected in 1962, fought George Wallace's move to permit governors to succeed themselves, a change finally adopted for the 1974 election. Because Wallace could not run again in 1966, he offered his wife, the former Lureen Burns (1926-1968) as his political stand-in.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-i1HBMC6qsEC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=Alfred+Goldthwaite,+University+of+Alabama&source=bl&ots=cFC-feGxqf&sig=8Gj-R_FY30ls5Y3CptKP-HaKCMU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YIqHU7roI8qAqgb0hoCoCQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Alfred%20Goldthwaite%2C%20University%20of%20Alabama&f=false|author=Jeff Frederick|title=Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace|publisher=[[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]]: [[University of Alabama]] Press, 2007), p. 119|ISBN=978-0817315740|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref>

Goldthwaite was elected as a Democrat to the state House of Representatives in 1958 and again in 1962, corresponding with the successful candidacies of [[governor|gubernatorial]] nominees John Malcolm Patterson (1921-2021) and [[George Wallace|George C. Wallace]], respectively. He changed parties in 1964 even before [[Strom Thurmond]] made the famous defection in September 1964 and endorsed U.S. Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] in the presidential election against the Democrat [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. At the time of his own party bolt, Goldthwaite felt compelled to describe himself as "neither a rabble-rouser nor a demagogue" but one "committed to fiscal responsibility".<ref name=jdm>Billy Hathorn, "James Douglas Martin and the Alabama Republican Resurgence, 1962-1965," ''Gulf Coast Historical Review,'' Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring 1993), p. 61.</ref> In 1965, Goldthwaite and another Republican representative, [[Tandy Little]], also from Montgomery who was elected in 1962, fought George Wallace's move to permit governors to succeed themselves, a change finally adopted for the 1974 election. Because Wallace could not run again in 1966, he offered his wife, the former Lureen Burns (1926-1968) as his political stand-in.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=-i1HBMC6qsEC&pg=PA136&lpg=PA136&dq=Alfred+Goldthwaite,+University+of+Alabama&source=bl&ots=cFC-feGxqf&sig=8Gj-R_FY30ls5Y3CptKP-HaKCMU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=YIqHU7roI8qAqgb0hoCoCQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Alfred%20Goldthwaite%2C%20University%20of%20Alabama&f=false|author=Jeff Frederick|title=Stand Up for Alabama: Governor George Wallace|publisher=[[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]]: [[University of Alabama]] Press, 2007), p. 119|ISBN=978-0817315740|accessdate=August 30, 2021}}</ref>

All of the Republican state legislative candidates lost in 1966,<ref name=alaleg/> when James Douglas Martin (1918-2017) of Gadsden and [[John Grenier]] of [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], at the top of the Republican statewide ticket, were handily defeated for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, by the Democrats Lurleen Wallace and [[John Sparkman]]. In 1967, Goldthwaite became the Alabama Republican state party chairman.<ref name=jdm/> He attended the 1968 [[Republican National Convention]], which met in Miami Beach,  [[Florida]], to nominate the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]]-[[Spiro Agnew|Agnew]] ticket. Goldthwaite was part of a group of Deep South Republicans, including Howard Hollis "Bo" Callaway (1927-2014) of [[Georgia]], Clarke Reed of [[Mississippi]], [[Charlton Lyons]] of [[Louisiana]], and Harry Shuler Dent, Sr. (1930-2007), of [[South Carolina]], who followed what is called the [[Southern Strategy]] to guarantee Nixon's nomination over a last-minute convention bid launched by then Governor [[Ronald W. Reagan]].<ref>''The Daily Herald,'' Provo, [[Utah]], July 24, 1968, p. 10.</ref>

All of the Republican state legislative candidates lost in 1966,<ref name=alaleg/> when James Douglas Martin (1918-2017) of Gadsden and [[John Grenier]] of [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]], at the top of the Republican statewide ticket, were handily defeated for governor and U.S. senator, respectively, by the Democrats [[Lurleen Wallace]] and [[John Sparkman]]. In 1967, Goldthwaite became the Alabama Republican state party chairman.<ref name=jdm/> He attended the 1968 [[Republican National Convention]], which met in Miami Beach,  [[Florida]], to nominate the [[Richard Nixon|Nixon]]-[[Spiro Agnew|Agnew]] ticket. Goldthwaite was part of a group of Deep South Republicans, including Howard Hollis "Bo" Callaway (1927-2014) of [[Georgia]], Clarke Reed of [[Mississippi]], [[Charlton Lyons]] of [[Louisiana]], and Harry Shuler Dent, Sr. (1930-2007), of [[South Carolina]], who followed what is called the [[Southern Strategy]] to guarantee Nixon's nomination over a last-minute convention bid launched by then Governor [[Ronald W. Reagan]].<ref>''The Daily Herald,'' Provo, [[Utah]], July 24, 1968, p. 10.</ref>

There was little visible Nixon-Agnew campaign in Alabama in 1968. George Wallace, as the presidential nominee of his American Independent Party, had an early lock on his home state that thwarted the viability of both Nixon and the Democratic nominee, [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Hubert H. Humphrey]]. Nor could Republican Perry Oliver Hooper, Sr. (1925-2016), of Montgomery gain momentum in his race for the U.S. Senate seat that the Democrat [[Lister Hill]] vacated after thirty-one years, a position won overwhelmingly by [[James B. Allen]] of Gadsden, a former two-term lieutenant governor. Of the lack of a Nixon campaign in Alabama, state GOP finance chairman Tandy Little said, "We couldn't afford it" because of the decision to concentrate on the successful third-term bids of three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama, all first elected in the Goldwater sweep of the state in 1964: [[Jack Edwards]] of [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] and  William Louis "Bill" Dickinson (1925-2008) of Montgomery, both [[conservative]]s, and [[John H. Buchanan, Jr. (1928-2018), a [[Moderate Republican]] from Birmingham who lost his seat in 1982 to conservative Albert Lee Smith, Jr. (1931-1997).<ref>"A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978," p. 30.</ref>

There was little visible Nixon-Agnew campaign in Alabama in 1968. George Wallace, as the presidential nominee of his American Independent Party, had an early lock on his home state that thwarted the viability of both Nixon and the Democratic nominee, [[Vice President of the United States|Vice President]] [[Hubert H. Humphrey]]. Nor could Republican Perry Oliver Hooper, Sr. (1925-2016), of Montgomery gain momentum in his race for the U.S. Senate seat that the Democrat [[Lister Hill]] vacated after thirty-one years, a position won overwhelmingly by [[James B. Allen]] of Gadsden, a former two-term lieutenant governor. Of the lack of a Nixon campaign in Alabama, state GOP finance chairman Tandy Little said, "We couldn't afford it" because of the decision to concentrate on the successful third-term bids of three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Alabama, all first elected in the Goldwater sweep of the state in 1964: [[Jack Edwards]] of [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] and  William Louis "Bill" Dickinson (1925-2008) of Montgomery, both [[conservative]]s, and [[John H. Buchanan, Jr. (1928-2018), a [[Moderate Republican]] from Birmingham who lost his seat in 1982 to conservative Albert Lee Smith, Jr. (1931-1997).<ref>"A Dozen Years in the Political Wilderness: The Alabama Republican Party, 1966–1978," p. 30.</ref>