Final answer:
George Wallace appealed to disaffected working-class voters and aimed to draw conservative votes away from Nixon in the 1968 election, which contributed to dividing the Democratic support and aiding Nixon's victory in the electoral college.
Step-by-step explanation:
Completing the passage about George Wallace's strategy in the 1968 election, we would have:
Appealing to the disaffected working class, Wallace hoped to take away enough conservative votes from Nixon in order to influence the election.
The candidacy of George Wallace had a significant impact on the election of 1968. Wallace, adopting a platform that highlighted states' rights and school segregation, appealed largely to voters who were aggravated by the ongoing civil rights movement and the unrest in urban areas. His success in winning five Southern states and the support of many Northern white working-class voters highlighted a division in the electorate that benefitted Republican candidate Richard Nixon, as it drew votes away from the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey.
Nixon's campaign, in light of this division, appealed to a similar demographic of working- and middle-class White Americans. This helped him win the electoral vote significantly, despite having only a modest lead in the popular vote. Thus, Wallace's candidacy indirectly helped Nixon secure a victory in a highly polarized and transformative election.