United States presidential election, 1960 Totally Explained

Everything about United States Presidential Election 1960 totally explained

The United States presidential election of 1960 marked the end of Dwight D. Eisenhower's two terms as President. Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard M. Nixon, who had transformed his office into a national political base, was the Republican (GOP) candidate.
The Democrats nominated Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy (JFK). He was only the second Roman Catholic to become a major-party presidential candidate (the previous one was Democrat Al Smith in 1928). During the campaign, Kennedy charged that under Eisenhower and the Republicans America was falling behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, both militarily and economically, and that as President he'd "get America moving again". Nixon responded that, if elected, he'd continue the "peace and prosperity" Eisenhower had brought the nation, and that with the nation engaged in the Cold War, Kennedy was too young and inexperienced to be trusted with the Presidency. The electoral vote was the closest in any presidential election dating to 1916, and Kennedy's margin of victory in the popular vote is among the closest ever in American history. The 1960 election also remains a source of debate among some historians as to whether vote theft in selected states aided Kennedy's victory.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

The following political leaders were candidates for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. With the exceptions of Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Stuart Symington and Adlai Stevenson, these men were "favorite-son" candidates without any realistic chance of winning the nomination:
Image:John F. Kennedy, White House color photo portrait.jpg|Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts Image:Lbj2.jpg|Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas Image:H Humphrey.jpg|Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota Image:Stevenson and Korean officials at USAF base in Korea, March 1953-cropped to Stevenson.jpg|Former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois Image:Barnett L.jpg|Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi Image:PatBrown.jpg|Governor Pat Brown of California Image:Replace this image male.svg|Businessman Paul C. Fisher from Pennsylvania Image:Robert_Meyner.jpg|Governor Robert B. Meyner of New Jersey Image:Wayne Morse.jpg|Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon Image:George smathers.jpg|Senator George Smathers of Florida Image:Stuart Symington.jpg|Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri Kennedy was initially dogged by suggestions from some Democratic Party elders (such as former President Harry Truman) that he was too youthful and inexperienced to be president; these critics suggested that he agree to be the running mate for a "more experienced" Democrat. Realizing that this was a strategy touted by his opponents to keep the public from taking him seriously, Kennedy stated frankly ‘I’m not running for vice president, I’m running for president.’(External Link

) A more serious problem for Kennedy was his Roman Catholic religion. Recalling the experience of 1928 Catholic Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith, many wondered if anti-Catholic prejudice would hurt Kennedy's chances of winning the nomination and the election in November. To prove his vote-getting ability, Kennedy challenged Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey, a liberal, in the Wisconsin primary. Although Kennedy defeated Humphrey in Wisconsin, the fact that his margin of victory came mostly from heavily Catholic areas left many party bosses unconvinced of Kennedy's appeal to non-Catholic voters. Kennedy next faced Humphrey in the heavily Protestant state of West Virginia, where anti-Catholic bigotry was said to be widespread. Humphrey's campaign was low on money and couldn't compete with the well-organized, well-financed Kennedy team. Kennedy's attractive sisters and brothers combed the state looking for votes, leading Humphrey to complain that he "felt like an independent merchant running against a chain store." On primary day Kennedy crushed Humphrey with over 60% of the vote. Humphrey withdrew from the race and Kennedy had gained the victory he needed to prove to the party's bosses that a Catholic could win in a non-Catholic state. In the months leading up to the Democratic Convention Kennedy traveled around the nation persuading delegates from various states to support him. However, as the Convention opened Kennedy was still a few dozen votes short of victory.
Primary states won by:
Kennedy

Humphrey

South Dakota

District of Columbia Brown

California (home state) Smathers

Florida (home state) DiSalle

Ohio (home state)

Republican Party nomination

Republican candidates Image:BarryGoldwater2.jpg|Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona Image:Nixon while in US Congress.jpg|Vice President Richard Nixon of California Image:Nelson_Rockefeller.jpg|Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York With the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951 President Eisenhower couldn't run for the office of President again; he'd been elected in 1952 and 1956. In 1960 he remained highly popular, and most historians believe that if he could have run for a third term he'd have defeated any of the major Democratic candidates, including Kennedy.
In 1959 it looked as if Vice President Richard Nixon might face a serious challenge for the GOP nomination from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the leader of the GOP's moderate-liberal wing. However, Rockefeller announced that he wouldn't be a candidate for president after a national tour revealed that the great majority of Republicans favored Nixon. After Rockefeller's withdrawal, Nixon faced no significant opposition for the Republican nomination. At the 1960 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Nixon was the overwhelming choice of the delegates, with conservative Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona receiving 10 votes from conservative delegates. Nixon then chose former Massachusetts Senator and United Nations Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. as his Vice Presidential candidate.

Democratic Convention

The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles. In the week before the convention opened, Kennedy received two new challengers when Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful Senate Majority Leader from Texas, and Adlai Stevenson II, the party's nominee in 1952 and 1956, announced their candidacies. However, neither Johnson nor Stevenson was a match for the talented and highly efficient Kennedy campaign team led by Robert Kennedy. Johnson challenged Kennedy to a televised debate before a joint meeting of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations; Kennedy accepted. Most observers felt that Kennedy won the debate, and Johnson wasn't able to expand his delegate support beyond the South. Stevenson was popular among many liberal delegates, especially in California, but his two landslide defeats in 1952 and 1956 led party leaders to search for a "fresh face" who had a better chance of winning. Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot. Then, in a move which surprised many, Johnson was asked by Kennedy to be his running mate. To this day there's much debate regarding the details of Johnson's nomination - why it was offered and why he agreed to take it. Some historians speculate that Kennedy actually wanted someone else (such as Senators Stuart Symington or Henry M. Jackson) to be his running mate, and that he offered the nomination to Johnson first only as a courtesy to the powerful Senate Majority Leader. According to this theory, Kennedy was then surprised when Johnson accepted second place on the Democratic ticket. Another related story is that, after Johnson accepted the offer, Robert Kennedy went to Johnson's hotel suite to dissuade Johnson from becoming the vice-presidential nominee. Johnson was offended that "JFK's kid brother" would brashly urge him to stay off the ticket. In response to his blunt confrontation with Robert Kennedy, Johnson called JFK to confirm that the vice-presidential nomination was his; JFK clearly stated that he wanted Johnson as his running mate. Johnson and Robert Kennedy became so embittered by the experience that they began a fierce personal and political feud that would have grave implications for the Democratic Party in the 1960s. Despite the reservations Robert Kennedy had about Johnson's nomination, the move proved to be a masterstroke for his older brother. Johnson vigorously campaigned for JFK and was instrumental in helping the Democrats to carry several Southern states skeptical of Kennedy, especially Johnson's home state of Texas.

John F. Kennedy	06
Lyndon Johnson	09
Stuart Symington	6
Adlai Stevenson	9.5
Robert B. Meyner	3
Hubert Humphrey	1
George A. Smathers	0
Ross Barnett	3
Herschel Loveless
Pat Brown
Orval Faubus
Albert Rosellini

General election

The fall campaign

Both Kennedy and Nixon drew large and enthusiastic crowds throughout the campaign. In August 1960 most polls gave Vice-President Nixon a slim lead over Kennedy, and many political pundits regarded Nixon as the favorite to win. However, Nixon was plagued by bad luck throughout the fall campaign. In August President Eisenhower, who had long been ambivalent about Nixon, held a televised press conference in which a reporter mentioned Nixon's claims that he'd been a valuable administration insider and advisor. The reporter asked Eisenhower if he could think of any Nixon advice or suggestions that he'd heeded. Eisenhower responded with the flip comment that "if you give me a week I might think of one." Although both Eisenhower and Nixon later claimed that Ike was merely joking with the reporter, the remark hurt Nixon, as it undercut his claims of having greater decision-making experience than Kennedy. The remark proved so damaging to Nixon that the Democrats turned Eisenhower's statement into a television commercial criticizing Nixon. At the Republican Convention Nixon had pledged to campaign in all fifty states. This pledge backfired when, in August, Nixon injured his knee on a car door while campaigning in North Carolina; the knee became infected and Nixon had to cease campaigning for two weeks while the infected knee was injected with antibiotics. When he left Walter Reed Hospital Nixon refused to abandon his pledge to visit every state; he thus wound up wasting valuable time visiting states that he'd no chance to win, or which had few electoral votes and would be of little help in the election.
The key turning point of the campaign were the four Kennedy-Nixon debates; they were the first presidential debates held on television. Nixon insisted on campaigning until just a few hours before the first debate started; he hadn't completely recovered from his hospital stay and thus looked haggard, sickly, underweight, and tired. He also refused makeup for the first debate, and as a result his beard stubble showed prominently on the era's black-and-white TV screens. Nixon's poor appearance on television in the first debate is reflected by the fact that his mother called him immediately following the debate to ask if he was sick. Kennedy, by contrast, rested before the first debate and appeared tanned, confident, and relaxed during the debate. An estimated 80 million viewers watched the first debate. After it had ended polls showed Kennedy moving from a slight deficit into a slight lead over Nixon. For the remaining three debates Nixon regained his lost weight, wore television makeup, and appeared more forceful than his initial appearance. However, the audience for the remaining three debates wasn't as large as for the first debate, with viewership decreasing by 20% after the initial debate.
A key factor which hurt Kennedy in the campaign was the widespread prejudice against his Roman Catholic religion; some Protestants believed that, if he were elected President, Kennedy would have to take orders from the Pope in Rome. In September 1960 Kennedy gave a well-received speech before a meeting of Protestant ministers in Houston, Texas; in the speech Kennedy promised to obey the separation of church and state and to not allow Catholic officials to dictate public policy to him. Even so, it was widely believed after the election that Kennedy lost some heavily Protestant states because of his Catholicism. As the campaign moved into the final two weeks the polls and most political pundits predicted a Kennedy victory. However, President Eisenhower, who had largely sat out the campaign, made a vigorous campaign tour for Nixon over the last ten days before the election. Eisenhower's support gave Nixon a badly needed boost, and by election day the polls showed a virtual tie.

Results

The election on November 8 remains one of the most famous election nights in American history. As the early returns poured in from large Northern and Midwestern cities such as Boston, New York City, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Detroit, and Chicago, Kennedy opened a large lead in the popular and electoral vote, and appeared headed for victory. However, as later returns came in from the Western states and rural and suburban areas in the Midwest, Nixon began to steadily close the gap with Kennedy. It wasn't until the afternoon of Wednesday, November 9 that Nixon finally conceded the election and Kennedy claimed victory. A sample of how close the election was can be seen in California; Kennedy appeared to have carried the state by 37,000 votes when all of the voting precincts reported, but when the absentee ballots were counted a week later, Nixon came from behind to win the state by 36,000 votes. In the national popular vote Kennedy beat Nixon by just one tenth of one percentage point (0.1%) - the closest popular-vote margin of the twentieth century. In the electoral college Kennedy's victory was larger, as he took 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219 (269 were needed to win). Kennedy carried 11 states by three percentage points or less, while Nixon won 5 states by the same margin. Kennedy carried all but three states in the populous Northeastern US, and he also carried the large states of Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri in the Midwest. With Lyndon Johnson's help he also carried most of the South, including the large states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. Nixon carried all but three of the Western states, and he ran strong in the farm belt states, where his biggest victory was Ohio. The New York Times, summarizing the discussion late in November, spoke of a “narrow consensus” among the experts that Kennedy had won more than he lost as a result of his Catholicism. Interviewing people who voted in both 1956 and 1960, a University of Michigan team analyzing the election returns discovered that people who voted Democratic in 1956 split 33–6 for Kennedy, while the Republican voters of 1956 split 44–17 for Nixon. That is, Nixon lost 28% (17/61) of the Eisenhower voters, while Kennedy lost only 15% of the Stevenson voters. The Democrats, in other words, did a better job of holding their base than the Republicans by a razor-thin margin.

Controversies

Some Republicans and historians have alleged that Kennedy benefited from vote fraud, especially in Texas and Illinois, and that Nixon actually won the national popular vote despite the fact that Republicans tried and failed to overturn the results in both these states at the time--as well as in nine other states. These two states are important because if Nixon had carried both, he'd have won the election in the electoral college.
   Kennedy won Illinois by a bare 9,000 votes, even though Nixon carried 92 of the state's 101 counties. Kennedy's victory in Illinois came from the city of Chicago, where Mayor Richard J. Daley held back much of Chicago's vote until the late morning hours of November 9. The efforts of Daley and the powerful Chicago Democratic organization gave Kennedy an extraordinary Cook County victory margin of 450,000 votes --- more than 10% of Chicago's 1960 population of 3.55 million --- thus (barely) overcoming the heavy Republican vote in the rest of Illinois. Earl Mazo, a reporter for the pro-Nixon New York Herald Tribune, investigated the voting in Chicago and claimed to have discovered sufficient evidence of vote fraud to prove that the state was "stolen" for Kennedy.
   In Texas, some Republicans argued that the formidable political machine of Lyndon B. Johnson had stolen enough votes in counties along the Mexican border to give Kennedy the victory there.
   Certain Republican party leaders were said to have urged Nixon to pursue recounts and challenge the validity of some votes for Kennedy, especially in the pivotal states of Illinois, Missouri and New Jersey, where large majorities in Catholic precincts handed Kennedy the election. Nixon publicly refused to call for a recount, saying it would cause a constitutional crisis; he also convinced Mazo and the Herald Tribune to not print any stories suggesting that the election had been stolen by the Democrats. Privately, however, Nixon encouraged Republican National Chairman Thruston Morton to push for a recount, which Morton did in 11 states, keeping challenges in the courts into the summer of 1961; the only result was the loss of the State of Hawaii to Kennedy on a recount petitioned by the Kennedy campaign.
   Kennedy partisans, such as historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., have argued that Kennedy's margin in Texas (46,000 votes) was simply too large for vote fraud to have been a decisive factor; in Illinois Schlesinger and others have pointed out that even if Nixon carried Illinois, the state alone wouldn't have given him the victory, as Kennedy would still have won 276 electoral votes to Nixon's 246 (with 269 needed to win). More to the point, Illinois was the site of the most extensive challenge process, which fell short despite repeated efforts spearheaded by Cook County state's attorney, Benjamin Adamowski, a Republican, who also lost his re-election bid. Despite demonstrating net errors favoring both Nixon and Adamowski (some precincts--40% in Nixon's case--showed errors favoring them, a factor suggesting error, rather than fraud), the totals found fell short of reversing the results for either candidate. The Republican-dominated State Board of Elections unanimously rejected the challenge to the results. Furthermore, there were signs of possible irregularities in downstate areas controlled by Republicans, which Democrats never seriously pressed, since the Republican challenges went nowhere.

Alabama popular vote

The actual number of popular votes received by Kennedy in Alabama is difficult to determine because of the unusual situation in that state. The first, minor issue is that, instead of having the voters choose from slates of electors, the Alabama ballot had voters choose the electors individually. Traditionally, in such a situation, a given candidate is assigned the popular vote of the elector who received the most votes. For instance, candidates pledged to Nixon received anywhere from 230,951 votes (for George Witcher) to 237,981 votes (for Cecil Durham); Nixon is therefore assigned 237,981 popular votes from Alabama.
The more important issue is that the statewide Democratic primary had chosen eleven candidates for the Electoral College, five of whom were pledged to vote for Kennedy, and six of whom were free to vote for anyone they chose. All of these candidates won, and the six unpledged electors voted against Kennedy. The actual number of popular votes received by Kennedy is therefore difficult to allocate. Traditionally, Kennedy is assigned either 318,303 votes (the votes won by the most popular Kennedy elector) or 324,050 votes (the votes won by the most popular Democratic elector); indeed, the results table below is based on Kennedy winning 318,303 votes in Alabama. However, if any reasonable attempt is made to allocate the popular vote between Kennedy electors and unpledged electors, a plurality of the national popular vote goes to Nixon instead of Kennedy. For instance, if the 324,050 votes mentioned above were split 5 for Kennedy to 6 for unpledged electors, Kennedy would receive 147,295 votes in Alabama for a national popular vote of 34,049,976. In such a scenario, the unpledged Democratic electors would receive 463,113 popular votes: 286,359 from Mississippi and 176,754 from Alabama.
Even taking the Alabama totals alone and the vote counts for the other 49 states, Nixon has a 58,181-vote plurality, edging out Kennedy 34,108,157 votes to 34,049,976. Using this calculation without even taking into consideration the alleged occurrences of vote fraud, the 1960 election was even closer than previously thought.

Georgia popular vote

The actual number of popular votes received by Kennedy and Nixon in Georgia is also difficult to determine because voters voted for 12 separate electors. The vote totals of 458,638 votes for Kennedy and 274,472 votes for Nixon reflect the number of votes for the Kennedy and Nixon electors who received the highest number of votes. However, the Republican and Democratic electors receiving the highest number of votes were outliers from the other 11 electors from their party. The average vote totals for the 12 electors were 455,629 votes for the Democratic electors and 273,110 votes for the Republican electors. This shrinks Kennedy's election margin in Georgia by 1,647 votes to 182,519.

Unpledged Democratic electors

Many Southern Democrats were opposed to the national Democratic Party's platform on supporting civil rights and voting rights for African-Americans living in the South. Both before and after the convention, they attempted to put unpledged Democratic electors on their states' ballots in the hopes of influencing the race: the existence of such electors might influence which candidate would be chosen by the national convention, and, in a close race, such electors might be in a position to extract concessions from either the Democratic or Republican presidential candidates in return for their electoral votes.
   Most of these attempts failed. Alabama put up a mixed slate of five loyal electors and six unpledged electors. Mississippi put up two distinct slates, one of loyalists and one of unpledged electors. Louisiana also put up two distinct slates, although the unpledged slate didn't receive the “Democratic” label. Georgia freed its Democratic electors from pledges to vote for Kennedy, but popular Governor Ernest Vandiver, a candidate for elector himself, publicly backed Kennedy.
   In total, fourteen unpledged Democratic electors won election from the voters. Because electors pledged to Kennedy had won a clear majority of the Electoral College, the unpledged electors couldn't influence the results. Nonetheless, they refused to vote for Kennedy. Instead they voted for Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd, a conservative Democrat, even though Byrd wasn't an announced candidate and didn't seek their votes. (Byrd also received 1 electoral vote from Oklahoma, for a total of 15.)


There were 537 electoral votes, up from 531 in 1956, because of the addition of 2 U.S. Senators and 1 U.S. Representative from the new states of Alaska and Hawaii. (The House of Representatives was temporarily expanded from 435 members to 437 to accommodate this, and would go back to 435 when reapportioned according to the 1960 census.) Source (Popular Vote): Note: Sullivan / Curtis run only in Texas. In Washington, Constitution Party run Curtis for President and B. N. Miller for vice-president, receiving 1,401 votes. Source (Electoral Vote):

Close states

Hawaii, 0.06%

Illinois, 0.19%

Missouri, 0.52%

California, 0.55%

New Jersey, 0.80%

New Mexico, 0.74%

Minnesota, 1.43%

Delaware, 1.64%

Alaska, 1.8%

Texas, 2.00%

Michigan, 2.01%

Nevada, 2.32%

Pennsylvania, 2.32%

Washington, 2.41%

South Carolina, 2.48%

Montana, 2.50%

Mississippi, 2.64%

Florida, 3.03%

Wisconsin, 3.72%

North Carolina, 4.22%

New York, 5.26%

Oregon, 5.24%

Virginia, 5.47%

West Virginia, 5.47%

Ohio, 6.57%

New Hampshire, 6.84%

Arkansas, 7.13%

Tennessee, 7.14%

Kentucky, 7.18%

Maryland, 7.23%

Connecticut, 7.46%

Idaho, 7.57%

Utah, 9.64%

Colorado, 9.73% ^(a) This figure is problematic; see Alabama popular vote above.
^(b) Byrd wasn't directly on the ballot. Instead, his electoral votes came from unpledged Democratic electors and a faithless elector.
^(c) Oklahoma faithless elector Henry D. Irwin, though pledged to vote for Richard Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., instead voted for independent Harry F. Byrd. However, unlike other electors who voted for Byrd and Strom Thurmond as Vice President, Irwin voted for Barry Goldwater as Vice President.
^(d) In Mississippi, the slate of unpledged Democratic electors won. They cast their 8 votes for Byrd and Thurmond.Further Information

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