John Wayne

United States presidential election, 1960

November 8,1960

Nominee John F. Kennedy Richard Nixon Party Democratic Republican Home state Massachusetts California Running mate Lyndon B. Johnson Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. Electoral vote 303 219 States carried 22 26 Popular vote 34,220,984 34,108,157 Percentage 49.7% 49.6%

Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Kennedy/Johnson, Red denotes those won by Nixon/Lodge. Orange denotes the electoral votes for Harry F. Byrd by Alabama and Mississippi unpledged electors, and an Oklahoma "faithless elector". Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President John F. Kennedy Democratic

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 would "get America moving again." Nixon responded that, if elected, he would 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. This was also the first election in which Alaska and Hawaii were included in the election, having been granted statehood on January 3 and August 21 of the previous year.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic candidates

• John F. Kennedy, U.S. senator from Massachusetts
• Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. Senate Majority Leader from Texas
• Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. senator from Minnesota
• Adlai E. Stevenson, former U.S. governor of Illinois
• Stuart Symington, U.S. senator from Missouri

Candidates gallery

• 
  Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts
• 
  Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas
• 
  Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota
• 
  Former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
• 
  Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri

A number of political leaders were candidates for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. However, with the exceptions of Kennedy, Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri and former Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, the rest of the presidential hopefuls were regional "favorite son" candidates without any realistic chance of winning the nomination.

Kennedy was initially dogged by suggestions from some Democratic Party elders (such as former President Harry Truman, who was supporting Symington) 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."

1960 Democratic primaries results

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 could not 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." Kennedy followed a strong performance in the first primary debate of 1960 by soundly defeating 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. Just before the convention, Kennedy held a debate with Lyndon Johnson; this second primary debate was generally seen as a Kennedy victory which pushed other Northern Democrats out of contention.

Republican Party nomination

Republican candidates

• Richard M. Nixon, U.S. vice president from California
• Nelson Rockefeller, U.S. governor of New York
• Barry Goldwater, U.S. senator from Arizona

Candidates gallery

• 
  Vice President Richard Nixon of California
• 
  Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York
• Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona
  Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona

With the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951 President Eisenhower could not run for the office of President again; he had 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 would have defeated any of the major Democratic candidates, including Kennedy. However, Eisenhower's health issues and desire to retire meant he likely would not have run again even if he could have done so.

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 would not 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. Nixon chose Lodge because his foreign-policy credentials fit into Nixon's strategy to campaign more on foreign policy than domestic policy, which he believed favored the Democrats.

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 was not 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 is 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.

The presidential tally

John F. Kennedy	806
Lyndon Johnson	409
Stuart Symington	86
Adlai Stevenson	79.5
Robert B. Meyner	43
Hubert Humphrey	41
George A. Smathers	30
Ross Barnett	23
Herschel Loveless	2
Pat Brown	1
Orval Faubus	1
Albert Rosellini	1

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 had been a valuable administration insider and advisor. The reporter asked Eisenhower if he could think of any Nixon advice or suggestions that he had 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 had no chance to win, or which had few electoral votes and would be of little help in the election. For example, in his effort to visit all fifty states Nixon spent the vital weekend before the election campaigning in Alaska, which had only three electoral votes, while Kennedy campaigned in large states such as New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

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 had not completely recovered from his hospital stay and thus looked pale, sickly, underweight, and tired. He also refused makeup for the first debate, claiming it was not masculine enough, 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. Most people who watched the debate on TV believed Kennedy had won while radio listeners (a smaller audience) believed Nixon had won. 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, up to 20 million fewer viewers watched the three remaining debates than the first debate. Political observers at the time believed that Kennedy won the first debate, Nixon won the second and third debates, and that the fourth debate, which was seen as the strongest performance by both men, was a draw.

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. However, Kennedy's campaign did take advantage of an opening when the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the civil-rights leader, was arrested in Georgia while leading a civil rights march. Nixon refused to become involved in the incident, but Kennedy placed calls to local political authorities to get King released from jail, and he also called King's father and wife. As a result, King's father endorsed Kennedy and he received much favorable publicity in the black community. On election day Kennedy won the black vote in most areas by wide margins, and this may have provided his margin of victory in states such as New Jersey, South Carolina, Illinois, and Missouri. 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 was not 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, as Northern Catholics flocked to Kennedy because of attacks on his religion. 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 1956 supporters.

Notably, Kennedy was the last candidate to win the presidency without carrying Ohio and was the only non-incumbent in the 20th century to do so.

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 would have won the election in the electoral college.

Kennedy won Illinois by less than 9,000 votes out of 4.75 million cast, 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, Kennedy defeated Nixon by a narrow 51% to 49% margin. 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's defenders, 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 would not 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.

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 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 did not 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 could not 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 was not an announced candidate and did not seek their votes (Byrd also received 1 electoral vote from Oklahoma, for a total of 15).

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
John Fitzgerald Kennedy	Democratic	Massachusetts	34,220,984(a)	49.7%	303	Lyndon Baines Johnson	Texas	303
Richard Milhous Nixon	Republican	California	34,108,157	49.5%	219	Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.	Massachusetts	219
Harry Flood Byrd	(none)	Virginia	—(b)	—(b)	15	James Strom Thurmond	South Carolina	14
						Barry Morris Goldwater(c)	Arizona	1(c)
(unpledged electors)	Democratic	(n/a)	286,359	0.4%	—(d)	(n/a)	(n/a)	—(d)
Orval Faubus	States' Rights	Arkansas	44,984	0.1%	0	John G. Crommelin	Alabama	0
Charles Sullivan	Constitution	Mississippi	(TX) 18,162	0.0%	0	Merritt Curtis	California	0
Other			216,982	0.3%	—	Other		—
Total			68,895,628	100%	537			537
Needed to win					269			269

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): Leip, David. "1960 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 7, 2008. 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): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 2, 2005.

Close states

1. Hawaii, 0.06%
2. Illinois, 0.19%
3. Missouri, 0.52%
4. California, 0.55%
5. New Jersey, 0.80%
6. New Mexico, 0.74%
7. Minnesota, 1.43%
8. Delaware, 1.64%
9. Alaska, 1.88%
10. Texas, 2.00%
11. Michigan, 2.01%
12. Nevada, 2.32%
13. Pennsylvania, 2.32%
14. Washington, 2.41%
15. South Carolina, 2.48%
16. Montana, 2.50%
17. Mississippi, 2.64%
18. Florida, 3.03%
19. Wisconsin, 3.72%
20. North Carolina, 4.22%
21. New York, 5.26%
22. Oregon, 5.24%
23. Virginia, 5.47%
24. West Virginia, 5.47%
25. Ohio, 6.57%
26. New Hampshire, 6.84%
27. Arkansas, 7.13%
28. Tennessee, 7.14%
29. Kentucky, 7.18%
30. Maryland, 7.23%
31. Connecticut, 7.46%
32. Idaho, 7.57%
33. Utah, 9.64%
34. Colorado, 9.73%

^(a) This figure is problematic; see Alabama popular vote above.
^(b) Byrd was not 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 non-candidate 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.

See also

• Canada and the 1960 United States presidential election
• History of the United States (1945–1964)
• United States Senate election, 1960

Further reading

• Alexander, Herbert E. (1962). Financing the 1960 Election.
• Campbell, Angus; et al. (1966). Elections and the Political Order, statistical studies of poll data
• Dallek, Robert Gold (1991). "Chapter 16: The Making of a Vice President". Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1908–1960.
• Divine, Robert A. Foreign Policy and U.S. Presidential Elections, 1952-1960 1974.
• Fuchs, Lawrence H. (1967). John F. Kennedy and American Catholicism.
• Gallup, George H., ed. The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935-1971. 3 vols. Random House, 1972. press releases
• Ingle, H. Larry, "Billy Graham: The Evangelical in Politics, 1960s-Style," in Peter Bien and Chuck Fager, In Stillness there is Fullness: A Peacemaker's Harvest, Kimo Press.
• Kallina, Edmund F. (1988). Courthouse Over White House: Chicago and the Presidential Election of 1960.
• Kraus, Sidney (1977). The Great Debates: Kennedy vs. Nixon, 1960.
• Lisle, T. David (1988). "Southern Baptists and the Issue of Catholic Autonomy in the 1960 Presidential Campaign". In Paul Harper and Joann P. Krieg, ed. (ed.). John F. Kennedy: The Promise Revisited. pp. 273–285. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
• Nixon, Richard M. (1978). RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon.
• White, Theodore H. (1961). The Making of the President, 1960.

External links

• 1960 popular vote by counties
• 1960 popular vote by states
• 1960 popular vote by states (with bar graphs)
• Gallery of 1960 Election Posters/Buttons
• How close was the 1960 election? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University