Presidential election in the United States in 1960

‹  1956  •   •  1964 ›
44th presidential election
November 8, 1960
			Democratic Party
			John F. Kennedy / Lyndon B. Johnson
			electors					303
			be right				34.220.984
									49.7%
			Republican Party
			Richard Nixon / Henry Cabot Lodge
			electors					219
			be right				34.108.157
									49.6%
Election results by state
23 states   Kennedy / Johnson						26 states   Nixon / Lodge
President of the United States
Before the election Dwight Eisenhower Republican Party						Elected John F. Kennedy Democratic Party

The 1960 US presidential election marked the end of Dwight D. Eisenhower's eight-year presidency . Eisenhower's deputy Richard Nixon , of the Office of the Vice President had given the first time political weight, was the undisputed candidate of the Republicans after the only potential rival, Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York , had renounced his candidacy. The Democrats nominated the senator from Massachusetts , John F. Kennedy . In the election on November 8, 1960 , Kennedy then managed a narrow victory over Nixon.

Candidates

republican

Richard Nixon, who had made the office of vice president politically relevant for the past four years, won the Republican nomination. Republicans had been a minority in Congress for six years, which gave the Democrats an advantage.

• 

  Vice President Richard Nixon of California

• 

  Governor Nelson Rockefeller , New York

• 

  Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona

In addition, Barry Goldwater , a US Senator from Arizona and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in the election four years later, ran.

After the ratification of the 22nd Amendment in 1951, President Eisenhower could not run again for election. He was elected in 1952 and confirmed in 1956. In 1960 he continued to be extremely popular, and many historians believe that if he had run for a third term, he would have beaten every other candidate, including Kennedy.

In 1959, it looked like the previous Vice President Richard Nixon would have a serious challenger in New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The governor was the leader of the moderate-liberal wing of the Republicans. However, after touring the US, he withdrew his candidacy after it became clear that the vast majority of Republicans would vote for Nixon. Although he declared that he would be available in the event of a "call" from the party congress, this never took place. After Rockefeller's withdrawal, there was no longer any serious candidacy for Nixon. At the 1960 Republican Convention in Chicago , Nixon was voted presidential nominee by an overwhelming majority - Conservative Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona got 10 votes. Nixon took the former Senator for Massachusetts and Ambassador to the United Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge junior , as vice on his ticket .

Democrats

The following Democratic politicians were candidates for the 1960 presidential election. With the exception of Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Stuart Symington and Adlai Stevenson, all other candidates had no realistic chance of being nominated.

• 

  Senator John F. Kennedy , Massachusetts

• 

  Senate majority leader Lyndon B. Johnson , Texas

• 

  Senator Hubert H. Humphrey , Minnesota

• 

  Former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois

• 

  Senator Wayne Morse from Oregon

• 

  Senator George Smathers from Florida

• 

  Senator Stuart Symington from Missouri

It also competed Ross Barnett , the governor of Mississippi , which California Governor Pat Brown , Michael DiSalle , Governor of Ohio , Paul C. Fisher , a businessman from Pennsylvania , and New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner .

Initially, some previous party leaders, including ex-President Harry S. Truman , tried to convince Kennedy that he was too young and inexperienced to be president; they wanted to persuade him to make himself available as a running mate at the side of a more experienced democrat. Kennedy saw through this tactic of his critics, who wanted to portray him as a lightweight, and made it unmistakably clear: "I am not running for the office of Vice President - I want to be President."

A far bigger problem for Kennedy was the fact that he was Catholic. One remembered the Democratic - and also Catholic - candidate Alfred E. Smith , who entered the race for the presidency in 1928 and clearly lost. Smith had fallen victim to anti-Catholic polemics at the time.

Many wondered whether prejudice about his religion would reduce Kennedy's chances of being nominated and elected.

To prove his eligibility, Kennedy challenged Hubert Humphrey, a Liberal Senator from Minnesota, in the Wisconsin Primarys . Although Kennedy defeated Humphrey in Wisconsin, big-party officials still doubted that he would have enough appeal to non-Catholic voters, since his victory came largely in predominantly Catholic areas.

The next election campaign, which both opponents fought, took place in predominantly Protestant West Virginia , in which there was great skepticism towards everything Catholic - so it was said. The Humphrey campaign could no longer draw financially from the full and therefore could not keep up with the better organized and financially strong Kennedy team. Kennedy had his handsome siblings heavily involved in his election campaign, prompting Humphrey to say he "feels like an independent merchant going up against a retail chain."

Kennedy won the state landslide in the primary with over 60% of the votes cast. Then, Humphrey left the race and Kennedy had got the victory he needed to convince the party that a Catholic can win in a non-Catholic state. In the months leading up to the Democratic Convention, Kennedy traveled around the country trying to convince delegates from different states to support him. Even so, at the start of the convention, Kennedy was missing a few dozen votes to be chosen as the Democratic Party candidate.

States won in the primaries:

• From Kennedy : Illinois , Indiana , Maryland , Massachusetts (home state), New Hampshire , Nebraska , Pennsylvania , Oregon , West Virginia , Wisconsin
• from Humphrey : South Dakota , District of Columbia
• by Brown : California (home state)
• from Smathers : Florida (home state)
• from DiSalle : Ohio (home state)

Democratic nomination convention

The Democratic nomination convention was held in Los Angeles from July 11-15, 1960 . In the week before the party conference, Kennedy got two new challengers with Lyndon B. Johnson , the powerful majority leader in the US Senate, who came from Texas , and Adlai Stevenson , who had been nominated in 1952 and 1956, but had clearly lost to Eisenhower both times . Ultimately, however, neither Johnson nor Stevenson presented much of a challenge to the talented and highly efficient Kennedy campaign team, led by Robert Kennedy .

Johnson suggested that Kennedy have a televised debate before the two delegations from Texas and Massachusetts; Kennedy accepted the offer. Most observers felt that Kennedy eventually won the debate and that Johnson could not expand his support beyond the south. Stevenson was popular among many liberal delegates - especially among Californian ones - but his two bitter defeats in 1952 and 1956 caused the party to look for a "new face" that was given a higher chance of winning the elections.

Kennedy won the nomination in the first round. Immediately afterwards, Johnson was asked by Kennedy if he wanted to be his vice president - a move that surprised many. To date, there has been much debate over the details of Johnson's nomination - why it was offered to him and why he accepted it.

Some historians speculate that Kennedy originally wanted someone else (such as Senator Stuart Symington or Scoop Jackson ) and that he was the first to offer Johnson the vice presidency just out of courtesy to the powerful Senate majority leader. According to this theory, Kennedy himself was surprised when Johnson accepted second place on the Democratic ticket.

Another story is told as follows: Robert Kennedy, after accepting the offer, tried to dissuade Johnson from being a runner-up for the presidency. Johnson was attacked by JFK's little brother so brazenly trying to prevent him from running as runner-up. In response to this blunt confrontation with Robert Kennedy, Johnson called Kennedy and confirmed that he was the vice-presidential candidate; For its part, JFK made this clear as well. Johnson and Robert Kennedy became bitter opponents as a result of this incident, who fought a harsh personal and political confrontation for most of the 1960s that had a serious impact on the Democrats.

Despite Robert Kennedy's reservations about a Johnson nomination, the move turned out to be a masterly one for his older brother. Johnson campaigned with verve for JFK and was primarily responsible for the Democrats winning several southern states that were actually skeptical of Kennedy, especially Johnson's home state of Texas.

The result of the convention

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

* Senator Harry F. Byrd was brought into play by Kennedy's internal party opponents, he himself did not run. He won 15 electoral votes, all of which came from so-called unfaithful electors .

Election campaign

Kennedy was the second Catholic ever to run for the highest office in the state; In 1928 the Democrat and avowed Catholic Al Smith ran for president in vain. During the election campaign, Kennedy Eisenhower and the Republicans attacked: America would fall behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War - economically and militarily - and as President he would bring America forward again. Nixon replied that if elected he would continue the policy of peace and prosperity that had shaped Eisenhower and that Kennedy was too young and inexperienced to offer the presidency during the Cold War.

Result

The election took place on November 8, 1960. In terms of the popular vote , Kennedy's lead was only 0.1 percent, which corresponded to about 112,000 votes. It was one of the narrowest leads in the history of the American presidential election, as well as the smallest lead in any election in the 20th century. In the electoral committee , Kennedy's lead was clearer: the states with a majority vote for him provided 303 electors, Nixon had been able to unite 219 (270 were necessary to win). Kennedy surprisingly managed to win in several southern states , including populous Texas . His victory in that state is largely attributed to his Texas vice-presidential candidate Lyndon B. Johnson. However, with Kennedy and Johnson's support for the civil rights movement, support for Democratic presidential candidates in the southern states continued to wane in the years that followed.

The 1960 election continues to be the subject of debate among historians as to how irregular voting in some states may have made Kennedy's victory possible. In this election, Alaska and Hawaii , which had been admitted to the United States as states on January 3 and August 21, 1959, were allowed to participate for the first time .

In 20 states (which had a total of 256 electors), the difference between first and second was less than five percent:

1. Hawaii , 0.06%
2. Illinois , 0.19%
3. Missouri , 0.52%
4. California , 0.55%
5. New Mexico , 0.74%
6. New Jersey , 0.80%
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%

There was a difference of between 5% and 10% in states with a total of 160 electoral votes:

1. Oregon , 5.24%
2. New York , 5.26%
3. West Virginia , 5.46%
4. Virginia , 5.47%
5. Ohio , 6.56%
6. New Hampshire , 6.84%
7. Arkansas , 7.13%
8. Tennessee , 7.15%
9. Kentucky , 7.18%
10. Maryland , 7.22%
11. Connecticut , 7.46%
12. Idaho , 7.56%
13. Utah , 9.64%
14. Colorado , 9.73%

Movies

• John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon . USA 2016, 41-minute documentary (CNN) by Christopher Spencer for the series Race for the White House .

literature

• Donald Richard Deskins, Hanes Walton, Sherman C. Puckett: Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2010, ISBN 978-0-472-11697-3 , pp. 417-427 (= Chapter 46: John F. Kennedy's Election. ).
• Shaun A. Casey: The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960 . Oxford University Press, New York City 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-537448-3 .
• WJ Rorabaugh: The Real Making of the President: Kennedy, Nixon, and the 1960 Election . University Press of Kansas, Lawrence (KA) 2009, ISBN 978-0-7006-1639-8 .
• Gary Donaldson: The First Modern Campaign: Kennedy, Nixon, and the Election of 1960 . Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham (MD) 2007, ISBN 978-0-7425-4799-5 .
• Theodore H. White: The making of the president 1960 . Atheneum Publishers, New York 1961, LCCN  61-009259 , (awarded the Pulitzer Prize ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robert A. Slayton: Empire Statesman. The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. Free Press, New York NY et al. 2001, ISBN 0-684-86302-2 , p. 304.
2. ^ Arthur Schlesinger Jr .: O'Connor, Vaughan, Cuomo, Al Smith, JFK - The New York Times . February 2, 1990. Retrieved May 19, 2009. 

Web links

Commons : 1960 US Presidential Election  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files