how close was the 1960 election

He talked of how Kennedy would be elected if "the present trend continues". However, he later served as Gerald Ford's vice president from 1974 to 1977. The men appeared to be in the same room, thanks to identical sets. Instead, they voted for Byrd, even though he was not an announced candidate and did not seek their votes. He never faced any serious opposition. [88] The vote totals of 458,638 for Kennedy and 274,472 for Nixon reflect the number of votes for the Kennedy and Nixon electors who received the highest number of votes. Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon, who had transformed his office into a national political base, was the Republican candidate, whereas the Democrats nominated Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. The Election of the Century - Brookings For the results of the previous election, see United States presidential election of 1956. . Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote, Democratic presidential election results by county, Republican presidential election results by county, Unpledged electors presidential election results by county, "Other" presidential election results by county, Cartogram of presidential election results by county, Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county, Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county, Cartogram of unpledged electors presidential election results by county, Cartogram of "Other" presidential election results by county. [69] He claimed to have found cases of Republican voter fraud in southern Illinois, but said that the totals "did not match the Chicago fraud he found. Kennedy won easily and was especially strong in Milwaukee and other areas where there were large numbers of Catholic voters. [65] As the campaign moved into the final two weeks, the polls and most political pundits predicted a Kennedy victory. Nevertheless, Kennedy won the nomination on the first ballot, with 806 votes. West Virginia showed that Kennedy, a Catholic, could win in a heavily Protestant state. Most observers believed that Kennedy won the debate, and Johnson was unable to expand his delegate support beyond the South. 1960 United States elections - Wikipedia The New York Times, summarizing the discussion in late November, spoke of a "narrow consensus" among the experts that Kennedy had won more than he lost "as a result of his Catholicism",[78] as Northern Catholics flocked to Kennedy because of attacks on his religion. [61], The issue that dominated the election was the rising Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. [11] O'Donnell remembers being angry at what he considered a betrayal by John Kennedy, who had previously cast Johnson as anti-labor and anti-liberal. Acting Governor James Kealoha certified the Republican electors, and they cast Hawaii's three electoral votes for Nixon. Among them was a pledge, made without approval, that Nixon would name at least one African American to a Cabinet post. Kennedy is provided the popular votes of the highest-voted Alabama elector to uphold their pledge to him in the Electoral College, while the unpledged slate's popular vote is determined by subtracting Kennedy's popular votes from the highest-voted anti-Kennedy elector. Richard M. Nixon. Many of Nixon's stump speeches were filled with folksy homilies that resonated with rural and small town Americans, but were distasteful to the elitist D.C. reporters. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil-rights leader, was arrested in Georgia while taking part in a sit-in. "[60] 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. The Democratic voters of Alabama were faced with voting multiple individual electors in a singular slate that featured both pledged and unpledged electors. [11] Robert F. Kennedy, who hated Johnson for his attacks on the Kennedy family, and who favored labor leader Walter Reuther,[12] later said that his brother offered the position to Johnson as a courtesy and did not predict him to accept it. In the midst of all these trials and tribulations, Nixon - in a reversal of the 1960 election results - won a close election over Humphrey in the Electoral College - 301 to 191. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). He defeated Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson on the first presidential ballot of the 1960 Democratic National Convention, and asked Johnson to serve as his running mate. Not until 3:30am on November 9th, did John F. Kennedy pull himself away from the incoming results on television to . It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960. The 1946 House Elections | US House of Representatives: History, Art [62] Public opinion polls revealed that more than half the American people thought that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. [59] A member of Kennedy's civil rights team and King's friend, Harris Wofford, and other Kennedy campaign members passed out a pamphlet to black churchgoers the Sunday before the presidential election that said, ""No Comment" Nixon versus a Candidate with a Heart, Senator Kennedy. Johnson challenged Kennedy to a televised debate before a joint meeting of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations, to which Kennedy accepted. When he did accept Robert Kennedy tried to change Johnson's mind and failed. State voters chose 27 [2] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president . Kennedy's Roman Catholic religion was an issue. Johnson was needed on the ticket to help carry votes from Texas and the Southern United States. Al Smith of New York, who lost to Herbert Hoover in 1928). Despite this, Kennedy's popular vote margin was the second narrowest in presidential history, only surpassed by the 0.11% margin of the election of 1880 (notwithstanding the presidential elections where the winners lost the popular vote). ), During Kennedy's campaign, he relied on his youth and promised to bring about change. National Archives and Records Administration. Moreover, Nixon never led in Illinois, and Kennedy's lead merely shrank as election night went on.[82]. [4] Furthermore, the new votes that Kennedy, the first Roman Catholic president, gained among Catholics almost neutralized the new votes Nixon gained among Protestants. The average vote totals for the 12 electors were 455,629 for the Democratic electors, and 273,110 for the Republican electors. Nixon faced little opposition in the Republican race to succeed popular incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower. [69] Nixon gave a speech three days after the election, stating that he would not contest the election. The 1960 presidential election between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon is one of the most frequently described political events of the twentieth century, yet the accounts to date have been remarkably unbalanced. 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 336 for Kennedy, while the Republican voters of 1956 split 4417 for Nixon. [69] When Republicans demanded a statewide recount, they learned that the state Board of Elections, whose members were all Democrats, had already certified Kennedy as the winner. Warm Springs was near and dear to Kennedy's heart, due to the effects the facility had on Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kennedy won in twenty-seven of the thirty-nine largest cities, but lost in Southern cities that had voted for Adlai Stevenson II although he maintained Atlanta, New Orleans, and San Antonio. Although the debates were sometimes compared to the historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas (see also Lincoln-Douglas debates), they were more in the nature of joint press conferences, with reporters asking questions. Wallace finished third with 46 Electoral College votes. At 6:30a.m., Kennedy asked his brother to prepare an estimate of upcoming electoral votes, "including Texas". Kennedy had a slogan emphasizing his youth, reading, "who's seasoned through and through/but not so dog-gone seasoned that he won't try something new." The 2000 presidential election was one of the most contentious in American history and one of the closestjust days before the election, pollsters said it was too close to call. A total of 15 electors eight from Mississippi, six from Alabama, and one from Oklahoma all refused to vote for either Kennedy or Nixon, and instead cast their votes for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia, a conservative Democrat, even though he had not been a candidate for president. The 1960 election campaign was dominated by rising Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union. "[18] Although both Eisenhower and Nixon later claimed that he was merely joking with the reporter, the remark hurt Nixon, as it undercut his claims of having greater decision-making experience than Kennedy. Most of these attempts failed. The Alabama statewide Democratic primary had chosen 11 candidates for the Electoral College, five of whom were pledged to vote for Kennedy, but the other six of whom were unpledged and could therefore vote for anyone that they chose to be president. ", Cosman, Bernard. Many Southern Democrats were opposed to voting rights for African Americans living in the South. An unprecedented series of four television debates between the two nominees constituted the highlight of the campaign. In 1957, the Soviets launched Sputnik, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth. In his effort to visit all 50 states, Nixon spent the vital weekend before the election campaigning in Alaska, which had only three electoral votes, while Kennedy campaigned in more populous states such as New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. However, neither Johnson nor Stevenson was a match for the talented and highly efficient Kennedy campaign team led by Robert F. Kennedy. 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. What . However, clear discrepancies existed in the official electoral tabulations, and Democrats petitioned for a recount in Hawaii circuit court. From January until the West Virginia primary in May, Kennedy and Humphrey crisscrossed the country in quest of delegate votes for the Democratic convention. state total vote: kennedy: nixon: hass: unpledged: other: plurality: alabama: 570225: 324050 (58.8%) 237981 (41.7%)----8194 (1.4%) 86069 d alaska: 60762: 29809 (49.1%) The third method is to allocate the Democratic votes in Alabama between Kennedy electors and unpledged electors on a percentage basis, giving 5/11s of the 324,050 Democratic votes to Kennedy (which comes to 147,295 votes for Kennedy) and 6/11s of the 324,050 Democratic votes to unpledged electors (which comes to 176,755 votes for unpledged electors). Republicans tried, and failed, to overturn the results in both Illinois and Texas at the time, as well as in nine other states. Since then, the Republicans have won seven of the ten presidential elections and two of the Democratic party victories, in 1960 and 1976, were very close. This page was last edited on 23 June 2023, at 19:42. What It Was Really Like The Day John F. Kennedy Was - Grunge The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles, California. As such, this marked the first election in history in which a Republican candidate carried any of Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, or Idaho without winning the presidency, and the first time since statehood that Arizona backed any losing candidate in a presidential election. Nixon had previously sought Rockefeller as his running mate, but the governor had no ambitions to be vice president. In a closely contested election, Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy defeated the incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee. The legend of the stolen 1960 presidential election", "Was the 1960 Presidential Election Stolen? Nixon carried all but three of the Western states (including California), and he ran strong in the farm belt states, where his biggest victory was in Ohio. Retrieved August 2, 2005. Have Any U.S. Presidents Decided Not to Run For a Second Term? Although the charismatic young senator . [15], During the campaign, Kennedy charged that under Eisenhower and the Republicans, the nation had fallen behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, both militarily and economically, and that, as president, he would "get America moving again". 5 Remarkably Close U.S. Presidential Elections | Britannica Elections, 4th ed. Nixon also criticized Kennedy for stating that Quemoy and Matsu, two small islands off the coast of Communist China that were held by Nationalist Chinese forces based in Taiwan, were outside the treaty of protection the United States had signed with the Nationalist Chinese. Kennedy eked out a narrow victory in the popular vote, defeating Nixon by just under 117,000 votes. . Kennedy emphasized his youth, while Nixon focused heavily on his experience. 1960 United States presidential election - Wikipedia Kennedy won the election, but was assassinated in 1963 and succeeded by Johnson, who won election in 1964. All 11 of these Democratic candidates won in the general election in Alabama, from as low as 316,394 votes for Karl Harrison, to as high as 324,050 votes for Frank M. Dixon. He promised that the new Democratic administration would fully appreciate the importance of space accomplishments for the national security and international prestige of the United States. [51], To address fears among Protestants that his Roman Catholicism would impact his decision-making, Kennedy told the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960: "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. The Washington D.C. press corps, around 100 members, were largely liberal Democrats and by nature inclined to favor Kennedy, but Nixon often made things worse with his mutually antagonistic attitude towards them. Margin of victory less than 1% (95 electoral votes): Margin of victory less than 5% (161 electoral votes): Margin of victory over 5%, but under 10% (160 electoral votes): Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic), Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican), Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Other). Debunking the right's enduring myth: The truth about Richard Nixon and News reporters were puzzled, as it was not a formal concession speech. [72], An academic study in 1985[86] later analyzed the ballots of two disputed precincts in Chicago which were subject to a recount. (At 42 Theodore Roosevelt, who assumed the Presidency upon the assassination of United States President William McKinley 60 years previously, was (and remains) the youngest. [67], The election was held on November 8, 1960. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Lee, Eugene C., and William Buchanan. The remark proved so damaging to Nixon that the Democrats turned Eisenhower's statement into a television commercial.[19]. In his acceptance speech, Kennedy said the American people needed to be prepared to sacrifice in the years ahead. Had Nixon been elected, at 48 years, 11 days, he would have been the fourth-youngest president at the date of inauguration. Kennedy narrowly defeats Nixon, Nov. 8, 1960 - POLITICO The Republican national chairman at the time, Thruston Ballard Morton, regarded the African-American vote as the single most crucial factor. [5] Nixon's advantages came from Eisenhower's popularity, as well as the economic prosperity of the past eight years. Nixon v. Kennedy - 1960 Not many elections in US history come closer than Richard Nixon v. John F. Kennedy (JFK). [13], Biographers Robert Caro and W. Marvin Watson offer a different perspective: They write that the Kennedy campaign was desperate to win what was forecast to be a very close race against Nixon and Lodge. [21] Kennedy discussed his six-point plan for health care. In August, President Eisenhower, who had long been ambivalent about Nixon, held a televised press conference in which a reporter, Charles Mohr of Time, mentioned Nixon's claims that he had been a valuable administration insider and adviser. "The Election of 1960." [citation needed] The same study conducted found that white voters were less influenced on the topic of civil rights than black voters in 1960. He would become only the second Roman Catholic ever to be nominated for president by a major party (the first was Democratic Gov. [85] More than a month after the election, the Republican National Committee abandoned its Illinois voter fraud claims. Even though Stevenson had twice been the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, and retained a loyal following of liberals, his two landslide defeats to Republican United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower led most party leaders and delegates to search for a "fresh face" who could win a national election. . [36], It is often claimed that people who watched the debate on television overwhelmingly believed Kennedy had won, while radio listeners (a smaller audience) thought Nixon had ended up defeating him. Some historians criticize Nixon for not taking greater advantage of Eisenhower's popularity (which was around 6065% throughout 1960 and on election day), and for not discussing the prosperous economy of the Eisenhower presidency more often in his campaign. The US was in the midst of the Vietnam War, and the political climate in the US was polarized.

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