United States Presidential Election, 1960
The United States presidential election of 1960 was the 34th American presidential election, held on November 8, 1960, for the term beginning January 20, 1961, and ending January 20, 1965. The incumbent president, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, was not eligible to run again. The Republican Party nominated Richard Nixon, Eisenhower's Vice-President, while the Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy, Senator from Massachusetts. Kennedy was elected with a lead of 112,827 votes, or 0.16% of the popular vote, giving him a victory of 303 to 219 in the Electoral College, the closest since 1916. This was the first election in which all fifty of the current United States participated.
A number of factors explain why the election was so close. Kennedy gained since there was an economic recession which hurt the incumbent GOP, and he had the advantage of 17 million more registered Democrats than Republicans. Furthermore, the new votes that Kennedy gained among Catholics almost neutralized the new votes Nixon gained among Protestants. Kennedy's campaigning skills outmatched Nixon's. In the end, Nixon's emphasis on his experience carried little weight, and he wasted energy by campaigning in all 50 states instead of concentrating on the swing states. Kennedy used his large, well-funded campaign organization to win the nomination, secure endorsements, and with the aid of the last of the big-city bosses to get out the vote in the big cities. He relied on running mate Lyndon B. Johnson to hold the South and used television effectively.
This election is notable as being the first time in U.S. history that two sitting U.S. Senators (Kennedy and Johnson) were elected as President and Vice President, which has been repeated only once, by Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2008 (in both cases, the president was the younger, more junior senator).
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