Election of 1960: Kennedy, Nixon, and the First Televised Debates

Election Results:
Kennedy and Johnson: 34.2 million popular votes, 303 electoral votes.
Nixon and Lodge: 34.1 million popular votes, 219 electoral votes.
(Southern politicians Harry Byrd of Virginia and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina received 15 electoral votes).

Summary:
Though the new 22nd Amendment precluded Dwight Eisenhower from running, there was no doubt that it was time for Richard Nixon to take his share of the spotlight. The former California senator and two-term vice president was an able politician, a strong anti-communist Republican who had the support of many who saw his potential presidency as a continuation of the relatively prosperous 1950s. Nixon faced a strong primary challenge from liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller but Nixon’s deal making abilities helped him win Rockefeller’s endorsement in exchange for liberal additions to the party platform. The Republican ticket was rounded out by United Nations delegate and Massachusetts politician Henry Cabot Lodge, giving Nixon even more credibility in the area of foreign policy.

On the Democratic side of the 1960 election, three candidates aimed for the chance to win back the office for the first time in a decade. Massachusetts senator John Kennedy and Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey ran a furious primary campaign against each other, in an attempt to win the moderate and liberal wings of the party. Kennedy proved to be an outstanding campaigner and organizer when he crushed Humphrey in the Midwest and defeated him in Protestant West Virginia. Kennedy, an Irish Catholic, won a test of whether a Catholic could win in heavily Protestant parts of the nation. After Humphrey fell out of the race, Kennedy faced a strong challenge from veteran Democratic legislator Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy used his connections to Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Democratic bosses in cities like Boston and New York to edge out Johnson for the nomination. Johnson was frustrated by the upstart Kennedy’s ability to gain leverage on him but accepted the vice presidential nod in the hopes of gaining a higher profile nationally.

Kennedy’s strong personality and good looks worked well against the more policy and backroom-oriented campaign of Richard Nixon. In the first televised debates in American history, the tan and smiling John Kennedy defeated the haggard Richard Nixon in popularity though the radio audience gave the nod to Nixon and his stronger debating style. While Kennedy aimed at proving his foreign policy acumen by describing the looming “missile gap” with the Soviets and his desire to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government in Cuba, Nixon stuck to the mantra of “experience counts.” Kennedy’s campaign ran on the idea that his more liberal ideas would get America out of a conservative rut while Nixon stuck to the idea that his vast experience was necessary to Cold War government. In the end, the election was extremely close coming down to tens of thousands of questionable votes in Texas and Illinois. Richard Daley helped Kennedy win the Chicago area, thought to be a possible battleground for both candidates, and Lyndon Johnson pushed Kennedy over the threshold in Texas. Without these two states, Nixon would have won the election and continued in the White House. Instead, the more idealistic John Kennedy entered the White House with a strong agenda to strengthen the United States in the increasingly global economy and politics.