1960 Election Kennedy vs. Nixon

John Fitzgerald Kennedy  Represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat.  He then served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until  Son of the wealthy Kennedy family.  He had huge financial backing and name recognition.  He was the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), the first President born in the 20th century, and the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43.  Kennedy is the only Catholic, and the first Irish American, president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

Richard Milhous Nixon  The only person to be elected twice to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency.  Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he joined the United States Navy, serving in the Pacific theater, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander during WWII.  He was elected in 1946 as a Republican to the House of Representatives representing California's 12th Congressional district, and in 1950 to the United States Senate.  He was selected to be the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party nominee, in the 1952 Presidential election, becoming one of the youngest Vice Presidents in history.

Campaign promises  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."  Nixon responded that, if elected, he would continue the "peace and prosperity" that Eisenhower had brought the nation in the 1950s. Nixon also argued that with the nation engaged in the Cold War with the Soviets, that Kennedy was too young and inexperienced to be trusted with the Presidency.

Debates  The key turning point of the campaign were the four Kennedy- Nixon debates; they were the first presidential debates held on television, and thus attracted enormous publicity.  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, 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 and prepared extensively beforehand, appearing tanned, confident, and relaxed during the debate. People who watched the debate on television overwhelmingly believed Kennedy had won, while radio listeners (a smaller audience) believed Nixon had won.

Why Kennedy won…  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.  The votes that Kennedy gained among Catholics practically matched the votes Nixon gained among Protestants.  Kennedy's better organization and Kennedy's superior campaigning skills won him the presidency.  Johnson, JFK’s running mate, vigorously campaigned for him and was instrumental in helping the Democrats to sway several Southern states skeptical of Kennedy, especially Johnson's home state of Texas.

Why Nixon lost  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, Charles Mohr of Time, mentioned Nixon's claims that he had been a valuable administration insider and adviser. Mohr asked Eisenhower if he could give an example of a major idea of Nixon's that he had heeded. Eisenhower responded with the flip comment, "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.

 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 Johnson to hold the South and used television effectively.

Facts and Figures  Kennedy was elected with a lead of 112,827 votes, or 0.1% of the popular vote, giving him a victory of 303 to 219 in the Electoral College, the closest since  An estimated 70 million viewers watched the first debate. 20 million fewer viewers watched the three remaining debates – not working in Nixon’s favour.  In Hawaii, it had appeared Nixon had won the state,but in a recount Kennedy was able to come from behind and win the state by an extremely narrow margin of 115 votes.