The story
On November 8, 1960, Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts defeated Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections in American history. Kennedy won 303 electoral votes to Nixon's 219, but his popular vote margin was only about 118,500 votes out of nearly 69 million, 49.7 percent to 49.5 percent. Fifteen unpledged and faithless electors from the South voted for Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia. At 43, Kennedy was the youngest person ever elected president, and the first Catholic.
Eisenhower could not run again under the new two-term limit, so the race pitted his vice president against a young senator. The Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957 and a recession in 1958 let Kennedy argue that America had fallen behind, including in a supposed missile gap. His religion was a major issue; in September he told Protestant ministers in Houston that he believed in an absolute separation of church and state. Kennedy's running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, helped hold Texas and much of the South.
On September 26, 1960, the candidates met in the first televised presidential debate, watched by around 70 million people. Kennedy looked calm and tanned; Nixon, recovering from a knee infection, looked pale and tired. The race stayed tight to the end, and Kennedy carried Illinois and Texas narrowly amid Republican claims of fraud. Nixon chose not to mount a formal challenge.
Why it mattered
- Kennedy's presidency included the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the commitment to land on the Moon.
- Televised debates became a fixture of presidential campaigns from 1976 onward.
- Kennedy's assassination in 1963 brought Lyndon Johnson to power and set up the 1964 landslide.
- Kennedy's win largely retired the belief that a Catholic could not be elected president.
Sources
- Campaign of 1960 JFK Presidential Library
- 1960 Presidential Election 270toWin
- Kennedy-Nixon debates Britannica
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