The 1960 election was between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. JFK was a Senator from Massachusetts when he entered into the race. His major opposition in the Democratic party was Lyndon B. Johnson. He won theDemocratic nomination on the first ballot because of his brother’s help with campaigningand Lyndon Johnson became his running mate. Richard Nixon was the VicePresident to Eisenhower so the Republicans thought he would be a good choice torun. He was well known at the time and he wanted to get rid of Communism whichmade him popular during the time of the Cold War. He won the Republicannomination nearly unopposed.
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Throughout the campaigning the two remained very close. During the debates between the two Kennedy took a little more of a lead due to the fact that Nixon wouldn’t wear stage makeup so he looked old, tired andhaggard while Kennedy didn’t. However some believe that some of the people whodidn’t like the church turned away from him because of his affiliation withRoman Catholicism.
I think that part of the election was very biased based on his religion but it just shows that people still discriminate.
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This election was the closest in history. Kennedy won 303 electoral votes to Nixon’s 219 but there was only a 100,000 vote difference in popular vote which is only about 0.1% of the votes. However even with it beingthis close Nixon didn’t call for a recount.
I think that Nixon was very fair in doing this which showed respect for the United States as a whole and to the new President.
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Most of the Republicans believed that Kennedy benefitted from voter fraud. They thought that in Illinois Kennedy had won because of the mobster Sam Giancana intimidating people and he only won by 9,000 votes.Kennedy was thought to have influenced Texas because of his running mate beinga senator from there. Nixon gave a speech 3 days after the election saying hewould not contest the election. However one of his staff challenged 11 stateswhich only resulted in the loss of Hawaii.
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Running mate | Running mate's home state | Running mate's electoral vote | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Pct | |||||||
| John Fitzgerald Kennedy | Democratic | Massachusetts | 34,220,984(a) | 49.7% | 303 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | Texas | 303 |
| Richard Milhous Nixon | Republican | California | 34,108,157 | 49.6% | 219 | Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. | Massachusetts | 219 |
| Harry Flood Byrd | (none) | Virginia | —(b) | —(b) | 15 | James Strom Thurmond | South Carolina | 14 |
| Barry Morris Goldwater(c) | Arizona | 1(c) | ||||||
| (unpledged electors) | Democratic | (n/a) | 286,359 | 0.4% | —(d) | (n/a) | (n/a) | —(d) |
| Orval Faubus | States' Rights | Arkansas | 44,984 | 0.1% | 0 | John G. Crommelin | Alabama | 0 |
| Charles Sullivan | Constitution | Mississippi | (TX) 18,162 | 0.0% | 0 | Merritt Curtis | California | 0 |
| Other | 216,982 | 0.3% | — | Other | — | |||
| Total | 68,895,628 | 100% | 537 | 537 | ||||
| Needed to win | 269 | 269 | ||||||
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