John F. Kennedy
Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president of the United States during the four years before John F. Kennedy became president. JFK was the 35th president of the United States and was on the democratic ballot. John F. Kennedy’s religion was Roman Catholic and his post high school education was at Harvard where he graduated with a four year degree.
During the election Kennedy ran against Richard Nixon which was a republican that was from California. This election was the closest election since 1916 with JFK having 303 and Nixon having 219 Electoral College votes. Kennedy had 49.7% of the popular votes and Richard Nixon had 49.5% of the votes and the other .8% of the votes went to Harry F. Byrd. The people that voted for him were from Alabama and Mississippi and one voter from Oklahoma.
John F. Kennedy’s running mate was Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson was from a poor family so he had troubles when he was in a campaign because it costs a lot to do advertisements and travel where ever he needed to be to speak. He met Edward Clark which introduced him to two men that were into oil sales that ended up funding his campaigns.
Richard Nixon’s running mate was Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Cabot tried especially hard to get the votes of the African Americans that were in the US because he announced if he and Nixon won the election Nixon would appoint at least one African American to a cabinet post without Nixon’s permission. After Kennedy’s assassination Richard Nixon became president of the United States because he was vise president when Kennedy was in office.
JFK was the first person to become president that was born in the 20th century and was only 43 years old when he was elected.
I kind of liked researching JFK because he seems like he would be an ordinary guy if you didn’t know he was president.
John F. Kennedy
Richard Nixon / JFK debate
Sources:
http://www.ipl.org/div/potus/jfkennedy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1960
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAjohnsonLB.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cabot_Lodge,_Jr.
Comments
Well done!