Richard M. Nixon ran in three presidential elections. The first election he participated in was the election of 1960. In this election there were only two running, Richard Nixon as a Republican and John F. Kennedy as a Democrat. Nixon’s running mate was Herbert Lodge Jr. while Kennedy’s was Lyndon B. Johnson. JFK won, but not by very much. While Kennedy won most major, big cities, Nixon won most of the vast rural and suburban areas, helping the race stay close. The electoral votes were 303- 219 in favor of Kennedy; Kennedy carried 22 states as opposed to the 26 Nixon carried. The popular vote was only about a hundred thousand differences in favor of Kennedy once again, 34,220,911 to 34,108,157. The race was so close that Nixon accused fraud in Texas and Illinois, if he had carried those states he would have won. That ended up falling through and Kennedy became the president.
The second election was that of 1968. In this election three men ran- Nixon, Hubert Humphrey, and George Wallace. Nixon was once again a Republican while Humphrey was a Democrat and Wallace was an independent. Their running mates were Spiro Agnew, Nixon, Edmund Muskie, Humphrey, and Curtis LeMay, Wallace. Nixon took this election fairly easily. The Nixon had 301 Electoral College votes while Humphrey had 191 and Wallace had only 46. Nixon also won the amount of states carried and popular votes by a substantial amount. Nixon won because in his election he appealed to the white southerners, a big part of the vote, and also a promise of restoration of law and order. He also promised to end the draft and appoint justices who would play a less active role in creating the social policy. He offered government tax incentive to African American for small business and neighborhood improvements. The Nixon party was tipped off about a peace deal to be made to end the Vietnam War. Ending this war would hurt the election, so they set out to sabotage the peace negotiations. They told the Vietnamese military leaders that an incoming Republican could offer them a better deal than the current Democrat. This worked and helped him win the election. Payments of government benefits to American citizens rose along with food aid and public assistance. Nixon was strongly against segregation, saying “racism was the greatest moral failure of the United States.” He integrated schools. In 1969 the first moon landing occurred under his presidency. Fighting in Vietnam slowly declined and North and South Vietnam were able to form one country.
His last election was in 1972. The candidates were Richard Nixon and George McGovern. Nixon was once again Republican while McGovern was a Democrat. Nixon’s running mate was once again Spiro Agnew and McGovern’s was Sergeant Shriver. McGovern was strong anti-war and guaranteed income for the nation’s poor. It looked like it was supposed to be a close race, until his running mate before Shriver, Thomas Eagleton, was involved in electroshock therapy which was very controversial at the time. McGovern also alienated many powerful Democrats at the primaries, hurting his election once more. Nixon won by quite a landslide with 520 electoral votes and 49 states carried. Nixon campaigned against rising crime and Southern Policy. He was in favor of desegregation, but not means such as busing. This meant he was appealing to both Northerners and traditional Southerners. Some achievements of his presidency were improved relations with USSR and China, revenue sharing, end of war draft, anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program.
Nixon formerly lost 1962 election for governor of California. He was also the vice president for Eisenhower.
Nixon was involved in the Watergate scandal. The Watergate Hotel was home to the Democratic headquarters. In June of 1972, five men broke in to their headquarters. The FBI launched an investigation and found that the men were Nixon’s aides that were trying to sabotage the Democrats. This led to him trying to cover it up in various ways and his eventual resignation in the 1973- 1974 presidency.
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