1960 Election (The Hearse at Monticello)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Having won a sweeping victory in the 1960 Populist Primary, President Estes Kefauver now heads towards a general election rematch against his foremost opponent from the previous presidential election, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Nominated by a brokered convention after a divisive primary, Kennedy has chosen conservative former Congressman Everett Dirksen as his running mate as a nod to conservatives, who might otherwise be disinclined to support the liberal New Englander.

Broadly speaking, the two candidates concur on most matters of domestic policy: both Kennedy and Kefauver support expanding the welfare state and other government services and have taken mainstream liberal stances on the majority of economic issues. Kennedy, however, has been hesitant to embrace the Feminist movement to the extent that Kefauver has for fear of alienating conservatives, while Kefauver has been disinclined to support calls for greater environmental protection, fearing that doing so will alienate farmers in the South and West. Foreign policy is another matter: while both candidates support containment in theory, Kennedy has called for much more aggressive action to check the advances of the USSR, arguing that Kefauver will "loose Southeast Asia just as Eleanor Roosevelt lost China".

Additionally, a conservative movement to trigger an electoral college deadlock has sprung up in select regions of the nation (New England, the Midwest, and the Southwest) in response to frustrations with the perceived "liberal stranglehold" on the two major parties. These individuals, most of whom supported Barry Goldwater for the American Party nomination, hope that by siphoning enough votes from Kennedy and Kefauver, they can prevent either candidates from winning an electoral college majority and could thereby force concessions from one of the candidates in exchange for their support.

Go!

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

1960 Presidential Election

President Estes Kefauver (People's-Tennessee)/ Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson (People's-Texas): 352 Electoral Votes; 45.9% popular votes
Senator John F. Kennedy (American-Massachusetts)/ Fmr. Congressman Everett Dirksen (American-Illinois): 173 Electoral Votes; 37.8% popular votes
Senator Barry Goldwater (Unpledged Electors-Arizona)/ Fmr. Senator Harry F. Byrd (Unpledged Electors-Virginia): 12 Electoral Votes; 16.2% popular votes

With the economy booming and the American Party divided by internal rivalries, President Estes Kefauver was able to win a convincing victory in the 1960 Presidential Election, defeating Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts for the second time by a margin of 8%. Despite this, the president would carry only a plurality of the popular vote, leading some to speculate that Kennedy might have won had it not been for the presence of "unpledged" slates of electors that drew conservative votes in  key states. While these electors had hoped to hold the balance of power when all the votes were in, Kefauver instead won an outright majority in the electoral college, leaving them to symbolically cast their votes for Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, whose home state was one of only two to vote for the unpledged slate.