Timeline: Nixon defeats Kennedy in 1960

[538Electoral]

1960 is what I'd call the start of the "modern" American politics era so I'm making the 1960 election have a different outcome.

NOTE: Atlas Colors will be switched and modern election times will be used.

7PM

We can project the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Vermont and Virginia will be won by Vice President Richard Nixon who appears to be on his way to winning a strong victory in the Electoral College this year. Meanwhile Senator John Kennedy will win the state of Georgia. South Carolina is currently too close to call.

38-12

7:30PM

We can project the Vice President will win Ohio. North Carolina is too close to call and West Virginia is also too close to call.

63-12

What do you think the map looks like?

[Morgan Kingsley]

This is giving me 52 vibes

[Sir Mohamed]

Looks interesting. Go on.

[538Electoral]

8PM

We're projecting a slew of calls including Oklahoma, Florida, New Hampshire, Maine and Tennessee to Nixon and Alabama, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Massachusetts to Kennedy.

[538Electoral]

8:30PM

We project Arkansas is too early to call.

9:00 PM

We project too many calls.

But here's the map.

Nixon - 136
Kennedy - 94

[538Electoral]

10PM

We can project the states of Wisconsin, Iowa, Montana and Utah will go to Nixon while Nevada is too close to call.

Nixon 166
Kennedy 94

11PM

The entire West Coast and Hawaii are too close to call. Idaho easily goes Nixon as expected.

170-94

[538Electoral]

It is 11:32PM and we project 3 states. All of which put a severe strain on Kennedy's hopes.

These states are Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, All of which will go to the Vice President.

263-94

This means if Nixon gets one more state worth 6 or more electoral votes it's game over.

11:39PM

We project that Nixon has won California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. This puts him at 313 electoral votes way above the 269 needed to win.

313-94

[538Electoral]

This is the final electoral map after Kennedy wins South Carolina by 9 votes after 4 recounts.

435-102

Senate: Democrats 58-42 (Republicans gain IL, MI, MN, MT, OK, and MT from real life)
House: Democrats 239-194

[538Electoral]

The 1962 elections result in a narrow Republican senate with AL, CT, IN, PA, SD, WA, WI and the NH special election being pick-ups from the actual senate elections that took place in real time. 50-50

Democrats hold the House but by a narrower 223-212 margin.

Anyone care to guess who the 1964 nominee will be? (It's not Johnson)

[OSR stands with Israel]

Could you please write some posts about events that took place in between elections rather than just going from election to election . Those do make TL’s more interesting as that details the changes on a policy level between the ITL and OTL

[538Electoral]

Could you please write some posts about events that took place in between elections rather than just going from election to election . Those do make TL’s more interesting as that details the changes on a policy level between the ITL and OTL

-No Civil Rights Act gets signed yet which of course means a Democratic Deep South in 1964.
-Vietnam War doesn't start yet.
-Many policies of his actual presidency for his first 4 years in real life.

That's about it in the middle of Nixon's 1st term in this scenario.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Could you please write some posts about events that took place in between elections rather than just going from election to election . Those do make TL’s more interesting as that details the changes on a policy level between the ITL and OTL

-No Civil Rights Act gets signed yet which of course means a Democratic Deep South in 1964.
-Vietnam War doesn't start yet.
-Many policies of his actual presidency for his first 4 years in real life.

That's about it in the middle of Nixon's 1st term in this scenario.

How Did the Bay of Pigs go and did it succeed with Nixon . If not how does Nixon deal with the Cuban Missle Crises given he was a huge critic of how JFK dealt with it

[Jumped off the American Sinking Ship]

Non atlas colors: broke

[Morgan Kingsley]

The main gripe I got is that there is no way Kennedy loses this bad.

[538Electoral]

The main gripe I got is that there is no way Kennedy loses this bad.

A scenario similar to this could've happened if you just moved almost every state 6 points to the right.

[538Electoral]

Could you please write some posts about events that took place in between elections rather than just going from election to election . Those do make TL’s more interesting as that details the changes on a policy level between the ITL and OTL

-No Civil Rights Act gets signed yet which of course means a Democratic Deep South in 1964.
-Vietnam War doesn't start yet.
-Many policies of his actual presidency for his first 4 years in real life.

That's about it in the middle of Nixon's 1st term in this scenario.

How Did the Bay of Pigs go and did it succeed with Nixon . If not how does Nixon deal with the Cuban Missle Crises given he was a huge critic of how JFK dealt with it

Nixon threatens Cuba with sweet and to the point destruction of it's nuclear weapons and then itself if it doesn't back down. The Soviet Union threatens to do the same to Turkey. No war happens in 1962 but a lot are gearing up for the possibility of war.

[538Electoral]

March 16th, 1963: Nixon launches invasion of Cuba to dismantle their nuclear weapons by force, Meanwhile the Soviet Union invades Turkey in response. Officially marking the start of the Cuba War.

[538Electoral]

April 25th, 1963: The Cuba War isn't appearing to be going so well for the United States or the Soviet Union. Nixon suffers approval drop, Now underwater.

Nixon's approval: 48%
Nixon's disapproval: 51%

June 15th, 1963: The US successfully removes every nuke from Cuba's territory. Now Nixon sends troops to Turkey to defend it's weapons.

August 29th, 1963: After 5 months of fighting, The American side wins the Cuban war. Nixon receives a huge bump, Leads Generic Democrat by 9%

Nixon's approval: 57%
Nixon's disapproval: 41%

1964 Election Polling

Nixon: 52%
Democrats: 43%

[538Electoral]

September 4th, 1963: Lyndon Johnson enters the race as the first Democratic nominee to run.

Lyndon B. Johnson: Nixon just got us into an unnecessary 5 month long war that could've ended very badly for us. We must defeat him next year to prevent him from getting into more reckless conflict.

September 20th, 1963: Pat Brown from California enters race. Seen as important to try to win California for the Democrats.

September 24th, 1963: Hubert Humphrey enters the race.

[UWS]

Good TL, keep it up.

I can't wait to see how the 1964 race will move on.

[538Electoral]

October 1963 Democratic primary poll:

26% Humphrey
25% Johnson
22% Glenn

[MillennialModerate]

This is the final electoral map after Kennedy wins South Carolina by 9 votes after 4 recounts.

435-102

Senate: Democrats 58-42 (Republicans gain IL, MI, MN, MT, OK, and MT from real life)
House: Democrats 239-194

I think I just threw up in my mouth.

Of all the “Alternate scenarios” thank god this one never happened

[Morgan Kingsley]

This is the final electoral map after Kennedy wins South Carolina by 9 votes after 4 recounts.

435-102

Senate: Democrats 58-42 (Republicans gain IL, MI, MN, MT, OK, and MT from real life)
House: Democrats 239-194

I think I just threw up in my mouth.

Of all the “Alternate scenarios” thank god this one never happened

The Nixon winning part or the extent of Nixon winning

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

This is the final electoral map after Kennedy wins South Carolina by 9 votes after 4 recounts.

435-102

Senate: Democrats 58-42 (Republicans gain IL, MI, MN, MT, OK, and MT from real life)
House: Democrats 239-194

4 recounts?  While there are/were procedures in place for an automatic recount of a close election. I can't see either candidate worrying about further recounts with the national result not in the balance.

The only other statewide race was Thurmond's unopposed Senate race, so you can't even count on potential recounts done in association with another race. (Statewide offices here are done in the mid-presidential term election.)

[538Electoral]

March 10th, 1964: New Hampshire primary: Glenn narrowly wins

Glenn: 39%
Humphrey: 37%
Johnson: 24%