1960: Pat Brown vs. Richard Nixon

[President Johnson]

Suppose the Democratic convention in 1960 is deadlocked and California governor Pat Brown is nominated for president as a compromise candidate. He choses Missouri senator Stuart Symington as his running mate. How would he do against Richard Nixon, whom he IRL defeated in the 1962 gubernatorial election? Nixon's running mate is still Henry Cabot Lodge.

[dw93]

Nixon wins. Brown had just been elected Governor of CA and Nixon would have an easier time playing the experience card against him than he did against Kennedy, plus Symington isn't going to pull as much (if any) weight in the south as LBJ did for Kennedy.

[dw93]

Vice President Richard Nixon (R-CA) / UN Ambassador Henry Lodge (R-MA)
Governor Pat Brown (D-CA) / Senator Stuart Symington (D-MO)!✓

Here's a rough guess. Brown was sort of a poor man's Humphrey, but he would be able to bring the New Deal Coalition out. Similar collapse in the South because of the relative liberalism of the ticket, but no more than Kennedy lost for his Catholicism.

I doubt Brown would win Texas without LBJ on the ticket and I doubt any deep southern state would go to a Democratic ticket that doesn't feature a southerner (MO was a border state), and Brown, IIRC, was also a Catholic.

[Agonized-Statism]

I doubt Brown would win Texas without LBJ on the ticket and I doubt any deep southern state would go to a Democratic ticket that doesn't feature a southerner (MO was a border state), and Brown, IIRC, was also a Catholic.

I made it at first with LBJ as the running mate and changed it at the very end when I noticed Symington as a running mate was a requirement, but if Brown was a Catholic, you can dump my map altogether. Nixon probably wins.

[Sir Mohamed]

Doubtful this Dem ticket would have won the election. Brown narrowly wins CA, but not having Johnson on the ticket costs him TX. Nixon narrowly is elected prez.



✓ Vice President Richard Nixon (R-CA)/Former Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA): 273 EVs.; 50.3%
Governor Edmund G. Brown (D-CA)/Senator Stuart Symington (D-MO): 224 EVs.; 256 EVs.; 48.6%
Unpledged Dixiecrat Electors: 8 EVs.; 0.2%