Who won the white male vote in 1960?

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

Anyone know?  I've been trying to find that on the net, with no luck.   

Thanks.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I'd guess Nixon.

[J. J.]

I'd bet Kennedy; 1960 was the last election where African Americans voted, barely, Republican.

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

I'd bet Kennedy; 1960 was the last election where African Americans voted, barely, Republican.

I do believe JFK won the black vote by a substantial margin.   I'm guessing something like 70 to 30, especially after RFK bailed MLK out of jail.  Or something to that effect.

[War on Want]

I'd bet Kennedy; 1960 was the last election where African Americans voted, barely, Republican.

I do believe JFK won the black vote by a substantial margin.   I'm guessing something like 70 to 30, especially after RFK bailed MLK out of jail.  Or something to that effect.

Yeah blacks voted for the Democrats after the New Deal, but I think it is possible they voted for Eisenhower.

[J. J.]

I'd bet Kennedy; 1960 was the last election where African Americans voted, barely, Republican.

I do believe JFK won the black vote by a substantial margin.   I'm guessing something like 70 to 30, especially after RFK bailed MLK out of jail.  Or something to that effect.

No Voting Rights Act until 1964, remember, and Eisenhower did use federal troops to enforce court ordered discrimination.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Blacks haven't voted Republican since 1928. The closest they came since then was Ike's 39% in 1956. The Civil Rights act moved Blacks from being 70% Democratic to 90% Democratic.

[Adlai Stevenson]

Nixon won 32% of the African-American vote in 1960 and Eisenhower in 1956 was the most successful Republican Presidential candidate amongst blacks since 1928 - he won the endorsement of Adam Clayton Powell, for example. 

[minionofmidas]

Why do people believe to have exact data on the question?

The way I recall it is that Eisenhower and Stevenson split the black vote pretty close to 50-50, but really it's anybody's guess.
I do know there's some anecdotal evidence of a gender gap to it, Black women voting for Ike, Black men staying with the Democrats.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

What I heard was that Hoover won blacks in 1932, but the New Deal convinced them to vote Democratic ever since.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I'd bet Kennedy; 1960 was the last election where African Americans voted, barely, Republican.

I do believe JFK won the black vote by a substantial margin.   I'm guessing something like 70 to 30, especially after RFK bailed MLK out of jail.  Or something to that effect.

No Voting Rights Act until 1964, remember, and Eisenhower did use federal troops to enforce court ordered discrimination.

Yeah, so Eisenhower probably did much better than the recent 12% or so showings by the Republican party. That doesn't mean that he won them.

[12th Doctor]

Nixon won 32% of the African-American vote in 1960 and Eisenhower in 1956 was the most successful Republican Presidential candidate amongst blacks since 1928 - he won the endorsement of Adam Clayton Powell, for example. 

Are you sure about that?  I had thought that Nixon had a serious chance of carrying the black vote outright, until the Kennedy/King connection, and then it went something like 60-40 for Kennedy, but still not even close to a blow out.

[Gustaf]

I believe the black vote was heavily Democratic during the FDR years but then trended Republican in the 50s and it was looking like a key constituency to fight for towards the end of that decade. Then, with the nomination of Kennedy and the Republicans going for the Dixiecrat vote instead it all changed. Nixon was the last Republican to get a substantial share of the black vote. I believe exit polling or whatever indicated he got around a 3rd. Given the segregation of black communities it shouldn't be too hard to calculate a rough approximation though should it?

As for the white male vote, I would definitely guess at Nixon winning it. Minorities were more Democratic then whites and I think women were more Democratic than men? Especially, one would have expected more women to fall for the Kennedy charm...

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Given the margin - my money is on Nixon

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I've seen some studies done in Boston of how different ethnic groups voted and, IIRC, the swing with blacks was lower than average (but then the swing around there was really, really quite violent). Ages seen I've seen it though, so maybe my memory is wrong.

[minionofmidas]

I've seen some studies done in Boston of how different ethnic groups voted and, IIRC, the swing with blacks was lower than average (but then the swing around there was really, really quite violent). Ages seen I've seen it though, so maybe my memory is wrong.

Given that it's Boston... that makes sense.

[Хahar 🤔]

I believe the black vote was heavily Democratic during the FDR years but then trended Republican in the 50s and it was looking like a key constituency to fight for towards the end of that decade. Then, with the nomination of Kennedy and the Republicans going for the Dixiecrat vote instead it all changed. Nixon was the last Republican to get a substantial share of the black vote. I believe exit polling or whatever indicated he got around a 3rd. Given the segregation of black communities it shouldn't be too hard to calculate a rough approximation though should it?

Yup. Eisenhower racked up unprecendented margins in inner cities, sending the Democratic Party into a tizzy.

[nclib]

As for the white male vote, I would definitely guess at Nixon winning it. Minorities were more Democratic then whites and I think women were more Democratic than men? Especially, one would have expected more women to fall for the Kennedy charm...

Wasn't there a nonexistent gender gap back then? (or maybe even women being more GOP than men)

[Bay Ridge, Bklyn! Born and Bred]

So nobody knows a rough approximation to the white male vote in 1960?   Was there not exit polls back then, or any other method to gauge the demographic breakdowns of the Kennedy v. Nixon race?     Seems kinda strange to me.

[Nym90]

As for the white male vote, I would definitely guess at Nixon winning it. Minorities were more Democratic then whites and I think women were more Democratic than men? Especially, one would have expected more women to fall for the Kennedy charm...

Wasn't there a nonexistent gender gap back then? (or maybe even women being more GOP than men)

I've heard Nixon won the female vote in 1960. I believe as late as 1976 there was no gender gap at all and Carter won men that year. It wasn't until 1980 that it really showed up.

Probably due in part to Democrats as of 1960 actually being generally the more hawkish of the two parties, and also the fact that unions had much greater influence back then and men made up the vast majority of their membership.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And because elections were largely fought along class lines then.

[nclib]

As for the white male vote, I would definitely guess at Nixon winning it. Minorities were more Democratic then whites and I think women were more Democratic than men? Especially, one would have expected more women to fall for the Kennedy charm...

Wasn't there a nonexistent gender gap back then? (or maybe even women being more GOP than men)

I've heard Nixon won the female vote in 1960. I believe as late as 1976 there was no gender gap at all and Carter won men that year. It wasn't until 1980 that it really showed up.

Probably due in part to Democrats as of 1960 actually being generally the more hawkish of the two parties, and also the fact that unions had much greater influence back then and men made up the vast majority of their membership.

Also many more women work outside the home than did back then. Both now and in the past, working women have been more Democratic than stay-at-home women; the gender gap is primarily caused by more working women.

[Gustaf]

I've seen some studies done in Boston of how different ethnic groups voted and, IIRC, the swing with blacks was lower than average (but then the swing around there was really, really quite violent). Ages seen I've seen it though, so maybe my memory is wrong.

What swing? 1956 to 1960? I believe the black vote swung more than the nation as a whole from 1952 to 1956, fwiw.

But was there no gender gap back then? I always assumed that the gender gap was pretty eternal (I've always imagined men as more right-winged than women in a general sense). That is interesting.

[CARLHAYDEN]

While I realize that a lot of people like to guess, here's data from Gallup for 1960:

Group                    Kennedy          Nixon

Men                            52                 48
Women                       49                 51

White                         41                 59
Non-white                  61                 39

Oh, and the Non-White vote varied drastically by state.  There's some good data in the book, The Ethnic Factor.

[Stranger in a strange land]

I've seen some studies done in Boston of how different ethnic groups voted and, IIRC, the swing with blacks was lower than average (but then the swing around there was really, really quite violent). Ages seen I've seen it though, so maybe my memory is wrong.

What swing? 1956 to 1960? I believe the black vote swung more than the nation as a whole from 1952 to 1956, fwiw.

But was there no gender gap back then? I always assumed that the gender gap was pretty eternal (I've always imagined men as more right-winged than women in a general sense). That is interesting.

I think that's true, but the parties were both a lot more ideologically diverse back then.