1960 election

[weallbleed]

a few questions...

while browsing the old results, I was rather shocked by how different the 1960 results were from today's. a lot more has changed in 40 years than people think. but here's a few things that struck me as especially odd.



Kennedy's strength in rural Georgia suprised me a lot. It's pretty amazing that even back then, a liberal Catholic from Massachusetts could get over 90% in some rural Georgia counties! But one sticks out like a sore thumb. What's that county in the southeast that voted over 70% for Nixon? And why did it do so?

Also, I noticed that Kennedy barely won Fulton county (home of Atlanta), and he actually LOST Shelby county in Tennessee (home of Memphis).  I imagine that the black vote was probably radically different back then, since that's the only way to explain it. So how exactly did the black vote break in 1960? Did Kennedy even get a majority?

Also, in Minnesota, I noticed that Nixon won Hennepin county, the home of Minneapolis, while Kennedy won Scott, a very Republican suburban county. Quite strange. Does anyone know if Nixon won Minneapolis proper? He barely won Hennepin, so today one would assume he didn't, but I imagine the demographics were quite different back then.

Also why did Alabama and Mississippi vote for the unpledged electors? Was it because of Kennedy being Catholic? And is that also why Kennedy barely won South Carolina, which at the time was one of the most Democratic states in the country?

[A18]

This was back when the two parties were basically the exact same thing. I believe the Democrats were pro-segregation as well.

[PBrunsel]

The deep south was a partisan place from 1865-1968.  People in the rural Southn wouldn't care who was on the ballot, just as long as a (D) was by their name.

Nixon did so well in Memphis due to his support of the sit in movement there in July 1960.

[JohnFKennedy]

Kennedy wasn't particularly liberal you know, he was very moderate.

[lidaker]

Kennedy wasn't particularly liberal you know, he was very moderate.

True, and back then the Democratic Party was the party of white people in the South. This was before they took a brave stand against racial discrimination and, as LBJ said, gave the South away to the republicans. In 1960, Kennedy won GA 63-37.

Look what had happened in '64 (Goldwater 54/Johnson 46):



And in '68 (Wallace 43/Nixon 30/Humphrey 27):



And in '72 (Nixon 75/McGovern 25):



Then, of course, GA Governor Jimmy Carter won the state in '76 and in '80, with the support of around half of the white population. Clinton also won it in '92. The conclusion is there's a chance GA will vote for a Democrat, if he's moderate and from the South. But after 1960, they seem to have been allergic to more liberal Democrats from the North (Humphrey, McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis... Kerry).

[PBrunsel]

Kennedy wasn't particularly liberal you know, he was very moderate.

He was conservative when it came to taxes and the millitary. Also when it came to the Soviets. He was the first president to have a Peace Time Millitary build up and he introduced the first multi million dollar tax cuts.