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1960 United States presidential election in Tennessee

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Nominee Richard Nixon John F. Kennedy Party Republican Democratic Home state California Massachusetts Running mate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Lyndon B. Johnson Electoral vote 11 0 Popular vote 556,577 481,453 Percentage 52.92% 45.77%

County results Congressional district results Nixon   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Kennedy   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%

President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President John F. Kennedy Democratic

Elections in Tennessee
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Government
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The 1960 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the 1960 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 11 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Ever since the Civil War, Tennessee’s white citizenry had been divided according to political loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the Western Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne voted Republican — generally by landslide margins — as they saw the Democratic Party as the "war party" who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight. Contrariwise, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state's secession were equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction. The Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united, although unlike the Deep South Republicans would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support even after most blacks were disenfranchised around 1890 by a poll tax and intimidation.

Between 1896 and 1948, the Republicans would win statewide contests three times but only in the second amidst the national anti-Wilson tide of 1920 did they receive down-ballot coattails (in that election, winning three congressional seats in addition to the rock-ribbed GOP 1st and 2nd districts). After the beginning of the Great Depression, however, for the next third of a century the Republicans would rarely serioulsy contest statewide offices, despite ongoing dominance of East Tennessee and half a dozen Unionist counties in the middle and west of the state. State GOP leader B. Carroll Reece is widely believed to have had agreements with Democratic leaders E. H. Crump and later Frank G. Clement and Buford Ellington that Republicans would not contest offices statewide or outside their traditional pro-Union areas. Despite this, the capture of a substantial part of the West Tennessee Dixiecrat vote of 1948 allowed Dwight D. Eisenhower to narrowly carry the state for the GOP in both 1952 and 1956.

For 1960, the nomination of Irish Catholic John F. Kennedy by the Democratic Party — who had made major gains in the 1958 midterm elections — led to severe questioning of how Tennessee’s heavily fundamentalist electorate would react to Kennedy’s Catholicism.

Campaign

During the campaign, both Kennedy and Republican nominee incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon visited Tennessee in the second week of October. Kennedy focused on Nixon’s supposed opposition to the Tennessee Valley Authority, whilst Nixon focused on how his platform was closer to that of the Founding Fathers and Andrew Jackson than Kennedy’s. Kennedy, for his part, noted that the Democratic Party was founded by Tennessean Jackson.

Predictions

Results

Results by county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Chester
• Clay
• Crockett
• Decatur
• Dyer
• Madison

Counties that flipped Republican to Democratic

• Marion

Analysis

Tennessee was, despite unclear predictions before the election, comfortably won by Nixon and United States Ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., with 52.92 percent of the popular vote. Kennedy and running mate Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson won 45.77 percent of the popular vote.

Nixon was the first losing Republican to win Tennessee and the only one until John McCain in 2008. Kennedy was the first Democrat to win without the state since 1852. Nixon’s win was due to general gains due to the strong anti-Catholicism of this “Bible Belt” state. Unlike Herbert Hoover’s 1928 victory against previous Catholic nominee Al Smith, Nixon also made strong gains amongst white voters of the Black Belt who had deserted the Democrats since Harry S. Truman’s first civil rights proclamations. Tennessee was one of four states that swung towards Republicans compared to 1956, alongside Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Georgia.

References

1. "United States Presidential election of 1960 – Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved June 7, 2017.
2. "1960 Election for the Forty-Fourth Term (1961-65)". Retrieved June 7, 2017.
3. Wright, John K. (October 1932). "Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps". Geographical Review. 22 (4): 666–672. doi:10.2307/208821. JSTOR 208821.
4. Key (Jr.), Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York, 1949), pp. 282-283
5. Lyons, William; Scheb (II), John M.; Stair, Billy (2001). Government and Politics in Tennessee. pp. 183–184. ISBN 1572331410.
6. Grantham, Dewey W. (Fall 1995). "Tennessee and Twentieth-Century American Politics". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 54 (3): 210–229.
7. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
8. Reichard, Gary W. (February 1970). "The Aberration of 1920: An Analysis of Harding's Victory in Tennessee". The Journal of Southern History. 36 (1): 33–49. doi:10.2307/2206601. JSTOR 2206601.
9. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 287
10. Majors, William R. (1986). Change and continuity: Tennessee politics since the Civil War. p. 72. ISBN 9780865542099.
11. Vile, John R.; Byrnes, Mark Eaton, eds. (1998). Tennessee government and politics: democracy in the volunteer state. pp. 2–3. ISBN 0826513093.
12. Strong, Donald S. (August 1955). "The Presidential Election in the South, 1952". The Journal of Politics. 17 (3). The University of Chicago Press: 343–389. doi:10.1017/S0022381600091064. S2CID 154634842.
13. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 221
14. ^ Scott, Gavin (October 9, 1960). "Both received Warm Welcomes: Many Sized Up Kennedy, Nixon on Tennessee Visits". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. p. A-6.
15. Hoffman, Fred S. (October 3, 1960). "How Election Looks Today". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia. pp. 1, 3.
16. "Populous States Are Key: Both Parties Claim Enough Votes To Win". Knoxville News Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee. October 23, 1960. p. A-4.
17. Lewis, Ted (October 28, 1960). "Campaign Circus". Daily News. Jersey City, New Jersey. p. 4C.
18. "Poll of Editors Predicts Victory for Nixon—Lodge: Republican Ticket Seen Winning in 28 States and Democrats in 19". The Daily Evening Item. November 4, 1960. p. 3.
19. ""Poll of Polls" Sums Up Major Opinion Surveys". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. November 6, 1960. p. 27.
20. "TN US President, November 08, 1960". Our Campaigns.
21. "1960 Presidential General Election Results – Tennessee". Retrieved June 7, 2017.
22. "The American Presidency Project – Election of 1960". Retrieved June 7, 2017.
23. Larson, Edward J. (October 3, 2006). Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. ISBN 9780465075102.
24. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 357-361

v t e State and district results of the 1960 United States presidential election
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• 1960 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Tennessee
• 1960 Tennessee elections