1960 United States presidential election in California

1960 United States presidential election in California

← 1956 November 8, 1960 1964 →
Turnout	88.32% (of registered voters) 1.76 pp 68.77% (of eligible voters) 1.18 pp[1]
Nominee Richard Nixon John F. Kennedy Party Republican Democratic Home state California Massachusetts Running mate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Lyndon B. Johnson Electoral vote 32 0 Popular vote 3,259,722 3,224,099 Percentage 50.10% 49.55%
County Results Nixon   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%   70-80% Kennedy   40-50%   50-60%   60-70%
President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President John F. Kennedy Democratic

Elections in California
Federal government U.S. President 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 Dem GOP 2000 Dem GOP 2004 Dem GOP 2008 Dem GOP 2012 Dem GOP 2016 Dem GOP 2020 Dem GOP U.S. Senate 1849 1850 1852 sp 1856 1857 sp 1860 1860 sp 1868 1872 1873 1873 sp 1878 1880 1885 1886 sp 1887 1891 1891 sp 1893 1895 sp 1897 1900 sp 1903 1905 1909 1911 1914 1916 1920 1922 1926 1928 1932 1934 1938 1940 1944 1946 1946 sp 1950 1952 1954 sp 1956 1958 1962 1964 1968 1970 1974 1976 1980 1982 1986 1988 1992 1992 sp 1994 1998 2000 2004 2006 2010 2012 2016 2018 2022 2022 sp 2024 U.S. House of Representatives 1849 1851 1852 1854 1856 1859 1861 1863 1864 1867 1868 1871 1872 1875 1876 1879 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 12th sp 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1987 5th sp 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2001 32nd sp 2002 2004 2005 5th sp 48th sp 2006 50th sp 2007 36th sp 2008 12th sp 2009 10th sp 32nd sp 2010 2011 36th sp 2012 2014 2016 2017 34th sp 2018 2020 25th sp 2022 22nd sp v t
State government (executive) Governor 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1863 1867 1871 1875 1879 1882 1886 1890 1894 1898 1902 1906 1910 1914 1918 1922 1926 1930 1934 1938 1942 1946 1950 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2003 (recall) 2006 2010 2014 2018 2021 (recall) 2022 Lieutenant governor 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Attorney General 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Secretary of State 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 Treasurer 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Controller 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Insurance Commissioner 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Superintendent of Public Instruction 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 State Board of Equalization 2018 v t
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Propositions 1910–1919 1911 4 7 8 1960–1969 1964 14 1970–1979 1978 6 8 13 1980–1989 1982 8 1986 64 65 1988 98 99 1990–1999 1994 187 1996 196 209 215 218 1998 6 10 227 2000–2009 2000 21 22 36 39 2003 53 54 2004 1A 55 56 57 58 59 60 60A 61 62 63 64 65 66 69 71 2005 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 2006 81 82 83 85 87 89 90 2008 91 92 93 94, 95, 96, and 97 98 and 99 1A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2009 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 2010–2019 2010 13 14 15 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 2012 29 30 32 34 37 38 39 2014 47 2016 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 2018 68 69 6 7 9 10 12 2020–2029 2020 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Full list v t
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Los Angeles General 2009 2011 2013 2017 2020 Mayor 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1909 (sp) 1909 1911 1913 1915 1917 1919 1921 1923 1925 1929 1933 1937 1938 1941 1945 1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017 2022 City Attorney 2009 Board of Supervisors 1980 1996 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 Ballot measures 1980 A 1986 U 2008 R 2012 B J 2016 M 2017 S v t
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San Francisco Mayor 1971 1975 1979 1983 (recall) 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2018 (sp) 2019 2023 District Attorney 2019 2022 (recall) Board of Supervisors 1977 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 Board of Education 2018 2022 (recall) General elections 2004 Mar Nov 2005 2006 Jun Nov 2007 2008 Feb Jun Nov 2009 2010 Jun Nov 2011 2012 Jun Nov 2013 2022 Feb v t
San Jose Mayor 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 v t
Stockton Mayoral elections 2008 2012 2016 2020 v t
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The 1960 United States presidential election in California took place on November 8, 1960 as part of the 1960 United States presidential election. State voters chose 32 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

California voted for the Republican nominee, Vice President Richard Nixon, over the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. Although California was Nixon's home state, which he represented in the House and Senate, and initial political base, his margin of victory over Kennedy turned out to be extremely narrow; in fact, it was the closest of the states that Nixon won and the fourth closest state in the election after Hawaii, Illinois and Missouri.^[2] On the morning of November 9, the NBC victory desk erroneously projected California to Kennedy.

Nixon would later win California again against Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and then against George McGovern in 1972.

Primaries[]

Democratic primary[]

Running unopposed, California governor Pat Brown won the state's Democratic primary as a favorite son.^[3]

While the primary itself was straightforward, the developments surrounding the primary were far more complex.

Kennedy had not come easily to his decision not to compete in the California primary, and had at one point tentatively filed to run in the primary.^[3]

Kennedy had begun to contemplate the state's primary at an early stage in the development of his campaign.^[3]

By early 1958 Kennedy's team had recognized the state to be a Democratic target for the midterm elections, since economic woes had weakened the Republican Party's strength in the state.^[3] This meant that the 1958 midterm election would serve to gauge the prospect of Democrats winning the state in the 1960 presidential election.^[3] In February 1958, Ted Sorensen spent $1,500 in order to commission a survey in California that would be conducted that March, coinciding with a two-day visit by Kennedy to the state.^[3] The survey showed Kennedy winning 55 to 45% in a then-hypothetical general election race against Nixon.^[3] The survey also demonstrated Kennedy to have a strong lead in California among Catholics, who constituted one-fifth of the state's populace.^[3]

Kennedy, however, remained undecided as to whether or not he would compete in the state's primary.^[3]

In November 1958, the midterm elections delivered encouraging signs for Democratic prospects of carrying the state in 1960. Pat Brown had defeated the Nixon-backed Republican candidate, outgoing U.S. Senate Minority Leader William Knowland, in the state's gubernatorial election and Democrat Clair Engle defeated the Nixon-backed Republican candidate, outgoing governor Goodwin Knight, in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Knowland.

California was one of several large state delegations to the Democratic National convention whose support the Kennedy campaign came to believe was integral when they mapped-out his path to secure the nomination.

The Kennedy campaign was concerned that Brown might run against Kennedy as a favorite son in the primary.^[3] Brown saw himself as a potential running mate on the Democratic ticket. However, he recognized that his chances of being selected would disappear if Kennedy were the presidential nominee, as Brown and Kennedy were both Catholics and a ticket composed of two Catholics was improbable. Thus. Brown recognized that he would need for Kennedy to lose the nomination if he were to stand a chance at securing the vice-presidential nomination for himself.^[3]

California's Democratic Party landscape at the time, stood largely divided between Brown loyalists and Adlai Stevenson supporters (many of whom had hopes of nominating Stevenson a third consecutive time).^[3]

Kennedy's campaign began to consider the possibility of pursuing a compromise with Brown in which he would run as a favorite candidate committed to Kennedy.^[3] Such a compromise would have granted Brown the profile and ego boost of winning the state's primary. It would have allowed Kennedy to eschew a scenario in which he could underperform or be defeated in one of the last primaries, which would weaken the momentum he needed to have heading into the convention.^[3] It would also have avoided the risk of dividing the state party, which was important since a divided state party would have decimated any chance Kennedy stood of carrying the state in the general election.^[3] At the same time, such a compromise would still have secured the support of California's delegation for Kennedy.^[3] Kennedy's campaign decided that, so long as their candidate still had momentum from having won primaries in other key states, there would be no problem in having Brown run as a surrogate candidate in California.^[3] To help persuade Brown to be inclined towards such an agreement, Larry O'Brien met with Brown on behalf of the campaign and showed him polling that Louis Harris had conducted for them which showed Kennedy winning the state 60% to 40% in a two-way race against Brown and was also beating him in a three-way matchup featuring Humphrey, polling 47% against Brown's 33% and Humphrey's 20%.^[3] The campaign ultimately reached an informal agreement with Brown to have him run, pledged to Kennedy, as a favorite son.^[3]

Despite their informal agreement with Brown, Kennedy's campaign continued to possess worries about the state's primary. They were uncertain as to what degree Brown was intent on honoring their agreement.^[3] They also recognized that there was a potential that Stevenson might run in the state's primary.^[3] Another concern involved the candidacy of Hubert Humphrey. Kennedy's team believed that there was a possibility that Humphrey might file to run in the state.^[3] While Kennedy's campaign strategy aimed to have killed Humphrey's candidacy well in advance of the California primary by dealing him critical defeats in earlier primaries, they were still somewhat concerned about a potential scenario in which Kennedy would have failed to knock Humphrey out of the race and Humphrey ran in the California primary.^[3] They were worried that, in such an instance, Brown might prove to be a much less effective an opponent to Humphrey than Kennedy himself would be.^[3]

To precautionarily leave open the campaign's options, on the March 9 deadline to file for the primary, Kennedy filed his own slate of prospective delegates which would be, at least tentatively, registered to run against Brown's slate.^[3] Humphrey filed a slate of his own later that day.^[3] This blindsided Brown, who believed that he had secured promises from both candidates that neither of them would run against him in the California primary.^[3]

By the time of the California primary, Humphrey had already ended his campaign.^[3] Since he had only filed as a precaution for the possibility of Humphrey competing in California, Kennedy attempted to make peace. Kennedy withdrew, granting Brown the opportunity to run unopposed.^[3]

Feeling betrayed by Kennedy, Brown did not publicly endorse him, much to the chagrin of the Kennedy campaign.^[3] Brown, ultimately, held weak control over a fractious state delegation, whose ranks included a number of Stevenson loyalists, and Stevenson had left open the possibility of being drafted as a candidate at the convention.^[3] After failing to secure a public endorsement from Brown ahead of the convention, Kennedy and his team ultimately resorted to courting individual members of its delegation for their support.^[3]

Republican primary[]

Nixon won California's Republican primary, in which he was unopposed.

General election[]

Results[]

Results by county[]

References[]