5.10.2010

Tuesday, May 10, 1960: Kennedy wins West Virginia

Sen. John F. Kennedy (236,510 votes, 60.8%) defeats Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey (152,187, 39.2%) in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary, putting to rest the notion that a Roman Catholic candidate was unelectable in Protestant strongholds of the United States. It is the latest in a series of primary victories for Kennedy over Humphrey, who gives up his candidacy. Reports of vote-buying were (and are) widespread. Kennedy himself would frequently tell variations of this joke on the campaign trail: "I have just received the following wire from my generous daddy -- 'Dear Jack: Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for a landslide.' " (Kennedy actually told the anecdote as far back as March 1958, in a speech to The Gridiron Club in Washington, D.C. The JFK Library has a transcript of that speech: @.)

* "Winning West Virginia" (from JFK Library): @
* Entries from The West Virginia Encyclopedia: @ and @
* "How the 1960 West Virginia Election Made History" (Washington Post, 2010): @

* "1960: LBJ Vs. JFK Vs. Nixon" (See Chapter Ten, "Committing a sin against God" (David Pietrusza, 2008): @

* "The Making of the President 1960" (See Chapter Four, "The Art of the Primary: Wisconsin and West Virginia" (Theodore H. White, 1961): @
* West Virginia Archives & History website: @ 

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