1960 United States presidential election in the context of "Richard Nixon"

The 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy, then junior United States senator from Massachusetts, was formally launched on January 2, 1960, as Senator Kennedy announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 1960 presidential election.

Kennedy was nominated by the Democratic Party at the national convention on July 15, 1960, and he named Senator Lyndon B. Johnson as his vice-presidential running mate. On November 8, 1960, they defeated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon and United Nations Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. in the general election. Kennedy was sworn in as president on January 20, 1961, and would serve until his assassination on November 22, 1963. His brothers Robert and Ted would both later run for president in 1968 and 1980 respectively, but neither received the presidential nomination.

The 1960 United States presidential debates were a series of debates held during the 1960 presidential election.

Four presidential debates were held between Republican nominee Richard Nixon and Democratic nominee John F. Kennedy. All four presidential debates were the first series of debates conducted for any US presidential election. The next presidential debate did not occur until 1976, after which debates would become a regular feature of all presidential campaigns.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (/ˈlɪndən ˈbeɪnz/; August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served as the 37th vice president from 1961 to 1963. A Southern Democrat, Johnson previously represented Texas in Congress for over 23 years, first as a U.S. representative from 1937 to 1949, and then as a U.S. senator from 1949 to 1961.

Born in Stonewall, Texas, Johnson worked as a teacher and a congressional aide before winning election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937. In 1948, he was controversially declared the winner in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate election in Texas before winning the general election. He became Senate majority whip in 1951, Senate Democratic leader in 1953 and majority leader in 1954. Senator Kennedy bested Johnson and his other rivals for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination before surprising many by offering to make Johnson his vice presidential running mate. The Kennedy–Johnson ticket won the general election. Vice President Johnson assumed the presidency in 1963, after President Kennedy was assassinated. The following year, Johnson won reelection to the presidency in a landslide, winning the largest share of the popular vote for the Democratic Party in history, and the highest for any candidate since the advent of widespread popular elections in the 1820s.

The 1962 California gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1962. The Democratic incumbent, Pat Brown, won re-election over former U.S. vice president and 1960 Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon.

Brown faced nominal opposition throughout the Democratic primary. Emphasizing his record as governor, and following a successful public relations campaign to make Brown appear forceful and decisive, Brown would crush his opponents and won with over 80 percent of the vote.

Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 1988. The Republican ticket of incumbent vice president George H. W. Bush and Indiana senator Dan Quayle defeated the Democratic ticket of Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis and Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen. The election was the third consecutive landslide victory for the Republican Party.

President Ronald Reagan was ineligible to seek a third term because of the 22nd Amendment. As a result, it was the first election since 1968 to lack an incumbent president on the ballot, and also the first incumbent president since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1960 to be barred from seeking reelection. Bush entered the Republican primaries as the front-runner, defeating Kansas senator Bob Dole and televangelist Pat Robertson. He selected Indiana senator Dan Quayle as his running mate. Dukakis, campaigning on his state's record of strong economic growth, won the Democratic primaries after Gary Hart (a prominent "Atari Democrat" representing the party's moderate wing) withdrew and Ted Kennedy (representing the party's traditional liberal wing) declined to run. Dukakis selected Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate.

The Twenty-third Amendment (Amendment XXIII) to the United States Constitution extends the right to participate in presidential elections to the District of Columbia. The amendment grants to the district electors in the Electoral College, as though it were a state, though the district can never have more electors than the least-populous state. How the electors are appointed is to be determined by Congress. The Twenty-third Amendment was proposed by the 86th Congress on June 16, 1960; it was ratified by the requisite number of states on March 29, 1961.

The Constitution provides that each state receives presidential electors equal to the combined number of seats it has in the Senate and the House of Representatives. As the District of Columbia is not a state, it was not entitled to any electors before the adoption of the Twenty-third Amendment. As early as 1888, some journalists and members of Congress favored a constitutional amendment to grant the district electoral votes. Still, such an amendment did not win widespread support until the rise of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. The amendment was not seen as a partisan measure; ratification of the amendment was endorsed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and both major party candidates in the 1960 presidential election. The amendment's ratification made the district the only entity other than the states to have any representation in the Electoral College.

Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis (née Bouvier /ˈbuːvieɪ/; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994), also known as Jackie Kennedy, and as Jackie O following her second marriage, was the first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. During her lifetime, she was regarded as an international icon for her unique fashion choices, and her work as a cultural ambassador of the United States made her popular globally.

After studying history and art at Vassar College and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in French literature from George Washington University in 1951, Bouvier started working for the Washington Times-Herald as an inquiring photographer. The following year, she met then-Congressman John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts at a dinner party in Washington. He was elected to the Senate that same year, and the couple married on September 12, 1953, in Newport, Rhode Island. They had four children, two of whom died in infancy. Following her husband's election to the presidency in 1960, Kennedy was known for her highly publicized restoration of the White House and emphasis on arts and culture as well as for her style. She also traveled to many countries where her fluency in foreign languages and history made her very popular. At age 33, she was named Time magazine's Woman of the Year in 1962.

The term New Frontier was used by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in his acceptance speech, delivered July 15, to the 1960 Democratic National Convention at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The phrase became a label for his administration's domestic and foreign programs.

In the words of Robert D. Marcus: "Kennedy entered office with ambitions to eradicate poverty and to raise America's eyes to the stars through the space program."