1960 United States presidential election in Vermont

Summary

The 1960 United States presidential election in Vermont took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the 1960 United States presidential election which was held throughout all 50 states. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1960 United States presidential election in Vermont

← 1956 November 8, 1960 1964 →
 
Nominee Richard Nixon John F. Kennedy
Party Republican Democratic
Home state California Massachusetts
Running mate Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Lyndon B. Johnson
Electoral vote 3 0
Popular vote 98,131 69,186
Percentage 58.65% 41.35%


President before election

Dwight Eisenhower
Republican

Elected President

John F. Kennedy
Democratic

Vermont was won by the Republican nominee, incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon of California, and his running mate former Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts, defeating Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and his running mate Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.

Nixon took 58.65% of the vote to Kennedy’s 41.35%, a margin of 17.30%.

Vermont historically was a bastion of Northeastern Republicanism, and by 1960 it had gone Republican in every presidential election since the founding of the Republican Party. From 1856 to 1956, Vermont had had the longest streak of voting Republican of any state, having never voted Democratic before, and this tradition continued in 1960. This election would prove to be the conclusion of a 104-year winning streak, as Vermont would flip to the Democrats for the first time four years later in 1964.

As Kennedy won a razor-thin victory over Nixon nationally, Vermont weighed in as about seventeen percent more Republican than the national average, and his 58.65% of the popular vote made Vermont the fourth most Republican state in the nation in the 1960 election after Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.[1]

Kennedy, an Irish Catholic Democrat from neighboring Massachusetts, did however improve dramatically on the performance of Democrat Adlai Stevenson in Vermont in 1952 and 1956. In both of those years Stevenson had taken less than 30% of the vote against Republican Dwight Eisenhower, who had received more than 70% of the vote in Vermont and had swept every county in the state.

Nixon won 11 of the 14 counties in Vermont, losing 3 counties in the northwestern part of the state. The three northwestern counties of Vermont (Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle) had long been Democratic enclaves in an otherwise Republican state through the 1930s and 1940s, but had gone Republican in the 1950s for Eisenhower. Only the second Roman Catholic to be nominated for president by a major party, Kennedy's appeal to Catholics and ethnic working class voters brought northwestern Vermont back into the Democratic column in 1960. Kennedy won Chittenden County, the most populous county, home to the state's largest city, Burlington. Chittenden County had been the only county in Vermont to flip to the Democrats for the first Roman Catholic nominee Al Smith in 1928. Kennedy also won Franklin and Grand Isle Counties, which had joined Chittenden in voting Democratic for Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, even as the rest of the state remained reliably Republican. Thus the split between the northwest and the rest of the state was a familiar result typical of New Deal coalition era elections in Vermont.

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

Results edit

1960 United States presidential election in Vermont[2]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Richard Nixon 98,131 58.65% 3
Democratic John F. Kennedy 69,186 41.35% 0
No party Write-ins 7 0.00% 0
Totals 167,324 100.00% 3
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered) 72%/81%

Results by county edit

County Richard Milhous Nixon
Republican
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Democratic
Various candidates
Write-ins
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # %
Addison 5,520 65.03% 2,969 34.97% 2,551 30.06% 8,489
Bennington 7,099 61.19% 4,502 38.80% 1 0.01% 2,597 22.39% 11,602
Caledonia 6,688 69.69% 2,909 30.31% 3,779 39.38% 9,597
Chittenden 13,072 43.53% 16,959 56.47% -3,887 -12.94% 30,031
Essex 1,439 57.51% 1,063 42.49% 376 15.02% 2,502
Franklin 5,444 43.65% 7,028 56.35% -1,584 -12.70% 12,472
Grand Isle 798 49.35% 819 50.65% -21 -1.30% 1,617
Lamoille 3,272 76.02% 1,032 23.98% 2,240 52.04% 4,304
Orange 5,363 77.23% 1,581 22.77% 3,782 54.46% 6,944
Orleans 5,027 59.98% 3,354 40.02% 1,673 19.96% 8,381
Rutland 12,166 56.82% 9,246 43.18% 2,920 13.64% 21,412
Washington 10,458 59.49% 7,116 40.48% 4 0.02% 3,342 19.01% 17,578
Windham 9,128 67.69% 4,358 32.31% 4,770 35.38% 13,486
Windsor 12,657 66.94% 6,250 33.05% 2 0.01% 6,407 33.89% 18,909
Totals 98,131 58.65% 69,186 41.35% 7 0.00% 28,945 17.30% 167,324

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "1960 Presidential Election Statistics". Dave Leip’s Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  2. ^ "1960 Presidential General Election Results - Vermont". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 2, 2013.