1960 Election: History Turned On Minuscule Decisions

The slender threads of JFK's victory

The 1960 presidential election could easily have turned out differently. Despite Teddy White’s bestselling classic, Making of the President 1960, which made John Kennedy’s election appear inevitable, like DESTINY, the truth is that JFK won by just one tenth of one percentage point (0.1%), or less than one vote per precinct. It was the closest election of the 20th century.  Kennedy won the popular vote by just 112,827 ballots.

There were allegations of voter fraud in Illinois, which Kennedy carried by just 8,858 votes, and Texas, where Kennedy beat Nixon by just 2% — 51% to 49%. But Kennedy only needed one of those states