1960 United States presidential election in Iowa

The 1960 United States presidential election in Iowa took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the 1960 United States presidential election. Voters chose ten[2] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1960 United States presidential election in Iowa

← 1956 November 8, 1960[1] 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 10 0
Popular vote 722,381 550,565
Percentage 56.71% 43.22%

County Results

President before election

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

Elected President

John F. Kennedy
Democratic

Iowa was won by incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon (RCalifornia), running with United States Ambassador to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., with 56.71% of the popular vote, against Senator John F. Kennedy (DMassachusetts), running with Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, with 43.22% of the popular vote.[3][4] As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election in which Johnson County, home to Iowa City and the University of Iowa, voted for a Republican presidential candidate.[5]

Kennedy became the fourth American president to have ever held office without carrying Iowa in an election.

Primaries

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Democratic precinct caucuses

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While no statewide vote was held, a system of precinct caucuses were used to select delegates.[6] Edward A. McDermott led a, first-of-its-kind- coordinated effort for the Kennedy campaign which sought to shape the results of Iowa's precinct caucuses in order to secure an Iowa delegation which favored Kennedy's candidacy.[6] These precinct caucuses had been largely ignored by most political circles, providing an opportunity for Kennedy.[6] His campaign had been targeting Iowa as a top priority state in its delegate strategy since, at latest, 1959, setting a goal to secure the support of 18 of the state's 26 delegates.[6]

For years, Kennedy had been seeking to curry favor with Iowa's Democratic governor, Herschel Loveless, who had fiercely opposed Kennedy's effort to secure the vice-presidential nomination at the 1956 Democratic National Convention.[6] Kennedy hoped to persuade Loveless against putting himself forward in 1960 as a favorite son (carrying the support of his state's delegation for himself in order to leave it united and unbound to any top contender).[6] Loveless had been neutral for a long time, and continued to remain open to a multitude of candidates as well as a prospect of running as a favorite son (perhaps leveraging that as a means of securing the vice-presidential nomination).[6] However, Kennedy began to secure more and more grassroots support in Iowa.[6]

McDermott heavily organized in Iowa, more than compensating for the potential disadvantage Kennedy held due to the fact that a number of possible opponents (such as Hubert Humphrey, Stuart Symington, and Adlai Stevenson II) came from states which directly neighbored Iowa.[6] In the Spring of 1959, McDermott founded the "Iowans for Kennedy" political club and appointed Lumond F. Wilcox, a leading Medodist figure in the state, as its co-chairman in an effort to alleviate the concerns many Iowans still held about Kennedy's Catholic faith.[6]

McDermott also recruited Iowan Democrats to run at local precinct caucuses.[6]

By late autumn, a Des Moines Register poll of the Iowa Democratic Party's 99 county party chairmen showed that the county leaders had come to favor Kennedy 3 to 2 over Symington and 3 to 1 over either Stevenson of Humphrey.[6]

Results

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1960 United States presidential election in Iowa
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Richard Nixon 722,381 56.71%
Democratic John F. Kennedy 550,565 43.22%
No Party Listed Farrell Dobbs 634 0.05%
Socialist Labor Eric Hass 230 0.02%
Total votes 1,273,810 100%

Results by county

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County[7] Richard Nixon
Republican
John F. Kennedy
Democratic
Farrell Dobbs
No Party Listed
Eric Hass
Socialist Labor
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Adair 3,383 60.09% 2,245 39.88% 1 0.02% 1 0.02% 1,138 20.21% 5,630
Adams 2,185 57.08% 1,643 42.92% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 542 14.16% 3,828
Allamakee 4,970 62.78% 2,933 37.05% 7 0.09% 6 0.08% 2,037 25.73% 7,916
Appanoose 5,040 59.43% 3,422 40.35% 15 0.18% 3 0.04% 1,618 19.08% 8,480
Audubon 2,935 53.05% 2,595 46.91% 2 0.04% 0 0.00% 340 6.14% 5,532
Benton 5,972 56.33% 4,620 43.58% 6 0.06% 3 0.03% 1,352 12.75% 10,601
Black Hawk 28,435 54.11% 24,078 45.82% 26 0.05% 12 0.02% 4,357 8.29% 52,551
Boone 6,761 53.97% 5,759 45.97% 6 0.05% 1 0.01% 1,002 8.00% 12,527
Bremer 6,504 66.76% 3,234 33.20% 4 0.04% 0 0.00% 3,270 33.56% 9,742
Buchanan 5,179 54.90% 4,251 45.07% 3 0.03% 0 0.00% 928 9.83% 9,433
Buena Vista 6,351 63.54% 3,637 36.38% 5 0.05% 3 0.03% 2,714 27.16% 9,996
Butler 5,345 70.18% 2,268 29.78% 1 0.01% 2 0.03% 3,077 40.40% 7,616
Calhoun 4,485 58.90% 3,123 41.01% 4 0.05% 3 0.04% 1,362 17.89% 7,615
Carroll 4,648 39.66% 7,064 60.27% 6 0.05% 3 0.03% -2,416 -20.61% 11,721
Cass 6,290 67.24% 3,059 32.70% 5 0.05% 0 0.00% 3,231 34.54% 9,354
Cedar 5,217 61.92% 3,203 38.02% 5 0.06% 0 0.00% 2,014 23.90% 8,425
Cerro Gordo 12,830 56.05% 10,044 43.88% 15 0.07% 0 0.00% 2,786 12.17% 22,889
Cherokee 4,791 59.10% 3,309 40.82% 5 0.06% 1 0.01% 1,482 18.28% 8,106
Chickasaw 3,822 48.45% 4,063 51.50% 4 0.05% 0 0.00% -241 -3.05% 7,889
Clarke 2,631 57.82% 1,906 41.89% 12 0.26% 1 0.02% 725 15.93% 4,550
Clay 5,165 60.03% 3,437 39.95% 2 0.02% 0 0.00% 1,728 20.08% 8,604
Clayton 6,441 58.25% 4,612 41.71% 4 0.04% 0 0.00% 1,829 16.54% 11,057
Clinton 13,797 56.71% 10,508 43.19% 11 0.05% 14 0.06% 3,289 13.52% 24,330
Crawford 4,791 56.25% 3,720 43.67% 3 0.04% 4 0.05% 1,071 12.58% 8,518
Dallas 6,566 53.93% 5,597 45.97% 11 0.09% 2 0.02% 969 7.96% 12,176
Davis 2,641 53.36% 2,303 46.53% 4 0.08% 1 0.02% 338 6.83% 4,949
Decatur 3,039 55.69% 2,411 44.18% 7 0.13% 0 0.00% 628 11.51% 5,457
Delaware 5,015 57.62% 3,688 42.38% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,327 15.24% 8,703
Des Moines 10,678 51.86% 9,872 47.94% 36 0.17% 5 0.02% 806 3.92% 20,591
Dickinson 3,575 56.99% 2,696 42.98% 2 0.03% 0 0.00% 879 14.01% 6,273
Dubuque 12,740 36.64% 22,007 63.30% 10 0.03% 9 0.03% -9,267 -26.66% 34,766
Emmet 4,284 62.51% 2,563 37.40% 3 0.04% 3 0.04% 1,721 25.11% 6,853
Fayette 8,330 61.20% 5,256 38.62% 21 0.15% 4 0.03% 3,074 22.58% 13,611
Floyd 5,774 59.24% 3,970 40.73% 1 0.01% 1 0.01% 1,804 18.51% 9,746
Franklin 4,514 64.52% 2,476 35.39% 3 0.04% 3 0.04% 2,038 29.13% 6,996
Fremont 3,027 56.73% 2,307 43.23% 2 0.04% 0 0.00% 720 13.50% 5,336
Greene 4,063 58.43% 2,879 41.40% 7 0.10% 5 0.07% 1,184 17.03% 6,954
Grundy 4,989 69.62% 2,174 30.34% 3 0.04% 0 0.00% 2,815 39.28% 7,166
Guthrie 4,046 58.22% 2,896 41.68% 6 0.09% 1 0.01% 1,150 16.54% 6,949
Hamilton 5,265 57.39% 3,905 42.57% 4 0.04% 0 0.00% 1,360 14.82% 9,174
Hancock 4,179 60.24% 2,757 39.74% 1 0.01% 0 0.00% 1,422 20.50% 6,937
Hardin 6,438 62.32% 3,888 37.64% 2 0.02% 2 0.02% 2,550 24.68% 10,330
Harrison 4,940 57.70% 3,613 42.20% 8 0.09% 1 0.01% 1,327 15.50% 8,562
Henry 5,531 66.03% 2,839 33.89% 7 0.08% 0 0.00% 2,692 32.14% 8,377
Howard 3,378 49.79% 3,406 50.21% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -28 -0.42% 6,784
Humboldt 3,537 56.66% 2,706 43.34% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 831 13.32% 6,243
Ida 3,290 62.77% 1,949 37.19% 2 0.04% 0 0.00% 1,341 25.58% 5,241
Iowa 4,944 63.47% 2,828 36.30% 12 0.15% 6 0.08% 2,116 27.17% 7,790
Jackson 5,084 53.89% 4,345 46.06% 4 0.04% 1 0.01% 739 7.83% 9,434
Jasper 9,332 56.27% 7,242 43.67% 8 0.05% 3 0.02% 2,090 12.60% 16,585
Jefferson 4,942 64.00% 2,780 36.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 2,162 28.00% 7,722
Johnson 10,927 50.80% 10,563 49.11% 15 0.07% 3 0.01% 364 1.69% 21,508
Jones 5,541 58.52% 3,924 41.44% 3 0.03% 1 0.01% 1,617 17.08% 9,469
Keokuk 4,697 57.88% 3,408 42.00% 10 0.12% 0 0.00% 1,289 15.88% 8,115
Kossuth 6,278 51.95% 5,806 48.05% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 472 3.90% 12,084
Lee 10,765 52.00% 9,936 48.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 829 4.00% 20,701
Linn 34,200 55.30% 27,614 44.65% 17 0.03% 8 0.01% 6,586 10.65% 61,839
Louisa 3,036 60.67% 1,966 39.29% 2 0.04% 0 0.00% 1,070 21.38% 5,004
Lucas 3,512 59.88% 2,344 39.97% 9 0.15% 0 0.00% 1,168 19.91% 5,865
Lyon 4,917 73.65% 1,752 26.24% 4 0.06% 3 0.04% 3,165 47.41% 6,676
Madison 3,804 58.26% 2,722 41.69% 2 0.03% 1 0.02% 1,082 16.57% 6,529
Mahaska 7,129 65.40% 3,746 34.36% 18 0.17% 8 0.07% 3,383 31.04% 10,901
Marion 7,444 61.99% 4,547 37.87% 15 0.12% 2 0.02% 2,897 24.12% 12,008
Marshall 10,265 60.23% 6,761 39.67% 13 0.08% 3 0.02% 3,504 20.56% 17,042
Mills 3,436 65.37% 1,820 34.63% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,616 30.74% 5,256
Mitchell 3,915 57.59% 2,873 42.26% 9 0.13% 1 0.01% 1,042 15.33% 6,798
Monona 3,863 54.64% 3,207 45.36% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 656 9.28% 7,070
Monroe 2,922 54.20% 2,459 45.61% 8 0.15% 2 0.04% 463 8.59% 5,391
Montgomery 4,974 65.19% 2,655 34.80% 1 0.01% 0 0.00% 2,319 30.39% 7,630
Muscatine 8,555 58.21% 6,135 41.74% 3 0.02% 5 0.03% 2,420 16.47% 14,698
O'Brien 6,509 68.66% 2,967 31.30% 4 0.04% 0 0.00% 3,542 37.36% 9,480
Osceola 2,965 62.00% 1,814 37.93% 3 0.06% 0 0.00% 1,151 24.07% 4,782
Page 7,089 69.69% 3,075 30.23% 6 0.06% 2 0.02% 4,014 39.46% 10,172
Palo Alto 3,551 48.99% 3,695 50.97% 1 0.01% 2 0.03% -144 -1.98% 7,249
Plymouth 6,432 57.93% 4,671 42.07% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,761 15.86% 11,103
Pocahontas 3,445 50.23% 3,408 49.69% 5 0.07% 1 0.01% 37 0.54% 6,859
Polk 64,077 53.74% 55,091 46.20% 37 0.03% 29 0.02% 8,986 7.54% 119,234
Pottawattamie 19,223 57.79% 14,025 42.17% 8 0.02% 5 0.02% 5,198 15.62% 33,261
Poweshiek 5,232 58.76% 3,671 41.23% 1 0.01% 0 0.00% 1,561 17.53% 8,904
Ringgold 2,538 58.74% 1,781 41.22% 1 0.02% 1 0.02% 757 17.52% 4,321
Sac 4,850 61.36% 3,054 38.64% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,796 22.72% 7,904
Scott 27,617 54.50% 23,004 45.40% 34 0.07% 16 0.03% 4,613 9.10% 50,671
Shelby 4,210 55.08% 3,427 44.83% 5 0.07% 2 0.03% 783 10.25% 7,644
Sioux 10,284 79.51% 2,643 20.43% 5 0.04% 2 0.02% 7,641 59.08% 12,934
Story 13,708 65.26% 7,281 34.66% 10 0.05% 5 0.02% 6,427 30.60% 21,004
Tama 5,535 52.78% 4,950 47.21% 1 0.01% 0 0.00% 585 5.57% 10,486
Taylor 3,452 61.85% 2,126 38.09% 3 0.05% 0 0.00% 1,326 23.76% 5,581
Union 4,417 61.85% 2,720 38.08% 3 0.04% 2 0.03% 1,697 23.77% 7,142
Van Buren 3,129 63.94% 1,760 35.96% 3 0.06% 2 0.04% 1,369 27.98% 4,894
Wapello 11,036 49.79% 11,116 50.15% 8 0.04% 7 0.03% -80 -0.36% 22,167
Warren 6,013 59.25% 4,136 40.75% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,877 18.50% 10,149
Washington 5,861 64.48% 3,222 35.45% 5 0.06% 1 0.01% 2,639 29.03% 9,089
Wayne 3,401 59.51% 2,307 40.37% 5 0.09% 2 0.03% 1,094 19.14% 5,715
Webster 10,741 50.11% 10,680 49.83% 12 0.06% 2 0.01% 61 0.28% 21,435
Winnebago 4,082 62.33% 2,463 37.61% 4 0.06% 0 0.00% 1,619 24.72% 6,549
Winneshiek 5,737 54.48% 4,786 45.45% 5 0.05% 2 0.02% 951 9.03% 10,530
Woodbury 26,832 55.05% 21,906 44.94% 4 0.01% 2 0.00% 4,926 10.11% 48,744
Worth 2,740 54.28% 2,303 45.62% 5 0.10% 0 0.00% 437 8.66% 5,048
Wright 5,386 56.34% 4,159 43.50% 15 0.16% 0 0.00% 1,227 12.84% 9,560
Totals 722,381 56.71% 550,565 43.22% 634 0.05% 230 0.02% 171,816 13.49% 1,273,810

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "United States Presidential election of 1960 - Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  2. ^ "1960 Election for the Forty-Fourth Term (1961-65)". Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  3. ^ "1960 Presidential General Election Results – Iowa". Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  4. ^ "The American Presidency Project – Election of 1960". Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  5. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oliphant, Thomas; Wilkie, Curtis (2017). The road to Camelot: Inside JFK's Five-Year Campaign. Simon & Schuster.
  7. ^ "IA US President Race, November 08, 1960". Our Campaigns.