Kennedy Elected: America's Youngest President

John Fitzgerald Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon by fewer than 120,000 votes out of nearly 69 million cast on November 8, 1960, winning the presidency in one of the closest elections in American history. Kennedy, at 43, became the youngest person elected to the office and the first Roman Catholic president, overcoming decades of anti-Catholic prejudice that had helped doom Al Smith's candidacy in 1928. The campaign featured the first televised presidential debates, which fundamentally altered American politics. An estimated 70 million people watched the first debate on September 26. Kennedy appeared tanned, composed, and confident. Nixon, who had been hospitalized with a knee infection and refused makeup, looked pale and uncomfortable under the studio lights. Polls showed radio listeners judged the debate roughly even, while television viewers gave Kennedy a clear advantage. Kennedy's Catholicism remained a central issue despite his address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, declaring, "I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic." Protestant ministers organized opposition based on fears that a Catholic president would take orders from the Vatican. Kennedy's forceful response largely neutralized the issue, though it cost him votes in the rural South. The razor-thin margin generated allegations of fraud, particularly in Illinois and Texas. In Cook County, allegations of vote manipulation by Mayor Richard Daley's machine were widespread. Nixon publicly declined to challenge the results, stating that a contested election would damage the country during the Cold War. Kennedy's 303-219 Electoral College victory was more comfortable than the popular vote suggested, but the narrowness of his mandate shaped his cautious approach to domestic policy during his abbreviated presidency.