JFK'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN BEGINS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Nashua, New Hampshire (JFK+50) On January 25, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts began his presidential campaign here in Nashua*.
After attending a reception at the Nashua City Hotel, the candidate spoke on the steps of City Hall.
While we do not know why the Kennedy campaign selected Nashua as his first campaign stop, Michael Brindly of NHPR tells us that the city is located only 35 miles from Brookline, Massachusetts where JFK was born.
The Senator, speaking during a snowstorm, said...
"I do not know any time in the life of this country when a comparable responsibility has been placed upon the people of the United States. And, therefore, what we start here in New Hampshire today, I believe must succeed next summer and next November."
*Nashua, NH, located on the Nashua and Merrimack Rivers in the southern section of the state, was incorporated in 1746. The city has been twice selected by Money Magazine as "the best place to live in America." During the 19th Century it became a center of the textile industry.
SOURCES
"1960: Kennedy's opening drive," May 3, 2011, www.unionleader.com/
"50 years ago Nashua greeted JFK," by Stacy Mibouer, January 25, 2010, www.nashuatelegraph.com/
"In Nashua, Remembering The Day JFK Launched His Campaign," by Michael Brindly, November 22, 2013, www.nhpr.org/
"JFK in Nashua, New Hampshire," by Heather Wilkinson Rojo, November 22, 2013, www.nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/
Nashua City Hall
Nashua, New Hampshire
Photo by John Phelan (2014)
(own work) CC BY-SA 3.0
