JFK CHOOSES LBJ AS RUNNING-MATE; PARTY LEADERS HAPPY, LIBERALS NOT SO MUCH
Los Angeles, California (JFK+50) On July 15, 1960 Senator John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) formally accepted the Democratic Party's nominations for President and Vice-President of the United States here in Los Angeles.
According to The Evening Star, Democratic party leaders called KENNEDY-JOHNSON "the strongest ticket it could have selected."
J.A. O'Leary writes that Mr. Kennedy's choice of "the South's hero in this convention" will give the Democrats a great chance to carry Texas, Virginia and Tennessee in the November election.
Some northern and mid-western liberal Democrats are unhappy with the selection of Senator Johnson as the vice-presidential standard bearer.
JFK+50 NOTE
I've always said JFK could NOT have won the presidency without LBJ on the ticket thinking that his narrow victory in Texas in 1960 was attributable to LBJ. This is the view of the majority of historians who argue that LBJ's selection was necessary to rally the Democratic base in the South.
Looking only at the electoral vote results, however, one could argue JFK would have won without LBJ on the ticket.
JFK defeated Nixon in the Electoral College 303-219. If JFK had selected someone other than LBJ as his running mate & Texas had gone Republican, he still would have won 279-243. 269 electoral votes were required to win in 1960.
The South, unlike today, was a Democratic stronghold in 1960. Nixon carried only 4 states in Dixie: Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee & Virginia.
SOURCE
"Democrats Hail Johnson As Strengthening Ticket," by J. A. O'Leary, The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., July 15, 1960, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
