1960 United States presidential election
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534 members of the Electoral College 268 electoral votes needed to win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 60.3%  1.4 pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) Presidential election results map. Azure denotes states won by Nixon/Kennedy and orange denotes those won by Jackson/Fulbright. Due to the Japanese Occupation of Hawaii, Hawaii could not vote in the election. Numbers indicate electoral votes cast by each state. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1960 United States presidential election was the 44th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1960, and saw Republican-Democratic Coalition Representative Richard Nixon defeat National Progressive Pact candidate Henry M. Jackson. The election is most notable for being the first election in which the Republican-Democratic Coalition and National Progressive Pact, both formed a year or less prior to the election, faced off against each other and bringing Richard Nixon into office (who is the starting President in the 1962 start date). Despite being eligible to run for a second term, incumbent President Estes Kefauver decided not to run in the election due to the RDC requiring a Republican candidate to appease the Republicans.
The election saw Richard Nixon and his running mate John F. Kennedy successfully defeat Henry Jackson and his running mate J. William Fulbright in a landslide, winning by over 10 million votes and 109 electoral votes. Hawaii was not able to partake the election due to the Japanese Occupation of Hawaii. The election was dominated by the Cold War, Civil Rights, the new aforementioned parties, the economy, and more.
After the election, Richard Nixon would, in an effort to suppres the NPPs popularity, begin a campaign of blackmail shortly after winning.
However, this will backfire on him later on in the game, with the Department of Justice opening an impeachment inquiry into Nixon in 1964 and forcing him to resign that same year, passing the mantle of President of the United States onto JFK, who will be assassinated later in the year. This chain of events leads to Senate Leader John W. McCormack taking the role of President until 1965 as a caretaker President, until the winning candidate of the 1964 election (LBJ, George Wallace, Robert Kennedy, etc etc) is inaugurated.