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49 3 John F. Kennedy and the Democratic Nomination “Kennedy outsmarted all the pros. . . . But if he had ever stumbled just once, the wolves would have closed in on him.” —Carmine DeSapio After the 1958 congressional sweep and with Eisenhower constitutionally prohibited from running, Democratic spirits soared. Under these circumstances , there was no shortage of available candidates to make the run at the head of the Democratic ticket. By the end of 1959, five leading presidential contenders were identifiable—Senators Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, and Stuart Symington and former governor and presidential nominee Adlai E. Stevenson. All but Stevenson were actively soliciting support. Other possibilities such as former New York governor Averell Harriman, Michigan governor G. Mennen “Soapy” Williams, and Chester Bowles lurked in the background.1 All four of John F. Kennedy’s major opponents were limited men with flawed strategies. Humphrey lacked money and organization and had a reputation for being too liberal and talking too much. Johnson’s southern background and segregationist votes made him unacceptable in most of the North, and he refused to declare his candidacy for the presidency until July 1960. Stuart Symington possessed an impressive appearance but no great brain. One columnist wrote of him that he was “known as the candidate who looked most formidable until he opened his mouth.” Another said Symington would be “the worst possible candidate of all parties, including the Communist Party.”2 Adlai Stevenson was a two-time loser with a reputation for indecisiveness Although it is easy to second-guess nomination strategies with the benefit of fifty years, there was a historical reason for Symington, Stevenson, and Johnson to hold back from the primaries and set their sights on the national convention. The 1960 convention was only the second contested one for Democrats since the old convention rule requiring a two-thirds majority for the nomination had been lifted in 1936. There was no nomination 50 * Kennedy v. Nixon fight in that year or 1940, 1944, and 1948 with a Democratic incumbent president. Thus, the Democratic Party’s experience with contested nominations boiled down to 1952 and 1956. In both years, Senator Estes Kefauver emerged as an insurgent candidate, defying the party establishment, which detested him. With no chance of winning the nomination based on support from the party leaders, Kefauver launched himself into the primaries. In 1952, beginning with New Hampshire, he was spectacularly successful, winning twelve of fifteen primaries that year and receiving 64.3 percent of the total primary vote. The presidential nomination, however, went to Adlai E. Stevenson, who appeared in none of the primaries. In 1956, something similar happened.3 The history of these two campaigns left an identification of Kefauver with the strategy of winning the presidential nomination through primaries . Because Kefauver attracted so much animosity, the dislike of him spilled over onto his primary strategy. In late 1959, the consensus was that primaries were a dead end and that the nomination would be decided by the party leaders at the national convention as it always had. In November 1959, DNC chairman Paul Butler predicted that the nomination would be decided on the fifth ballot. The New York Times reported that most Democratic politicians expected a strong Kennedy showing on the first ballot, putting him in a position to try to win on the second or third. Party elders convinced themselves that primaries would be just as meaningless in 1960 as they had been in the two previous presidential campaigns.4 Their analysis ignored Kefauver’s lack of a regional base and financial resources . He had no effective campaign organization and therefore no ability to exert pressure on the party bosses of the large states. What was remarkable was not Kefauver’s failure to win the nomination in 1952 and 1956; rather, it was that he came as close as he did given his liabilities. In 1960, John F. Kennedy was a candidate unacceptable to most party leaders. Like Kefauver, he proposed to use the primaries as a vehicle to stake a claim on the nomination. Unlike the Tennessee senator, Kennedy had a regional base, massive financial resources, and a strong campaign organization . It would be far more difficult to stop the Massachusetts senator than the Tennessee maverick, as the great party barons discovered. Kennedy entered 1960 with determination to succeed, with excellent preparation, and with a well-thought-out strategic plan. Kennedy had been an undistinguished representative and senator, but after his awakening in 1956 and with...

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