The 1960 Presidential Campaign

Deceptive political campaign ads, circa 1960: partisans for Richard Nixon marched at the UW Homecoming game showing support for John Kennedy … to stay in the Senate. UW Archives

In the fall of 1960, a narrowly divided United States was careening toward a bitter presidential election. Democrat John Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon vied for support in a race that came down to less than two-tenths of a percentage point difference — Kennedy carried 49.72 percent of the national popular vote, while Nixon had 49.55 percent. UW students got caught up in that tight race.

Kennedy worked hard to appeal to campus. He spoke to more than 12,000 students at the Wisconsin Field House in late October, less than two weeks before the vote. Bill Whitford ’61 of the Young Democrats declared approvingly that Kennedy was “devoted to foresight, not hindsight.” The conservative student publication Insight and Outlook disagreed — it said that Kennedy would “lead the ship of state into its rendezvous with bankruptcy.” (Insight and Outlook remained sour on Kennedy. After he was assassinated, it conceded that he had been “warm and friendly,” in an otherwise ungenerous obituary; Kennedy, it said, was “not an exceptionally able chief executive” who “had failed even in what he thought his mission to be.”)

That year’s election fell on November 8, and Homecoming was November 5. During the UW’s annual football festival, partisans put their allegiance on display. Nixon supporters trolled the Kennedy campaign along the sidelines at Camp Randall — presumably suggesting that voters keep Kennedy in the Senate by electing Nixon president.

Ultimately, the Badgers carrying this sign were disappointed. Nixon won Wisconsin, but Kennedy ended up in the White House. Further, Northwestern won the Homecoming game, beating the Badgers 21–0.

Published in the Fall 2024 issue