1960 Democratic National Convention

The 1960 Democratic National Convention was held in Los Angeles. In the end, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket was assembled. In the week before the convention opened, John F. Kennedy received two new challengers when Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful Senate Majority Leader from Texas, and Adlai Stevenson II, the party's nominee in 1952 and 1956, announced their candidacies. However, neither Johnson nor Stevenson was a match for the talented and highly efficient Kennedy campaign team led by Robert Kennedy. Johnson challenged Kennedy to a televised debate before a joint meeting of the Texas and Massachusetts delegations; Kennedy accepted. Most observers felt that Kennedy won the debate, and Johnson was not able to expand his delegate support beyond the South. Stevenson was popular among many liberal delegates, especially in California, but his two landslide defeats in 1952 and 1956 led party leaders to search for a "fresh face" who had a better chance of winning.
After Kennedy secured the nomination, he asked Johnson to be his running mate in a move which surprised many. To this day there is much debate regarding the details of Johnson's nomination—why it was offered and why he agreed to take it. Some historians speculate that Kennedy actually wanted someone else (such as Senators Stuart Symington or Henry M. Jackson) to be his running mate, and that he offered the nomination to Johnson first only as a courtesy to the powerful Senate Majority Leader

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News & Politics

Tags:

• Senator
• JFK
• Lyndon
• Johnson
• 1960

[CommissionerBele]

All of the Democratic candidates, except Johnson, were impressive.

[Derekrife1]

@CommissionerBele Humphrey was just as bad.

[Etuite715]

LBJ made the mistake of not getting out of Vietnam quickly. He tried to do the right thing otherwise.

[Boelcke1919]

We'll never see another Jack Kennedy and that's too bad.

[LadyofMourning]

commissioner,

i agree...