John+F.+Kennedy-ss

The Elections of 1960 was a close running between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. The presidential campaign was marked firstly by television with a political debate between the two candidates. Democrats spent over $6 million on televisions and radio spots, but republicans spent over $7.5 million. Through the highly watched debates, Kennedy came through as outgoing and relaxed, while Nixon seemed formal and stiff. Kennedy was very nervous, but still stood very confidently. Kennedy was Catholic and the U.S. had never had a Catholic president and this was a concern for many Protestants; this scared Kennedy, but he continued to stand tall.

"I believe in an America where the separation of the church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president, should be a catholic, how to act." -Kennedy

Kennedy ended up taking the office by popular cote. 119,000 of the 68 million votes were his.