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1960 United States presidential election in New Mexico

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1960 United States presidential election in New Mexico

← 1956 November 8, 1960 1964 →
 
Nominee John F. Kennedy Richard Nixon
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Massachusetts California
Running mate Lyndon B. Johnson Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
Electoral vote 4 0
Popular vote 156,027 153,733
Percentage 50.15% 49.41%

County Results

President before election

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

Elected President

John F. Kennedy
Democratic

The 1960 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 8, 1960. This was the first year where all 50 current states were part of the 1960 United States presidential election. State voters chose four electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

In its early days New Mexico had been divided between largely Republican machine-run highland regions and its firmly Southern Democrat "Little Texas" region in its east.[1] However, with a shift of these machine-run regions to the Democratic Party, the state became very largely a one-party Democratic state in the years following the New Deal,[2] although Republicans – despite being severely faction-ridden[3] – retained strength in many highland counties. Despite the GOP recapturing the governorship under Edwin L. Mechem in 1950 and retaining it for all but one term up to this point,[4] the state's electorate was overwhelmingly aligned with the Democratic Party.

The nomination by the Democratic Party of a Roman Catholic in Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy introduced major complications into likely voting behavior. In 1928, Al Smith had lost most of his party's traditional support in the Baptist "Little Texas" region due to his Catholic faith and Tammany Hall links.[5] However, increasing Mexican-American voting and the power of older Hispanic Catholic voting meant that there was a potential counterweight to this trend,[6] whose power was seen in a wave of anti-Catholic pamphlets in the southeast.[7]

New Mexico was won by Kennedy by a narrow 1-point margin. His narrow win reflected a balancing of Catholic and anti-Catholic forces. In heavily Baptist Roosevelt County, Kennedy declined 15 percent from Adlai Stevenson II's share of the vote in 1956. In contrast, in traditionally Republican Socorro County – the solitary county won by Alf Landon in 1936 – Kennedy won 57 percent of the vote and became the first Democrat to win the county since 1932.[6] Kennedy was also the first Democrat since 1936 to carry Mora County and the first since 1940 to win Santa Fe County. Both counties would become among the most Democratic in the state from the 1970s onwards. It is believed indeed that as many as 98 percent of Hispanic voters may have supported fellow Catholic Kennedy.[8]

In his first bid for the presidency, Republican nominee incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon was defeated in one of the closest elections in American history.[9] Nixon would later win New Mexico in both 1968 and 1972.

Results

[edit]
1960 United States presidential election in New Mexico
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic 156,027 50.15% +8.37
Republican 153,733 49.41% −8.40
Prohibition 777 0.25% +0.01
Socialist Labor 570 0.18% +0.15
Total votes 311,107 100.00%
Democratic win

Results by county

[edit]
County John F. Kennedy
Democratic
Richard Nixon
Republican
Various candidates
Other parties
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # %
Bernalillo 40,908 47.53% 44,805 52.06% 348 0.41% -3,897 -4.53% 86,061
Catron 573 46.02% 671 53.90% 1 0.08% -98 -7.88% 1,245
Chaves 6,212 40.36% 9,089 59.05% 91 0.59% -2,877 -18.69% 15,392
Colfax 3,187 57.65% 2,316 41.90% 25 0.45% 871 15.75% 5,528
Curry 3,421 35.49% 6,153 63.83% 65 0.68% -2,732 -28.34% 9,639
De Baca 619 45.68% 734 54.17% 2 0.15% -115 -8.49% 1,355
Dona Ana 8,905 53.15% 7,789 46.49% 61 0.36% 1,116 6.66% 16,755
Eddy 8,707 51.89% 7,986 47.59% 87 0.52% 721 4.30% 16,780
Grant 4,378 63.74% 2,468 35.93% 22 0.33% 1,910 27.81% 6,868
Guadalupe 1,589 56.07% 1,242 43.82% 3 0.11% 347 12.25% 2,834
Harding 396 39.13% 616 60.87% 0 0.00% -220 -21.74% 1,012
Hidalgo 889 54.11% 750 45.65% 4 0.24% 139 8.46% 1,643
Lea 7,806 50.45% 7,548 48.78% 120 0.77% 258 1.67% 15,474
Lincoln 1,459 41.65% 2,042 58.29% 2 0.06% -583 -16.64% 3,503
Los Alamos 2,692 50.96% 2,574 48.72% 17 0.32% 118 2.24% 5,283
Luna 1,708 51.66% 1,583 47.88% 15 0.44% 125 3.78% 3,306
McKinley 5,599 56.60% 4,262 43.08% 32 0.32% 1,337 13.52% 9,893
Mora 1,458 51.94% 1,349 48.06% 0 0.00% 109 3.88% 2,807
Otero 4,916 52.15% 4,507 47.81% 3 0.04% 409 4.34% 9,426
Quay 2,050 43.58% 2,652 56.38% 2 0.04% -602 -12.80% 4,704
Rio Arriba 6,250 62.69% 3,716 37.28% 3 0.03% 2,534 25.41% 9,969
Roosevelt 1,761 30.34% 4,039 69.59% 4 0.07% -2,278 -39.25% 5,804
San Juan 5,370 40.73% 7,521 57.04% 294 2.23% -2,151 -16.31% 13,185
San Miguel 5,520 58.02% 3,988 41.92% 6 0.06% 1,532 16.10% 9,514
Sandoval 2,672 64.87% 1,447 35.13% 0 0.00% 1,225 29.74% 4,119
Santa Fe 10,385 58.05% 7,411 41.43% 94 0.52% 2,974 16.62% 17,890
Sierra 1,220 39.14% 1,890 60.64% 7 0.22% -670 -21.50% 3,117
Socorro 2,327 56.37% 1,796 43.51% 5 0.12% 531 12.86% 4,128
Taos 3,631 58.03% 2,620 41.87% 6 0.10% 1,011 16.16% 6,257
Torrance 1,308 45.35% 1,554 53.88% 22 0.77% -246 -8.53% 2,884
Union 1,068 38.75% 1,686 61.18% 2 0.07% -618 -22.43% 2,756
Valencia 7,043 58.81% 4,929 41.16% 4 0.03% 2,114 17.65% 11,976
Totals 156,027 50.15% 153,733 49.41% 1,347 0.44% 2,294 0.74% 311,107

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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References

[edit]
  1. ^ Chilton, Lance; New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State, p. 95 ISBN 0826307329
  2. ^ Burnham, Walter Dean; 'The System of 1896: An Analysis'; in The Evolution of American Electoral Systems, pp. 178-179 ISBN 0313213798
  3. ^ Judah, Charles B. (1949); The Republican Party in New Mexico: A Challenge to Constructive Leadership
  4. ^ Irion, Frederick C.; 'The 1960 Election in New Mexico', The Western Political Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1, part 2 (March 1961), pp. 350-354
  5. ^ Phillips, Kevin P; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 461 ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6
  6. ^ a b Menendez, Albert J.; The Religious Factor in the 1960 Presidential Election: An Analysis of the Kennedy Victory over Anti-Catholic Prejudice, p. 178 ISBN 0786484934
  7. ^ Deming Headlight, October 13 and 20, 1960
  8. ^ Roybal, David; Taking on Giants: Fabián Chávez, Jr. and New Mexico Politics, p. 152 ISBN 0826344364
  9. ^ "1960 Presidential General Election Results – New Mexico". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 12, 2018.