John F. Kennedy Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Kennedy Visit During 1960 Primary Election In W.Va. Changed Politics

The 1960 Democratic Presidential Primary between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey was a watershed event in American politics.

Kennedy was the first, and so far only, Catholic president of the United States. He credited West Virginia, which is largely Protestant, for making it happen.

Author and West Virginia Wesleyan College Professor Robert Rupp explored this issue in his new book “The Primary That Made a President: John F. Kennedy and West Virginia.”

He spoke with Eric Douglas via Zoom.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Douglas: Why did you feel now was the time to delve into this story?

Rupp: I think it’s a story that hasn’t been told. This is the first book by a historian who has looked at that primary. It has become very influential. Kennedy and his advisors admitted that he had to win West Virginia otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have gotten the nomination and there would have been no Kennedy administration.

Douglas: The other big issue, or the supposed big issue, was Kennedy’s Catholicism. And he took it head on in the campaign. He didn’t sit back and wait for people to question him about it. He addressed it up front and repeatedly.

Rupp: But the interesting thing is, before West Virginia, he didn’t use a confrontational strategy. He would wait until someone in the audience would ask him a question. In West Virginia, out of desperation, he addressed it straight on.

Douglas: What can we learn from that today? Obviously, one of the two candidates for president right now, 60 years later, if elected, will be only the second Catholic elected to the office. Is that even a discussion today?

Rupp: Well, let’s go back to 1960. In 1960, if you were talking about the United States presidency, and who was going to be in the White House. It had to be a white adult, male Protestant. And so Kennedy had to challenge that. Even as late as 1959, almost 20 percent of Americans said they would never vote for a Catholic for president, even if that person was qualified.

What Kennedy did is he challenged that. He told America to open that door. And over the last 60 years, we’ve seen that door open sometimes. But as you said, the irony is Kennedy was the first, and so far the only Catholic who has been elected president. But at least he tore down that barrier.

Douglas: Today, I don’t even know that we stopped to consider that Joe Biden is Catholic. It’s not something that I think most people anyway even stop to consider.

Rupp: If we’re looking for encouraging news, what was part of American presidential politics in 1960, as you said, is not part of it now in 2020. We’re not considering it was an obstacle.

Douglas: What did West Virginia gain from the Kennedy primary? I mean, other than some national attention, both good and ill?

Rupp: Kennedy recognized that he owed a debt to West Virginia. No. 1. No. 2 this a person (Kennedy) who barely ever saw poverty before. And according to the stories and interviews, his time in West Virginia educated him about poverty. And the result is, during his administration, he was the best thing that ever happened to West Virginia in terms of funneling projects and money to help the state. We’re talking about I-79, we’re talking about road-building, we’re talking about the food stamp program.

Douglas: There was a huge discrepancy between the amount of money that Kennedy spent versus the amount of money that Humphrey spent, and that seems to have affected campaigns moving forward as well.

Rupp: The Kennedy campaign in the West Virginia primary contest forecast many of the features that we associate with presidential campaigns today. And probably one of the most disturbing was the amount of money spent. It’s estimated that the Kennedy campaign spent more than a $1 million dollars on this primary and Humphrey barely had a 10th of that.

This allowed Kennedy to outspend Humphrey. Humphrey had no TV ads. Kennedy had TV ads all over the place. Humphrey had virtually no organization, Kennedy set up organization in 35 counties and was fully staffed. Kennedy sent out 100,000 mailers or letters.

So yeah, one of the downsides, when it comes to the future of American politics, was the huge amount of money spent in this small state primary. It really forecast what was going to happen in the rest of the century and now.

This story is part of a series of interviews with authors from, or writing about, Appalachia.

July 25, 1960: Governor Underwood Addresses the Republican National Convention

On July 25, 1960, Governor Cecil Underwood addressed the Republican National Convention in Chicago. The 37-year-old Underwood backed Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon and disparaged Nixon’s Democratic opponent, John F. Kennedy.

Less than three months after the 1960 Democratic primary in West Virginia, Underwood implied that Kennedy had beaten his opponent, Hubert Humphrey, by essentially buying votes. The money Kennedy spent in West Virginia has always been a controversial part of the story. For his part, Humphrey also felt that the wealthy Kennedy family had bought the Mountain State for JFK.

A few months later, Nixon lost the 1960 general election to Kennedy in a close contest where money once again played a major role.Underwood was also campaigning for himself in 1960. Prohibited by the state constitution for running for a second term as governor, Underwood lost to incumbent Democratic Senator Jennings Randolph in the November general election race for the U.S. Senate. It was Underwood’s first ever political loss. He wouldn’t be elected again to public office for 36 years, winning the governorship for a second time in 1996—on his 74^th birthday.

June 20, 1963: JFK Speaks at WV Birthday Celebration

On June 20, 1963—the 100th birthday of West Virginia—John F. Kennedy made his last appearance in the Mountain State.

Speaking on the state capitol steps in Charleston, he credited West Virginia with making him president—a reference to the state’s Democratic primary in 1960, when he beat Hubert Humphrey.

At the time, many political experts thought a Catholic couldn’t be elected president, but JFK’s win over Humphrey in an overwhelmingly Protestant state like West Virginia sent a major signal that he could win nationally. In November 1960, he defeated Republican Richard Nixon by a narrow margin to become the nation’s 35^th president.

Many West Virginians felt a genuine sense of spirit and pride for their role in making JFK president. When he returned to the Mountain State for our Centennial, it was a dreary, rainy day in Charleston, but even in these moments, he found a way to uplift his supporters.

Three months later, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

May 29, 1961: Elderson Muncie Receives First Food Stamps in Nation

On May 29, 1961, Alderson Muncy of Bradshaw in McDowell County received the first food stamps in the nation. Muncy, an unemployed miner and father of 15, took his stamps to John Henderson’s supermarket in Welch and bought two watermelons.

The new federal program was intended to provide supplemental income for welfare recipients and families below certain income levels. Because of high unemployment and poverty rates, West Virginia has been a focus of the program since its inception.

In his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy had visited West Virginia several times and was moved by the malnutrition and poverty he saw. As president, Kennedy established a pilot food-stamp program for low-income families. West Virginia was the first of eight states to issue stamps. The Food Stamp Act of 1964 made the program permanent, and West Virginia became the first state to implement it statewide.

The number of food-stamp recipients has always been high in West Virginia. As of 2015, nearly one in five West Virginians received food stamps—the sixth highest per capita total in the nation.

May 10, 1960: Kennedy Wins the West Virginia Primary

On May 10, 1960, John F. Kennedy defeated Hubert Humphrey in the most important presidential primary ever held in West Virginia. Kennedy, a Catholic, had won the Wisconsin Democratic primary a month earlier. However, some attributed his success to Wisconsin’s relatively large percentage of Catholics.

West Virginia was an overwhelmingly Protestant state, and there were doubts whether JFK could win here. And if he couldn’t win enough Protestant votes in a Democratic primary, there were serious doubts he could win enough support to beat Republican Richard Nixon in the general election.

The West Virginia primary was hard-fought on the airwaves and on the ground. Kennedy, Humphrey, and their supporters campaigned for months. Kennedy-family money poured into West Virginia in record amounts. Foreshadowing today’s expensive media campaigns, the underfunded Humphrey later compared his challenge against JFK to “an independent merchant running against a chain store.”

Kennedy won the West Virginia primary by more than 20 points, and Humphrey dropped out of the race. Kennedy went on to win the Democratic nomination and carry West Virginia in the general election. He always credited the Mountain State for making him president.

Political Consultant Matthew Reese Dies: December 1, 1998

Legendary political consultant Matthew Reese died on December 1, 1998, at the age of 71. His political career started in 1948, when he helped Huntington’s Maurice “Bernie” Burnside get elected to Congress.

In 1959, he was contacted by John F. Kennedy’s campaign. Reese set up Kennedy’s West Virginia headquarters in the basement of the Kanawha Hotel in Charleston. He also campaigned around West Virginia with Kennedy’s brothers, Robert and Ted. JFK’s landmark victory in the state’s Democratic primary boosted his campaign by showing that a Catholic could win in a mostly Protestant state.

The victory also was a springboard for Reese, who went on to direct Lyndon Johnson’s national get-out-the-vote drive in 1964.

During his career, Reese worked on 450 campaigns, including ones for Tip O’Neil, John Glenn, Jay Rockefeller, and Nick Joe Rahall. After Reese’s death, the Washington Post described him as “a founder and godfather of the professional political consulting business.”