1960 United States presidential election in Mississippi

← 1956 November 8, 1960 1964 →

Nominee Harry F. Byrd (byunpledged electors) John F. Kennedy Richard Nixon Party Southern Democrat Democratic Republican Home state Virginia Massachusetts California Running mate Strom Thurmond Lyndon B. Johnson Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Electoral vote 8 0 0 Popular vote 116,248 108,362 73,561 Percentage 38.99% 36.34% 24.67%

County results Congressional district results Unpledged   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Kennedy   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70% Nixon   30–40%   40–50%

The1960 United States presidential election in Mississippi took place on November 8, 1960, as part of the1960 United States presidential election. Voters chose eight representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president. This was the last election in which Mississippi had eight electoral votes: theGreat Migration ofBlack Americans caused the state to losecongressional districts forthe third time in four censuses before the next election.

The election saw the only case of a state being carried by a slate ofunpledged electors. Mississippi voted narrowly for this slate, who voted unanimously for long-timeVirginiaSenator andpolitical machine directorHarry Flood Byrd, over the national Democratic nominee, SenatorJohn F. Kennedy ofMassachusetts. Republican nominee and outgoing Vice PresidentRichard Nixon, fromCalifornia, came in third, with his percentage of the vote practically unchanged from what outgoing PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower recorded in 1956.

GovernorRoss Barnett, a segregationist, was faced with a severe dilemma upon becoming governor at the beginning of the year owing to the rigid opposition of Mississippi's limited and almost exclusivelyWhite electorate^[1] to the activeCivil Rights Movement. Pressured by the "Citizens' Council" who wished to unite the South behind a White-supremacist Democratic candidate,^[2] Governor Barnett repeatedJames P. Coleman’s strategy from 1956 and nominated two sets of Democratic Party electors for the presidential ballot.^[3] The first slate was pledged to Kennedy, while the other was not pledged to any candidate. The aim of placing unpledged electors on the ballot was to gain leverage from either major party in a close election,^[3] with the possibility of the House of Representatives electing a candidate more favourable to opponents ofBrown v. Board of Education than either national major party nominee.^[4]

Because the civil rights movement’s supporters regarded Kennedy’s record as poor on this issue, SenatorsJohn C. Stennis andJames Eastland supported his candidacy, although state-level politicians were not at all supportive.^[5] The state’s media saw a vigorous debate between the loyalist and unpledged Democrats in the week before the election.^[6] Outside heavilyFrench-settledHancock County, which has greater cultural ties with Louisiana than with most of the rest of Mississippi, Kennedy’s Catholic faith was also considered suspect.^[7]

As of2024, this marks the last time that the following counties voted Democratic:Choctaw,Harrison,Jackson,Jones, andSmith.Warren County would not vote Democratic again until 2012.

^{[dubious –discuss]}

^[14]

• Adams
• Amite
• Carroll
• Calhoun
• Chickasaw
• Clay
• Claiborne
• Covington
• Copiah
• Clarke
• Franklin
• Grenada
• George
• Greene
• Hinds
• Issaquena
• Jefferson
• Jefferson Davis
• Lauderdale
• Lamar
• Lawrence
• Leake
• LeFlore
• Lincoln
• Marion
• Marshall
• Montgomery
• Panola
• Noxubee
• Newton
• Oktibbeha
• Pearl River
• Perry
• Pike
• Quitman
• Rankin
• Scott
• Stone
• Simpson
• Sunflower
• Tallahatchie
• Tate
• Walthall
• Yalobusha
• Winston
• Wayne
• Webster

• Hancock
• Warren

• Lowndes
• Tunica

• Madison

In the coastal counties, Kennedy improved considerably upon whatAdlai Stevenson II achieved in 1956, but except for those counties around the cities ofNatchez andVicksburg, Kennedy otherwise showed a major decline from the Democratic result in 1956.^[7] Kennedy held up best in thepoor White upcountry counties that had historically been much more anti-Catholic thanthe Black Belt,^[16] suggesting that voters throughout the state had become more suspicious of the Democrats’ civil rights policies. Since the Republican percentage of the vote essentially failed to change – Nixon lostHancock andWarren to Kennedy andAdams to the unpledged slate but picked upTunica andLowndes Counties – the unpledged slate took almost all of Kennedy's lost votes and thus shaded him for the state overall. Mississippi was one of six states that swung toward Republicans compared to 1956, alongside Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.^[17]

Despite Kennedy's statewide defeat being only the second for a national Democrat in Mississippi since Reconstruction, this remains the last election when the coastal, French-influenced counties ofHarrison andJackson have voted for a Democratic presidential nominee.^[18] The following landlocked counties have also never voted Democratic since:Choctaw,Jones andSmith.^[18]Warren County would not vote Democratic again untilBarack Obama won it in2012.^[19]

• 1960 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Mississippi
• 1960 Mississippi elections

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