FL, 1960

[Bo]

How come Nixon won it?

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

How come specifically did Nixon win it?

Nixon won Florida in 1960, specifically, by getting 46,776 more votes than Kennedy did.

[Badlands17]

FL trended hard for Republicans after FDR and WWII, even before the Solid South started turning its back on the Democrats; Eisenhower won it twice, and it trended Rep six consecutive elections from 1944 to 1964. I guess the massive migration from the North was beginning to define it as its own entity separate from the "Deep South", which it had pretty much been until shortly before then. I would guess the Catholics that would have voted for Kennedy in the Northeast really didn't come until later, but I would need more facts to back that up.

[Derek]

Florida was more of a Republican state until the late 90's. Actually even Clinton didn't win it until 1996 when he won in a landslide. There really has never been a close election in the past 60 years where Florida voted for the Democrats. It votes Republican unless there is a Democrat landslide.

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, urbanization makes Rep votes in the South of that area. Yawnee. (Southern Florida has never been part of the Deep South; it just was a very small part of Florida populationwise before the massive expansion beginning in the 20s.)

[hawkeye59]

Florida was more of a Republican state until the late 90's. Actually even Clinton didn't win it until 1996 when he won in a landslide. There really has never been a close election in the past 60 years where Florida voted for the Democrats. It votes Republican unless there is a Democrat landslide.

1976 Presidential General Election Results - Florida   Popular Vote   Electoral Vote
   James Carter   Walter Mondale   Democrat   1,636,000   51.93%   17
   Gerald Ford   Robert Dole   Republican   1,469,531   46.64%   0
   

[Fuzzybigfoot]

The growing suburbs, wihch voted Republican quite often, maybe?  Like around Miami and Tampa?

[Derek]

Florida was more of a Republican state until the late 90's. Actually even Clinton didn't win it until 1996 when he won in a landslide. There really has never been a close election in the past 60 years where Florida voted for the Democrats. It votes Republican unless there is a Democrat landslide.

1976 Presidential General Election Results - Florida   Popular Vote   Electoral Vote
   James Carter   Walter Mondale   Democrat   1,636,000   51.93%   17
   Gerald Ford   Robert Dole   Republican   1,469,531   46.64%   0
   

Yes no kidding. What's your point? That was part of Carter's southern base and the southern democrats were still around then. If you look at Florida's numbers in each election from 1952 on, you'll see that the only times the democrats have won is when they've won a landslide nationally. Even Goldwater was close to 50% there.

[Cubby]

Florida was more of a Republican state until the late 90's. Actually even Clinton didn't win it until 1996 when he won in a landslide. There really has never been a close election in the past 60 years where Florida voted for the Democrats. It votes Republican unless there is a Democrat landslide.

1976 Presidential General Election Results - Florida Popular Vote Electoral Vote
James Carter Walter Mondale Democrat 1,636,000 51.93% 17
Gerald Ford Robert Dole Republican 1,469,531 46.64% 0

Yes no kidding. What's your point? That was part of Carter's southern base and the southern democrats were still around then. If you look at Florida's numbers in each election from 1952 on, you'll see that the only times the democrats have won is when they've won a landslide nationally. Even Goldwater was close to 50% there.

His point is that your statement saying FL only voted Democratic in landslide elections for the past 60 years is wrong. Carter in '76 was not a landslide by any means but he still won Florida. 

As to the subject of this thread, it should be added that Kennedy's religion may have worked against him in parts of the state. Also there was a huge difference in terms of swing from 1956 between the East Coast (which was exploding with Northern transplants, Broward County more than tripled its population between 1950 and 1960) and the more traditionally Southern in culture West coast and Panhandle. Its very clear on the swing map:

[DS0816]

How come [1960 Richard] Nixon won it [Florida]?

…Not enough of a [1956/1960] Democratic shift to flip Florida for John Kennedy. Same with Ohio. The two states have agreed on every presidential election since the first post-World War II election of 1948 with exception of 1992.

In 1992, Bill Clinton was collapsing double-digit margins in both states to flip them on George Bush. He succeeded in erasing the 10-point margin in 1988 Ohio but fell shy by 1.9% in attempt to do likewise with the 20-point margin by which 1988 Bush won Fla..

In 1956, a re-elected Dwight Eisenhower carried Ohio by over 22% and Fla. just over 14.5%. Kennedy reduced Ohio down to 6.5% and Fla. at 3%. Given that election was unbelievably close (Nixon narrowly held his home state of California; even after Election Night mistakenly called it for Kennedy), it's not a surprise not all ground could be covered. Had Kennedy won the election by 3% or 4%, then in such case it's likely he would've flipped both Ohio and Fla. Both bellwether states, Ohio has backed the winner in every election since 1896 with exceptions of 1944 and 1960; Fla. has been in the column of all winners since 1928 with exceptions of 1960 and 1992.

NOTE: In 1960, J.F.K. became the first prevailing Democrat not to carry Fla. But all winning Democrats have carried the Sunshine State and/or neighboring Georgia. The Democratic winners of the 1960s, 1990s, and 2000s went 1-for-2 (1960 JFK: Ga.; 1964 Lyndon Johnson: Fla.; 1992 Bill Clinton: Ga.; 1996 Clinton: Fla.; 2008 Barack Obama: Fla.). All other winning Democrats won both. Consider Barack Obama was 5 points within flipping 2008 Ga., and won 54% [majority] of the female vote there, if he's re-elected in 2012, I'm willing to bet he'll join the others who carried both Ga. and Fla.

[minionofmidas]

I notice that Kennedy actually won Dade.