The 1960 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 8, 1960. All contemporary fifty states took part, and Florida voters selected 10 electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
Republican candidate Richard Nixon won against John F. Kennedy by 46,776 votes and by 3.02%. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election in which Clay, Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. This was the first time that a Democrat was elected without winning Florida. It was also the first time since 1924 that Florida failed to vote for the winner of the presidential election. This has since happened only twice, in 1992 and 2020.
Background As a Southern state, Florida became part of the Solid South following the end of Reconstruction due to disfranchising African Americans and many poor white people. From the 1880s to the 1940s, Florida only supported the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States once, for Herbert Hoover in 1928 over Al Smith, often attributed to prejudice against Smith's Catholic faith and his opposition to Prohibition in a state that favored banning alcohol at the time. Florida then supported Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman in the 1930s and 1940s.
However, Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson II in Florida in 1952 and 1956. Randy Wade Babish's thesis argued that the state became more Republican due to people moving to Florida from the Northeastern United States during the post-World War II boom. The number of registered Republicans in Florida totaled 60,665 in 1950, but increased to 338,390 in 1960, accounting for approximately 20% of registered voters throughout the state. Many transplants to Florida moved to South Florida. Consequently, a pattern soon emerged in which North Florida generally remained loyal to its Solid South roots by continuing to support Democrats, but South Florida became more favorable to the Republican Party.
Primary elections Democratic primary The Democratic Party presidential primary in Florida was held on May 24. Although Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts ultimately won the Democratic Party nomination for the 1960 United States presidential election, Senator George Smathers of Florida ran opposed in the primary contest for this state. A favorite son, Smathers received 322,235 votes and 29 delegate votes. Also on May 24, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins was selected to be the chair of the 1960 Democratic National Convention.
Republican primary The Republican Party presidential primary in Florida was also held on May 24. Although several candidates had competed for the party's nomination, incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon held a commanding lead and was unopposed by the time the Florida primary occurred. Nixon won 51,036 votes, as well as 26 delegate votes. With the Florida primary held on the same day as the Tennessee Republican Party convention, both states allowed Nixon to clinch the Republican nomination, as he now had 686 out of 1,331 delegates, 20 more than a majority. Campaign On April 1, 1959, at the Kennedy family's mansion in Palm Beach, Florida – known as La Querida – United States Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts penned the first draft of his speech announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, a note which later sold for $160,000 at an auction in 2015. Also on that day, Kennedy held the first organizational meeting of his 1960 presidential campaign at La Querida.
Both nominees visited Florida, including on the same day, October 18, when Kennedy spoke in Jacksonville and Tampa and Nixon in Jacksonville and St. Petersburg. In those places, Nixon defended the Eisenhower administration and described Kennedy as a "prophet of doom and gloom." for portraying the direction of the country as being complacent against the Soviet Union. In response, Kennedy told people in Tampa that, "I sound the alarm-not with the idea that the country is doomed, but with the idea that if this country moves forward, nothing can stop it." He also questioned the Eisenhower administration's ability to maintain American prestige. Later that day, Kennedy and Nixon both addressed the American Legion convention, held in Miami that year. Kennedy reminded attendees that communists had taken over Cuba and argued that the United States was slipping behind the Soviet Union in terms of power, including claiming that they intended to soon produce missiles two or three times as fast as the United States. In turn, Nixon stated that more than 600 million people had come under communist leadership during the Truman administration and that Eisenhower "got America out of one war, kept her out of others, and we do have peace today." Six days later, on October 12, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Lyndon B. Johnson visited Jacksonville and Tampa and criticized the outgoing administration's foreign policy efforts in Cuba and against communism in general.
Only four out of the thirty-one daily newspapers in Florida at the time endorsed Kennedy. Among those picking Nixon was the Tallahassee Democrat, which historically supported Democrats. The Orlando Sentinel was particularly disapproving of Kennedy, describing him, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the Democratic Party platform as being a "hogwash mix of statism, socialism, welfarism, apology and appeasement". While the Miami Herald, Orlando Sentinel, and Tampa Tribune each endorsed Nixon, they explicitly rejected Kennedy's Catholic faith as a justifiable reason to not vote for him. The Miami Herald polled residents throughout the state and found that Tampa and the Florida panhandle preferred Kennedy, while Orlando and Sarasota backed Nixon, who also received support but to a lesser extent in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Jacksonville was almost equally split between Kennedy and Nixon. The Florida Poll, conducted by the First Research Corporation and sponsored by the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times, both of whom published its results on November 6, showed Kennedy obtaining 51% of the vote in the state.
Results
Republican candidate Richard Nixon won against John F. Kennedy by 46,776 votes and by 3.02%. However, Kennedy won the presidency due to earning 303 electoral votes versus Nixon's 219 across the country. In fact, this was the first instance of a Democrat being elected president without carrying Florida. It was also the first time since 1924 that the state did not support the winner of the presidential election, which has only happened twice since then, in 1992 and 2020. As of the 2024 presidential election, this is the last election in which Clay, Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
A similar pattern occurred as in 1952 and 1956, with Kennedy performing better in North Florida and the Florida panhandle but struggling in other parts of the state. Kennedy flipped several counties from Republican in 1956 to Democrat in 1960, including Duval, Hillsborough, and Miami-Dade (then known as Dade County), which are home to Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami, respectively. However, Nixon defeated Kennedy by wide or relatively wide margins in Broward, Orange, Palm Beach (home of the Kennedy family's La Querida mansion), Pinellas, and Polk counties.
Results by county County Richard NixonRepublican John F. KennedyDemocratic Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % Alachua 10,072 52.05% 9,279 47.95% 793 4.10% 19,351 Baker 398 21.32% 1,469 78.68% -1,071 -57.36% 1,867 Bay 5,435 33.94% 10,579 66.06% -5,144 -32.12% 16,014 Bradford 1,131 30.85% 2,535 69.15% -1,404 -38.30% 3,666 Brevard 17,585 61.37% 11,069 38.63% 6,516 22.74% 28,654 Broward 68,294 58.82% 47,811 41.18% 20,483 17.64% 116,105 Calhoun 634 28.46% 1,594 71.54% -960 -43.08% 2,228 Charlotte 3,026 60.92% 1,941 39.08% 1,085 21.84% 4,967 Citrus 1,861 51.82% 1,730 48.18% 131 3.64% 3,591 Clay 2,515 47.97% 2,728 52.03% -213 -4.06% 5,243 Collier 2,708 60.74% 1,750 39.26% 958 21.48% 4,458 Columbia 2,094 36.17% 3,695 63.83% -1,601 -27.66% 5,789 DeSoto 1,687 50.10% 1,680 49.90% 7 0.20% 3,367 Dixie 392 28.65% 976 71.35% -584 -42.70% 1,368 Duval 59,073 45.73% 70,091 54.27% -11,018 -8.54% 129,164 Escambia 17,925 38.79% 28,288 61.21% -10,363 -22.42% 46,213 Flagler 426 31.35% 933 68.65% -507 -37.30% 1,359 Franklin 764 33.84% 1,494 66.16% -730 -32.32% 2,258 Gadsden 2,010 46.18% 2,343 53.82% -333 -7.64% 4,353 Gilchrist 277 24.93% 834 75.07% -557 -50.14% 1,111 Glades 314 44.35% 394 55.65% -80 -11.30% 708 Gulf 657 21.86% 2,348 78.14% -1,691 -56.28% 3,005 Hamilton 656 33.01% 1,331 66.99% -675 -33.98% 1,987 Hardee 1,960 52.96% 1,741 47.04% 219 5.92% 3,701 Hendry 1,043 44.38% 1,307 55.62% -264 -11.24% 2,350 Hernando 1,809 48.00% 1,960 52.00% -151 -4.00% 3,769 Highlands 4,369 58.32% 3,122 41.68% 1,247 16.64% 7,491 Hillsborough 48,887 43.99% 62,240 56.01% -13,353 -12.02% 111,127 Holmes 1,235 34.26% 2,370 65.74% -1,135 -31.48% 3,605 Indian River 4,656 61.05% 2,970 38.95% 1,686 22.10% 7,626 Jackson 2,851 32.23% 5,994 67.77% -3,143 -35.54% 8,845 Jefferson 600 34.70% 1,129 65.30% -529 -30.60% 1,729 Lafayette 297 27.25% 793 72.75% -496 -45.50% 1,090 Lake 12,979 72.45% 4,936 27.55% 8,043 44.90% 17,915 Lee 10,357 65.34% 5,494 34.66% 4,863 30.68% 15,851 Leon 9,079 46.53% 10,433 53.47% -1,354 -6.94% 19,512 Levy 996 33.21% 2,003 66.79% -1,007 -33.58% 2,999 Liberty 243 21.99% 862 78.01% -619 -56.02% 1,105 Madison 1,152 35.60% 2,084 64.40% -932 -28.80% 3,236 Manatee 16,462 65.13% 8,814 34.87% 7,648 30.26% 25,276 Marion 7,043 49.43% 7,206 50.57% -163 -1.14% 14,249 Martin 3,701 58.15% 2,664 41.85% 1,037 16.30% 6,365 Miami-Dade 134,506 42.35% 183,114 57.65% -48,608 -15.30% 317,620 Monroe 3,416 32.88% 6,972 67.12% -3,556 -34.24% 10,388 Nassau 1,666 33.67% 3,282 66.33% -1,616 -32.66% 4,948 Okaloosa 4,685 36.18% 8,263 63.82% -3,578 -27.64% 12,948 Okeechobee 631 35.93% 1,125 64.07% -494 -28.14% 1,756 Orange 48,244 70.98% 19,729 29.02% 28,515 41.96% 67,973 Osceola 4,691 68.29% 2,178 31.71% 2,513 36.58% 6,869 Palm Beach 45,337 60.28% 29,871 39.72% 15,466 20.56% 75,208 Pasco 7,188 55.21% 5,832 44.79% 1,356 10.42% 13,020 Pinellas 101,779 63.68% 58,054 36.32% 43,725 27.36% 159,833 Polk 31,618 57.32% 23,546 42.68% 8,072 14.64% 55,164 Putnam 4,236 48.72% 4,459 51.28% -223 -2.56% 8,695 St. Johns 4,125 42.49% 5,583 57.51% -1,458 -15.02% 9,708 St. Lucie 6,354 54.24% 5,360 45.76% 994 8.48% 11,714 Santa Rosa 2,777 35.89% 4,960 64.11% -2,183 -28.22% 7,737 Sarasota 19,995 70.70% 8,287 29.30% 11,708 41.40% 28,282 Seminole 8,936 64.63% 4,891 35.37% 4,045 29.26% 13,827 Sumter 1,120 32.95% 2,279 67.05% -1,159 -34.10% 3,399 Suwannee 1,536 35.51% 2,789 64.49% -1,253 -28.98% 4,325 Taylor 1,212 38.85% 1,908 61.15% -696 -22.30% 3,120 Union 311 24.84% 941 75.16% -630 -50.32% 1,252 Volusia 28,367 54.82% 23,377 45.18% 4,990 9.64% 51,744 Wakulla 379 24.85% 1,146 75.15% -767 -50.30% 1,525 Walton 1,484 28.95% 3,642 71.05% -2,158 -42.10% 5,126 Washington 1,230 36.96% 2,098 63.04% -868 -26.08% 3,328Totals795,47651.51%748,70048.49%46,7763.02%1,544,176
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic A total of eight counties supported the Republican Party nominee in 1956 but the Democratic Party nominee in 1960, including: Clay Duval Hendry Hillsborough Marion Miami Dade Putnam St. Johns
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican A total of two counties supported the Democratic Party nominee in 1956 but the Republican Party nominee in 1960, including: DeSoto Hardee
Analysis and aftermath