John F. Kennedy would not have won the Democratic nomination without West Virginia. And in November 1960, he won all 8 of West Virginia's electoral votes by defeating Richard Nixon 52.73% to 47.27%, becoming the first Roman Catholic ever elected President, one of the youngest Presidents ever elected, and certainly the youngest American President to die.
There is one reason why John F. Kennedy won West Virginia in the 1960 General Election--he was a Democrat. West Virginia was Democratic. This is how that came to be.
As I have already discussed, it was at least partially the Republican Party--the party of Lincoln--that enabled the miraculous event that was West Virginia's birth. But by 1960 West Virginia was solidly in the Democratic column. You have to go back at least as far as Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Hoover to understand why.
My father's father served in World War I. He returned--as did most of his generation--to a nation depleted. The market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression had many causes and even more effects; but it is undeniable that the policies--both foreign and domestic, military and economic--of Republican presidential administrations contributed to the fall. In West Virginia my father, a boy, like other children all across the nation, lived through times where nothing came easy. If you had any money, there might be nothing to buy with it. If you needed a thing, you had to build it. If you needed food, you raised it. My grandfather raised rabbits and my grandmother canned them. They raised hay and fed cows and chickens in order to put meat, milk, and eggs on the table. They grew their own vegetables. They grew the grapes to make their own wine.
It can be no wonder that Franklin Roosevelt (a Democrat) and the New Deal were a saving grace. The CCC and the WPA left permanent marks in West Virginia. They built roads and dams, parks and picnic shelters. They provided good jobs for strong, hard-working men so that they could help provide for their families. Today, for all the talk about the evils of "government entitlements," who could imagine an America without Social Security? In the West Virginia of the 1930's you did not retire--with dignity, or without it. You simply worked as hard as people can work for as long as you could work, until you just dropped. Or, if (as most did not) you happened to grow old, and became unable to take care of your own basic needs, you were cared for by your children or grandchildren, or nieces or nephews--if you were fortunate enough to have extended family (and most were).
For these reasons, although there were even greater sacrifices ahead, West Virginia became solidly Democratic under Roosevelt and Truman. The nation was actually concerned that, if a Roman Catholic were elected President, the Vatican might have too great an influence in American politics. John F. Kennedy never forgot that it was the wise people of West Virginia who decided to take that leap of faith and make him the Democratic nominee. In 1961, West Virginia had its very own President of the United States.
It was a New Frontier.
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