On Jan. 6, 2025, Vice President Kamala Harris will have the unenviable task of certifying herself as the loser of the 2024 presidential election. Al Gore had this same experience, but so did Richard Nixon in 1961.
January rarely affords what anyone would describe as good weather in Washington, D.C., but Jan. 6, 1961, was adequate and normal, though it was probably good to have a Republican cloth coat. The U.S. House of Representatives convened at noon to consider routine matters, not the least of which was to accept the oath of office from Alabama Rep. George Grant, who, due to illness, was unable to take the actual oath with other House members.
The Speaker adjourned the House momentarily, but at 12:55 p.m. he called the chamber back into session, instructing the doorkeeper to usher in the vice president and senators. An unusual spectacle was about to happen, wherein a sitting vice-president would count the electoral college votes and announce his defeat.
Richard Nixon was not yet 50 years old, but he would have the unenviable task of following the law, putting on a brave face, and acting as if he was glad to be there. Clearly, he would rather have been any other place, but he was compelled by duty to preside over the Joint Session of Congress and finalize the results of a presidential election he had lost.
And he hadn’t just lost; he was defeated by the very small margin of 0.2%, less than 120,000 popular votes, or a half a vote per precinct. There were allegations of voter fraud in two states where the margin of victory was especially thin. John Kennedy had won Illinois by 8,858 votes, giving him 27 electoral votes. In Texas, Kennedy received the state’s 24 electoral votes with a margin of victory of 46,257. If the votes had gone the other way, Nixon would have been president. There was also Hawaii‘s three electoral votes, where the Kennedy win was a mere 115 votes.
Both Illinois and Texas had a history of voting irregularities. In his 1948 Senate race, Lyndon Johnson won the nomination of the Texas Democratic party by 87 votes. The tally sheet in the precinct that gave him the margin of victory showed Johnson’s voters had voted in alphabetical order using the same pen and handwriting. This slim margin of victory earned Johnson the moniker “Landslide Lyndon,” which he resented. But 12 years later, Johnson controlled Texas, and his nomination as vice president was based on his ability to deliver the Lone Star state for the national ticket.
Illinois politics were controlled by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley who, like Johnson, knew how to count, deliver, and perhaps even manufacture votes when needed. His machine was as well-oiled as it was well known to provide the margin of victory for his party.
Within a few weeks of the 1960 election, investigative journalist Earl Mazo started publishing what was slated to be 12 articles examining voting irregularities. Mazo was convinced his work would earn a Pulitzer Prize, so he was crestfallen when Nixon called him and asked him to stop his work. Over protests, Nixon said, “Earl…. [N]o one steals the presidency of the United States.” The articles were only spiked when Nixon convinced Mazo’s editors that an election contest could cause a constitutional crisis and damage the reputation of the country in the eyes of the international community. Nixon argued the Cold War did not need such a distraction. The articles stopped.
Even now, 64 years later, there are still questions about the integrity of the 1960 election. These questions and the possible unfairness, embarrassment and humiliation of losing such a close race were no doubt in the back of Nixon’s mind as he mounted the rostrum to call the joint session to order.
As president of the Senate, the first order of business was to open electoral ballots from each state. Alabama was first, and once its tally was read, Nixon asked that the formalities of opening and reporting the electoral votes of each state be dispensed with and delegated to Senate and House “tellers” to count the votes. There was a problem, though, with Hawaii because three groups in the state had submitted electoral ballots. Heading off a floor fight, Nixon directed that the votes of the Democratic electors be counted to the exclusion of the others. There were no objections.
After all ballots were opened and tabulated the announced results were 303 electoral votes for John Kennedy and 219 for Richard Nixon.
Nixon paused the proceedings and according to the Congressional Record said:
This is the first time in 100 years that a candidate for the Presidency announced the result of an election in which he was defeated and announced the victory of his opponent. I do not think we could have a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system and of the proud tradition of the American people of developing, respecting, and honoring institutions of self-government. In our campaigns, no matter how hard fought they may be, no matter how close the election may turn out to be, those who lose accept the verdict, and support those who win. … [I]t is indeed a very great honor to me … to extend to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson … my heartfelt best wishes, as all of you work in a cause that is bigger than any man's ambition, greater than any party. It is the cause of freedom, of justice, and peace for all mankind.
It is in that spirit that I now declare that John F. Kennedy has been elected President of the United States, and Lyndon B. Johnson Vice President of the United States.
Eight years later Nixon would win the presidency by defeating Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey declined to participate in the electoral count, choosing instead to attend the funeral of a friend.
Will Sellers is a graduate of Hillsdale College and an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of Alabama. He is best reached at jws@willsellers.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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