(Editor’s note: Portions of this commentary appeared in a previous commentary from November, 2023.)
Today is the 64th anniversary of the most famous Primary Election in West Virginia history. It was on May 10, 1960, when West Virginia Democrats gave John F. Kennedy a decisive victory over Hubert Humphrey in the Primary Election, propelling him to the presidency.
Kennedy is more closely associated with West Virginia than any other President because of his famous campaign here. The young Senator from Massachusetts with the strange accent made the Mountain State a test for whether a Roman Catholic could win in a heavily Protestant state.
He traveled the hills and hollows of the state, shaking hands with coal miners as they changed shifts, greeting folks in diners and making multiple TV and radio appearances. The Kennedy campaign also showered money on southern West Virginia Democratic power brokers who ensured Kennedy was on the preferred slate of candidates.
Associated Press reporter Herb Little recounted that Kennedy used a speech the Sunday night before the Primary Election to reassure voters of his commitment to the separation of church and state.
“And if he breaks his oath,” Kennedy said of his pledge, “he is not only committing a crime against the Constitution, for which the Congress can impeach him—but he is committing a sin against God.”
Rob Rupp, a professor emeritus at West Virginia Wesleyan, is author of the book, The Primary that made a President: John F. Kennedy and West Virginia, wrote in a recent op-ed in the Gazette-Mail about the significance of Kennedy’s victory here:
“In this case the electoral contest conducted in the mountains of West Virginia did more than just propel a young senator to a Democratic presidential nomination, it helped change the face of politics by advancing religious tolerance,” Rupp wrote.
The JFK Library describes Kennedy’s relationship with West Virginia: “He shone a national spotlight on their plight and detailed a plan for economic recovery. He commended their strength in the face of adversity. He affirmed the separation of church and state. And on May 10, 1960, the people of an economically distressed, overwhelmingly Protestant, hardscrabble state in Appalachia put their trust in the elegant, young Catholic senator, who spoke in a Boston accent about a brighter future.”
Kennedy was deeply impacted by the poverty he saw in West Virginia, and he followed through on his promises. The West Virginia Encyclopedia reports that he dramatically increased federal aid to the state, expanded welfare benefits to the poor, boosted federal defense contracts here and included a major interstate in the federal highway program.
Kennedy returned to the state on June 20, 1963, to participate in the state’s centennial celebration. On that rainy day, the President of the United States credited our state with his dramatic political ascension.
“I would not be where I am now, I would not have some of the responsibilities which I now bear, if it had not been for the people of West Virginia,” he said, referring to his Primary Election victory.
Five months later he was dead, felled by an assassin in Dallas.
Partisans and historians can argue over Kennedy’s legacy, but what is undeniable is that once there was an unlikely candidate for President who came to know West Virginia as well as we know ourselves. He never forgot our state during the few short years of his life after his election.
All these years later, the 1960 West Virginia Primary Election still stands as a seminal political event, not only in our state, but for the entire country.