1960 election forced into the house

[Booster Gold]

Given the closeness of the 1960 election, a few flips on Nixon's end could have put the final electoral result a lot closer. If that were to happen, and the segregationists of the south saw the opportunity, could they use faithless electors (like we saw OTL in Alabama and Mississippi) to force the election into the House of Representatives? And from there, could the segregationist dominated representations of the old confederacy (plus at least Kentucky) block either man from the White House without significant concessions to their cause?

If so, what concessions could they demand and how would this affect the later evolution of the Civil Rights Movement and America itself? Could we see a Second Redemption?

 

[Apollo 20]

You may well get Acting President Lyndon Johnson out of it. The Democratic Senate majority was huge after 1960. Even if the House deadlocks, LBJ will for certain be elected Vice President. I can see quite a few players in DC being somewhat happy with that outcome, including Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. And if you run the math on who controlled what House delegations, a deadlock for the duration of the term seems quite possible once you shake out a few Southern states and realize that nobody might ever be able to get 26 delegation votes. The unknown in all this is, of course, the degree to which Nixon or Kennedy would strike a bargain with the South. Both ran on a civil rights platform and neither was particularly sympathetic to the Southern cause. Nixon later used the backlash to civil rights in 1968, but he ran in 1960 on a pro-civil rights platform which was in line with most Republicans of the day.

 

[David T]

"But what if the election *did* go to the House--where each state's
delegation, large or small, would have one vote? (Let's say JFK loses not
only Illinois but Missouri as well, while keeping all his other states--so
he leads Nixon by 263 to 259, with 15 votes for Harry Byrd.) Neil Peirce
has assessed the state delegations in the House as follows: 23 northern
and border state Democratic, 6 Deep South Democratic, 17 Republican, 4
divided. I think it's very unlikely that there would be any outcome other
than a JFK victory (after all, he had considerable support even in the
Deep South). Nixon could not get a majority even by cutting a deal with
Deep South segregationists--and in any event such a deal would cause a
backlash among northern Republicans. Not just liberal ones, either:
'Worse things can happen in this country than the presence of Sen. Kennedy
in the White House. Much worse would be the presence in the White House
of a man who would be under obligations to a band of political brigands
intent upon depriving citizens of their rights.' That was the verdict of
the very conservative, very anti-JFK *Chicago Tribune*. (Quoted in Edmund
F. Kallina, Jr., *Courthouse over White House: Chicago and the
Presidential Election of 1960*, p. 132)

"Most likely Nixon would concede to JFK "for the good of the country"
rather than face a hopeless contest in the House."

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