JFK, America wants something new after 12 years of Republicans.

I imagine that Nixon would be the George Bush to JFK's Clinton: he might experience early success in foreign policy, but problems at home will matter more to the average voter and the Democrats have the edge on domestic issues.
 
Much would have depended on how Nixon
would have handled Vietnam- & being the
hardline anti-Communist he was IOTL in the
early 60’s, I think if Nixon was President
then, he would have sent troops there. In
other words, the Vietnam War would have
started earlier than 1965. How this would have effected the 1964 POTUS election is
impossible to say.
 
Humphrey would much worst in the South as he was basically the leader of the Pro-Civil Rights faction in the Senate.
I could see Nixon winning North and South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois.
This could have accelerated the GOP growth in the South, but a Nixon victory could have blunted Goldwater's appeal and led to a more moderate Republican Party in the South.
 
Much would have depended on how Nixon
would have handled Vietnam- & being the
hardline anti-Communist he was IOTL in the
early 60’s, I think if Nixon was President
then, he would have sent troops there. In
other words, the Vietnam War would have
started earlier than 1965. How this would have effected the 1964 POTUS election is
impossible to say.

Nixon could conceivably have sent troops to either Cuba, Loas, Vietnam, or more than one of those countries at once. There's no reason you wouldn't see the kind of backlash and choas that erupted under LBJ occur four years earlier under Nixon. Which is bad, if not fatal, for his chances in '64.
 
I tried this on the Campaign trail, having Kennedy pick Humphrey as his running mate and running a campaign as close to the one Humphrey would have run as possible, and got this result:

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/902668

Nixon wins by a 2.9% margin in the nationwide popular vote and gets 288 electoral votes, 29 more than he needs. Nixon carries the states he carried IOTL, plus Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Nevada.

Closest states were Nixon over "Kennedy" by 26 votes in Nevada and Nixon over Byrd (the Dixiecrat) by 65 votes in Arkansas. The election is close enough that a switch of about 43,000 votes in the seven closest Nixon states, apart from Arkansas, gives "Kennedy" an electoral college majority, and switching California alone (margin for Nixon of about 19,000 votes, or 0.3%), would have sent the election to the House of Representatives.
 
I tried this on the Campaign trail, having Kennedy pick Humphrey as his running mate and running a campaign as close to the one Humphrey would have run as possible, and got this result:

https://www.americanhistoryusa.com/campaign-trail/game/902668

Nixon wins by a 2.9% margin in the nationwide popular vote and gets 288 electoral votes, 29 more than he needs. Nixon carries the states he carried IOTL, plus Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Nevada.

Closest states were Nixon over "Kennedy" by 26 votes in Nevada and Nixon over Byrd (the Dixiecrat) by 65 votes in Arkansas. The election is close enough that a switch of about 43,000 votes in the seven closest Nixon states, apart from Arkansas, gives "Kennedy" an electoral college majority, and switching California alone (margin for Nixon of about 19,000 votes, or 0.3%), would have sent the election to the House of Representatives.

At least you did better than Stevenson.

As for 1964, if LBJ has already been on the losing 1960 ticket I don't expect him to be nominated for either President or VP four years later. IMO, the most likely Democratic ticket is JFK and North Carolina Governor Terry Sanford.
 
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