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Estes Kefauver was way more popular than Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and again somewhat more so in '56 - at least at the start. His loss each tiem is a great example of party politics.

However, even if he had wont he nomination, could he have won a general election?

It was 90 years after the Civil War, and tennessee was - while a Jim Crow state - not as far south as a Georgia or Texas, the latter of which I've read that Lyndon Johnson couldn't have won from.

In addition, like Johnson, Kefauver was quite moderate on Civil Rights, though he wasn't liberal enough to push actively for them like Johnson, he refused to sign the Southern Manifesto.

Of course, i don't expect he could have won against Eisenhower - I'm just looking at it from the standpoint of him running in general, and had he had the support he might have tried in 1960.
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