WI: Stevenson/Kennedy in '56

It would have had a somewhat paradoxical effect. On the one hand, Kennedy would have gained national name recognition for his 1960 run. On the other hand, he would have affiliated with a losing ticket. It probably has no long term implications. Kennedy understood how to win far more than Humphrey, Johnson, Stevenson, or any other Democrat. As long as he duplicates his strategy from OTL (that is, aggressive campaigning among party delegates in the years before 1960) he's going to win the nomination. As for 1956, no real changes. A few more Irish-Americans and Catholics will support Stevenson, but not enough to present a real threat to Eisenhower.
 
It Depends

JFK could very well have sucessfully outmaneuvered Senator Este Kefauver of TN at the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago to win the VP nomination. After fmr IL Governor Adlai Stevenson, the presidential nominee, decided let the convention delegates determine whom his running would be, JFK and Kefauver had only one day to campaign amongst the delegates. On the second round of balloting, JFK was in the lead and only 15 votes shy of winning the VP nomination.

If JFK had won on the second ballot and become Stevenson's running mate, the danger was that the inevitable loss by the Stevenson-Kennedy ticket to Eisenhower-Nixon can ticket would be blamed, at least in part, on Kennedy--in particular his youth and Catholic religion--and hurt his own plans for a future presidential bid.

As it was, Eisenhower-Nixon won 41 of the then-48 states and over 57% of the popular vote in the 1956 election. Stevenson-Kefauver ran a poor campaign and won 6 southern states, plus Harry Truman's Missouri, and only 42% of the popular vote. Outside the South and a few border states, Eisenhower won every state with 55% of the popular vote or more--including JFK's Massachusetts by whopping 18-point margin (59%-41%). While Joe Kennedy's connections and money employed more liberally on behalf of the Stevenson-Kennedy ticket might have improved the quality of the national Democratic campaign, it is difficult to see JFK's presence on the ticket helping very much in terms of the final popular or electoral vote tally.

My guess is that being on the losing Stevenson ticket would have hurt JFK somewhat, but not too much. He would have been given even greater exposure across the United States and gotten a jump on dealing wth the religious issue. The Kennedy campaign in 1960 would have spun the 1956 loss to the popular Eisenhower as being inevitable and blamed Stevenson for the ticket's poor showing. The opposition to Kennedy in 1960 was lacking a strong candidate--LBJ and Symington skipped the primaries altogether, leaving JFK to beat up on the underfunded liberal Humphrey; LBJ did not announce his candidacy until the just before the convention; and Stevenson never announced his candidacy in the hopes of being drafted.
 
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Eisenhower wins Missouri and the Carolinas. Maybe Arkansas. Stevenson might not want JFK to win in '60 if the two don't mesh, which means he offers himself up to be drafted, there is a hung first ballot, and LBJ gets the nomination on the second or third ballot.
 
Eisenhower wins Missouri and the Carolinas. Maybe Arkansas. Stevenson might not want JFK to win in '60 if the two don't mesh, which means he offers himself up to be drafted, there is a hung first ballot, and LBJ gets the nomination on the second or third ballot.

Interestingly enough, JFK's base of support at the Convention in '56 was the Deep South. Kennedy had a very moderate record in support of civil rights at the time, and was seen as the more conservative option. Obviously there will be many Southern voters who see Kennedy's religion as a problem, but there may be others who voted for Eisenhower due to Kefauver's liberalism who vote for the Democratic ticket. Ultimately the results won't be too different from OTL simply because of how decisively Eisenhower won reelection.
 
Interestingly enough, JFK's base of support at the Convention in '56 was the Deep South. Kennedy had a very moderate record in support of civil rights at the time, and was seen as the more conservative option. Obviously there will be many Southern voters who see Kennedy's religion as a problem, but there may be others who voted for Eisenhower due to Kefauver's liberalism who vote for the Democratic ticket. Ultimately the results won't be too different from OTL simply because of how decisively Eisenhower won reelection.
That is true, but basing that without the "LBJ Special" Nixon would have won the Carolinas, Missouri and all of Ike's 1956 states in the South makes me think that JFK was much weaker among the Southern populace than among the Southern political class. After all, "Cowfever" may be a liberal traitor, but Kennedy is a liberal Catholic from Massachusetts.
 
Pros & Cons

The benefits to Kennedy of being on the 1956 Democratic ticket with Stevenson are (1) far greater national exposure; (2) meeting and campaigning with Democratic Party officials from other states whom he would need in 1960; (3) addressing the religious issue, ascertaining its impact, and learning how to deal with it before running in 1960; (4) dealing with any questions about his youth and health before running in 1960; and (5) campaigning against Vice-President Nixon in a trial heat for 1960.

The downside of Kennedy being Stevenson's running mate in 1956 are that he would somehow be blamed, at least in part, for the Democratic ticket's inevitable landslide loss to Eisenhower.
 
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