Click With Dick

Blue text on a white sunburst on a red background

This button was for Richard M. Nixon's campaign for U.S. president in 1960. Nixon had served as U.S. senator from California (1950-53) and as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower (1953-61). Yet he lost the 1960 election to John F. Kennedy. Though the popular vote tally was close, Kennedy won with 303 electoral votes to 219 for Nixon.

The 1960 U.S. presidential election was noted for being the first with live televised candidate debates. To some listening on radio, Nixon seemed to have won the debate. Yet many watching it on television had a different impression, since Kennedy appeared cool and collected while Nixon, who had been ill and did not wear television make-up, looked uncomfortable. Nixon won the 1968 presidential election and was re-elected in 1972, resigning in the wake of the Watergate scandal in 1974.