Illini 411: Did Richard Nixon campaign on campus in 1960?
Question courtesy of Joan Wahrer, ’63 FAA
1960 Richard Nixon presidential campaign button. (Image courtesy of UI Archives) Question courtesy of Joan Wahrer, ’63 FAA
When Nixon was Eisenhower’s vice president (1953–61), he visited Champaign-Urbana for campaign stops in 1954 and 1956. During his own 1960 presidential campaign, Nixon visited the small Illinois town of Melvin in Ford County, and gave a 20-minute whistle-stop speech in Tuscola, but did not come to campus. John F. Kennedy, on the other hand, spoke to a crowd of 10,000 people on the Quad just two weeks before the election. In retrospect, Nixon probably wished he had spent more time in Illinois: he lost the state by fewer than 9,000 votes.
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