The First Modern Presidential Campaign: Polling the Primary Voters for JFK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1995.16.0.185-200Abstract
By its use o f television and polling in a series of contested primaries. John F. Kennedy’s (JFK) 1960 campaign is considered the first modern presidential campaign. This article examines the use of surveys in Wisconsin and West Virginia to determine their importance and usefulness in his successful nomination. Was the advice of pollster Louis Harris useful in the allocation of resources? Should he have seen the problems that the campaign eventually faced, especially that of anti-Catholicism in West Virginia? And, given the advances in polling today, is JFK's experience relevant to current presidential campaigns?References
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