Richard Nixon was in an election.
Richard Nixon . He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960 , narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy , and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962 . He was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U.S. history in 1972 , when he defeated George McGovern . The United States presidential election of 1960 was the 44th quadrennial presidential election , held on Tuesday , November 8 , 1960 . The Republican Party nominated incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon , while the Democratic Party nominated John F. Kennedy , U.S. Senator from Massachusetts .