1960 A presidential election month such as this often sparks memories of earlier races for the nation’s top job. Here, amid a shower of confetti and streamers, then Republican Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, arrive at Detroit’s Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel (now the Westin Book Cadillac) at Michigan and Washington Boulevard in a Chrysler Imperial. Nixon is pictured with his head down while Pat looks back at the crowd. In the distance is the old Detroit Free Press building on Lafayette, and the Cass Theatre (now razed) across the street from it. The 1960 election was a squeaker, with Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly defeating Nixon. In Michigan, the Kennedy-Johnson ticket edged out the Nixon-Lodge slate by a margin of just 2 percentage points, but it was enough for Kennedy to add the state’s 20 electoral votes (it now has 16) to his tally.
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