.SHORTLY AFTER declaring his run for the Democratic nomination in 1960, John F. Kennedy stated: “I don’t remember a single scenario where a vice-presidential applicant assisted an electoral vote.” Still, the north-easterner chosen Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, really hoping that the legislator from Texas would help him in southern conditions. Johnson tore around the South in a train nicknamed the LBJ Express, getting to rallies in a ten-gallon hat to the tensions of “The Yellowish Rose of Texas”.
After he won, Kennedy admitted that “we could not have actually lugged the South without Johnson”. That Johnson “provided the South” is now received understanding. Yet just how much variation perform vice-presidential selections in fact make in vote-castings?