.SHORTLY AFTER introducing his compete the Democratic nomination in 1960, John F. Kennedy stated: “I don’t remember a single instance where a vice-presidential applicant contributed an electoral vote.” Still, the north-easterner decided on Lyndon Johnson as his running-mate, wishing that the statesman from Texas will help him in southern states. Johnson tore across the South in a learn nicknamed the LBJ Express, coming to rallies in a ten-gallon hat to the strains of “The Yellowish Flower of Texas”.
After he won, Kennedy acknowledged that “we could not have brought the South without Johnson”. That Johnson “provided the South” is actually now received wisdom. However how much variation do vice-presidential selections really create in elections?