Candidates Hit Campaign Trail As Vote Nears
By Herb Little
April 24, 1960
North American Newspaper Alliance
Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey and Sen. John F. Kennedy will be plying West Virginia's mountains and valleys again in the coming week, the next-to-last full week for campaigning before their presidential trial heat in the state's May 10 primary.
They have stumped the state enough by now that their trails are crossing. People are getting a chance to compare them. Humphrey's full-blown and overpowering oratory against Kennedy's more relaxed, let's-talk-it-over approach.
Humphrey is 48 and from Minnesota, Kennedy 42 and from Massachusetts. Kennedy beat Humphrey in the April 5 Wisconsin primary. They are entered again in the May 10 West Virginia voting as candidates for the Democratic nomination for President. This state's primary, unlike Wisconsin's, will not commit any delegates to the Democratic National Convention starting July 11 in Los Angeles, where the nominee will be chosen.
The chartered bus with "Here Comes Humphrey" on the front will pull out of Charleston early Monday morning to start a two-day tour. The route will be through coal-mining sections in the central and northeastern parts of the state and into the Eastern Panhandle, an area or orchards and poultry farms.
Humphrey will stop in Fairmont Monday night for a major speech at a Democratic rally. He will be on the same program with another Democratic presidential prospect who is not entered in the primary, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas.
After an appearance late Tuesday afternoon in Charles Town, where two horse race tracks are the main attraction, Humphrey will fly back to Washington to attend to Senate business. But he will return to the state for a Thursday evening appearance in Charleston, the capital.
Kennedy will head eastward Monday morning from the Ohio River city of Huntington, on the state's western border. His three-day bus tour will take him across the southern coal fields to Bluefield, on the Virginia border, and then northeast through the bluegrass farming country of the placid Greenbrier Valley. He will wind up in Charles Town Wednesday evening, a day behind Humphrey.
After a two-day breather, Kennedy will do more campaigning next Saturday and Sunday, but his schedule for then is not yet firm.
The staffs of the two candidates were trying to get together this weekend on dates for face-to-face debates. After declining Humphrey's invitations to debate during the Wisconsin campaign, Kennedy reversed himself in Wheeling last Tuesday. He said he would be willing to meet Humphrey in one or more debates in the West Virginia campaign.
They really don't disagree much on fundamental issues, except as to who should be President.
Another shift in Kennedy tactics during the past week acknowledged the deep involvement of his Roman Catholic religion in a campaign in a state which is 95 per cent non-Catholic. At each stop now, he brings the subject up on his own, asking to be judged on his record, not his religion.
Follwing are the candidates' itineraries for the coming week:
Humphrey - Charleston to Fairmont, via Summersville, Craigsville, Webster Springs, Buckhannon and Philippi.
Kennedy - Huntington, Wayne, Williamson and Logan.
Humphrey - Fairmont, Grafton, Fellowsville, Kingwood, Aurora, Keyser, Romney, Berkeley Springs, Martinsburg and Charles Town.
Kennedy - Logan, Pineville, Mullens, Welch and Bluefield.
Kennedy - Princeton, Athens, Hinton, Alderson, Ronceverte, Lewisburg, White Sulphur Springs and Charles Town.
Humphrey - Evening appearance in Charleston.
Two Weeks Later
Morris Harvey College students who crowded the college auditorium April 11 to hear Sen. John Kennedy are still:almost two weeks later:impressed with him as a Presidential candidate.
A group of 102 students were questioned this week concerning their reactions to Kennedy's visit. Of this total, 92 said they saw and heard Kennedy on his campus visit.
While no questions were asked concerning Kennedy's religion, 26 students volunteered an opinion on it. Only eight of them felt that the religious issue would hurt his Presidential chances.
A big majority, 72, said they were favorably impressed with Kennedy as a candidate. Only 18 were not impressed, and seven had no opinion.
Fifty-five students said they would vote for Kennedy in West Virginia's May 10 preferential primary, while 22 said they wouldn't vote for him and eight hadn't made up their minds.
Of those who wouldn't vote for Kennedy, eight said they would vote for his primary opponent Sen. Hubert Humphrey. Eight others expressed a preference for Adlai Stevenson and the rest hadn't made up their minds.
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