The United States Presidential election of 1960 was a quadrennial election held on November 8, 1960 to elect the President of the United States. Incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, was term-limited due to the Twenty-second Amendment passed in 1951. The election featured Eisenhower's Vice President, Richard Nixon of California, facing the Democratic candidate Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. In one of the narrowest (and most controversial) elections in United States history, Nixon narrowly won the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote by 34,000 votes.