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But suddenly there were signs of a horse race. Nixon added Virginia and Oklahoma to his Southern count but saw Texas begin to slip away. He showed surprising strength in New Jersey's strongly Democratic and Catholic Hudson County, which put New Jersey in doubt, and in Colorado's Denver County. Nixon led 5 to 3. In vote-heavy Ohio, Nixon got big help from Columbus, Dayton and the rural areas to gain a surprising lead; Kennedy forces put their trust in heavy labor areas and Catholic Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) still to be counted. In Michigan and Wisconsin, Kennedy limped weakly ahead. In Illinois he was well ahead—but far behind the huge majority piled up by Governor-elect Otto Kerner.
11 to 12. A confident smile creasing his broad face, G.O.P. National Chairman Thruston B. Morton took to the air to insist that Nixon had just begun to fight. "It's going to be all right." said Morton. "We've got this thing, and I know we're going to celebrate if we have to carry on here until the dawn kills the moon." But the dawn was coming up in the East like thunder for Kennedy. The pro-Nixon New York Daily News (which had called Kennedy the "British-tailored nominee of the America Stinks Party") was already whirling out early editions giving the race to Kennedy. Down South, where Kennedy's Catholicism was proving to be no crippling handicap, the Democrats chalked up Texas. Michigan's U.A.W.-dominated Wayne County was going 72% for Kennedy. Kennedy's one big blow came when Ohio slipped to Nixon.
The early word from California gave Nixon his home town of Whittier by 2 to 1. But the rest of Southern California news seemed Sunkist for Kennedy: he was even taking Los Angeles by 3 to 2. Cranking up its computer, CBS decided that Kennedy was surpassing Stevenson's vote in 1956 by 12% in industrial areas, 4% among farmers, 8% in the suburbs and a whopping 12% among Negroes. Climbing by the hour, Kennedy's popular-vote margin soared to a highpoint of nearly 2,000,000.
Midnight to 1. Henry Cabot Lodge marched into Washington's Sheraton-Park Hotel Republican headquarters with an ominous pronouncement: "I think that anything that is to be said now should come from Dick."
Back East, Adlai Stevenson, who had agonized through the same thing twice before, came onto the TV screens to declare his delight over the apparent Democratic sweep. Then he added wistfully: "My own future remains in doubt."
Fresh returns from the West kept alive the G.O.P. spark of hope. Nixon stormed into the lead in Oregon and Washington. The Mormons of Utah, the potato and sugar beet farmers of Idaho, the Goldwater conservatives of Arizona—all voted for Nixon. Dick Nixon turned over predictions by taking Colorado. He was narrowing Kennedy's lead in California. For the first time in any presidential election, Hawaii flashed in its aloha—with Nixon on the top end of a seesaw.
In the Midwest, Nixon picked up Iowa's ten electoral votes, as expected. He was on Kennedy's heels in Michigan and out in front in Wisconsin. Jack Kennedy seemed to be pulling Minnesota out of the fire, helped by a 60% plurality in St. Paul. Far back in the East, Kennedy nailed down little Delaware. His electoral-vote count rose to a sure 241 as he captured Louisiana and West Virginia.