First, a Catholic was elected. Biden is the only Catholic other than JFK to ever be elected president! Catholicism was a major issue in 1960, now of course, it isn't even an afterthought, it gets no thought.
Repubes tried to label JFK a socialist (they just never stop).
There were televised debates, first ever in 1960, and just as in 2020 the first debate was the most important and was a disaster for the Republican.
Kennedy won 303 Electoral Votes, Biden 306.
Both Kennedy and Joe lost Florida while winning Georgia. Kennedy walloped Nixon in Georgia, Joe of course just squeaked by, but Georgia was considered in play in 1960. The South was not solid for Dems in '60. Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee went for Milhous and Alabama and Mississippi chose unreconstructed third party Harry Byrd over both major party candidates.
New Mexico and Nevada were blue as they were in 2016 and 2020. Pennsylvania was key and voted JFK as it did for Joe. Ohio was red in '60 and 2020. As in MMXX both candidates spent a lot of time in PA, JFK going to smaller-than-small towns like Kittanning, Indiana, Willow Grove and McKeesport.
Like Trump in 2020 Nixon was off the campaign trail at Walter Reed (!) for two weeks. In August, 1960 Dick injured his knee after bumping into a car door in North Carolina. That set his campaign's schedule back. And Nixon must have had Brad "Death Star" Parscale's ancestor managing his campaign because Nixon stuck to a pledge to campaign in all fifty states--even after he hurt his knee--and ended up in ALASKA(?!) in the last weekend of the campaign while JFK was all over New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan, and...Pennsylvania.
Finally, there were a series of allegations of voter fraud in 1960 and although Nixon himself refused to pursue them the Republican Party did. RNC chairman Thruston Ballard Morton "challenged the results in 11 states (!), keeping challenges in the courts into mid-1961,(!) but the only result of these challenges was the loss of Hawaii to Kennedy on a recount."
