Wisconsin for Kennedy
The Primary That Launched a President and Changed the Course of History
by B.J. Hollars
When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, he did something no candidate had done before: he leveraged the power of state primaries to win his party’s nomination. Kennedy’s first battleground state? Wisconsin—a state that would prove more arduous, more exhausting, and more crucial to winning the presidency than any other.
Wisconsin for Kennedy brings to life the stories behind JFK’s history-making 1960 Wisconsin primary campaign, and how Kennedy’s team managed to outmaneuver his politically seasoned opponent, Hubert Humphrey. From Jackie Kennedy commandeering a supermarket loudspeaker in Kenosha, to the Wisconsin forklift driver who planned President Kennedy’s final trip to Dallas, this captivating book places readers at the heart of the action.
Author B.J. Hollars chronicles JFK’s nail-biting Wisconsin win by drawing on rarely cited oral histories from the eclectic team of people who worked together to make it happen: a cranberry farmer, a union leader, a mayor, an architect, and others. Wisconsin for Kennedy explores how Wisconsin helped propel JFK all the way to the White House in a riveting historical account that reads like a work of rollicking, page-turning fiction.
About the Author
B.J. HOLLARS is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and the founder and director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild. His books include Year of Plenty: A Family’s Season of Grief; Go West Young Man: A Father and Son Rediscover America on the Oregon Trail; The Road South: Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders; and Hope Is the Thing: Wisconsinites on Perseverance in a Pandemic. Hollars is the recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Nonfiction, the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, and the Council of Wisconsin Writers’ Blei/Derleth Nonfiction Book Award. His work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR.
An excerpt from Wisconsin for Kennedy: The Primary that Launched a President and Changed the Course of History, by B.J. Hollars:
Shortly before she arrived at the American Legion Hall, Jackie had stopped inside a local Kenosha supermarket. As she watched the shoppers meander the aisles, she was suddenly struck by an idea. She had a captive audience, she realized, so why not make the most of it?
Strolling toward the microphone for the store’s loudspeaker system, Jackie asked the manager if she might say a few words to the shoppers. The manager, who’d surely never received such a request, handed over the mic without question. Jackie thanked him, smiled, cleared her throat, and began.
“Just keep on with your shopping,” Jackie said, her voice echoing throughout the store, “while I tell you about my husband, John F. Kennedy.”
What happened next would remain legendary for years to come. Decades later, shoppers in the store that day would tell their grandchildren how, on Tuesday, February 16, 1960, while picking up produce, or canned yams, or Ovaltine, they heard the voice of Jackie Kennedy drifting down upon them like a gentle breeze. How, underneath the store’s fluorescent lights, they’d halted their carts in their tracks and tilted their ears toward the loudspeakers. No one could quite remember her exact words, though everyone seemed to agree that she’d spoken to them in a language they could understand. They listened carefully as Jackie Kennedy—the Jackie Kennedy— spoke plainly and earnestly about her husband’s navy service, his public service, and his commitment to the country at large. There was something to be admired, too, in how this woman—so far removed from the world she knew best—had come to them humbly with a single message.
“Please,” she said, “vote for him.”
Now, at the Kenosha American Legion Hall, Jackie shared the stage alongside several others: her sister-in-law, Eunice Shriver; Kenosha’s mayor, Eugene Hammond; and, possibly an even bigger draw than Jackie, twenty-six-year-old Alan Ameche, a college football Heisman Trophy winner, fullback for the Baltimore Colts, and Kenosha’s hometown hero. At six feet tall and two hundred pounds, his boxy frame barely able to fit into his suitcoat, Ameche made for an odd pairing next to Jackie, as stately as ever in her dark dress and pearls.
Before them, a packed crowd stood shoulder to shoulder as another two hundred people waited outside. Ameche bravely approached the mic, putting his hometown hero status to good use. Apparently, Jackie thought, the proceedings would begin with or without her husband. Which was just as well. These people had waited long enough.
Ameche waved and grinned and launched into a speech, and the crowd reveled in every second. Ameche said all the right things, though, in truth, he could have said just about anything and received uproarious applause. But he said the words that would most help Jack Kennedy, that it was his firm belief that Kennedy would be the country’s next president.
The crowd cheered.
Next, still trying to buy Jack time, Mayor Hammond took his turn at the mic. He described how he’d met Kennedy on three occasions and how his admiration grew with each subsequent visit. Jack, he said, could talk to people “in a way to make you feel proud to call yourself a fellow American.”
The crowd clapped politely.
And then, all eyes turned toward Jackie, who stood slowly and then gamely approached the mic.
“I apologize for my husband’s tardiness,” she began. “But in the meantime, I’d be glad to take any questions of a nonpolitical nature.”
Questions came from all corners of the room.
What does the senator like to eat?
Tell us about Caroline!
Tell us about the Kennedy family!
Once the questions wound down and Jack was still nowhere to be seen, Jackie tried another tack.
“Let’s sing a song,” she said. “Does anybody here know ‘Southie is my Hometown’?”
The crowd’s expressions turned blank. What did they know about some song about south Boston?
But there was at least one song they all knew, one that had been sung over and over at rallies throughout the state, a version of Frank Sinatra’s “High Hopes.”
Jackie and Ameche led the crowd in singing the tune, the lyrics of which the campaign had cheekily altered:
“Everyone is voting for Jack
Cause he’s got what all the rest lack
Everyone wants to back—Jack
Jack is on the right track . . .”
Thankfully, that “right track” had finally led Jack to the American Legion Hall. With a bit of coaxing by Jerry, Jack had finally left the AFL-CIO meeting hall and was now making his way into the American Legion.
An Interview with B.J. Hollars
Why and how did you decide to write Wisconsin for Kennedy?
For years, while cutting through the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s student center on the way to class, I’d regularly spot a photograph of JFK. I’d always been curious to learn more about the circumstances that led then-Senator Kennedy to Eau Claire and the state of Wisconsin more broadly. In 2020, I came across a file labeled “Wisconsin” in a JFK digital archive, and I got my answer: our state was critical to Kennedy’s primary campaign and the presidency soon to come. The more I learned about this oft-overlooked history, the more I felt compelled to try to tell it.
These discoveries coincided with a Rudyard Kipling quote that had long fascinated me: “If history were told in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” That’s pretty much what I hoped to do for the Wisconsin primary of 1960.
How can this book serve as a guide to Wisconsin history?
Wisconsin for Kennedy is another entry point into our state’s rich history. This isn’t merely the story of Kennedy himself but also of the many little-known Wisconsinites whose passion-fueled commitment to their candidate helped Kennedy in a state he sorely needed to win in the spring of 1960. Collectively, these Wisconsinites banded together and fundamentally changed the course of history right here in our backyard. It’s a testament to the power of the individual but also to the power of the collective.
What do you hope readers learn about the Kennedys or Wisconsin politics?
It’s easy to think that history always happens “elsewhere” to people who are not us. In fact, history-making moments are always happening everywhere, and history is often shaped by people just like us. I hope readers will read about this cast of characters and see themselves reflected. In a time when the future of democracy often seems imperiled, we all have a role to play in shaping the government we want. The people featured here embody that message.
As anyone can imagine, writing a book is a deeply personal experience. How has writing Wisconsin for Kennedy been a personal experience for you?
The people in this book have become a second family. I’ve traveled to Sparta just to see the family grocery store where Ivan Nestingen once worked. I’ve driven through Clintonville and tried to imagine which red barn was the one that JFK and Humphrey posed alongside for their
LIFE Magazine cover photo. I’ve interviewed several living relatives of the people I write about, some of whom I now consider friends. The best part of being a writer is learning something new. The second-best part is understanding how this new knowledge can change you.
You did a fantastic job of telling the story of Kennedy’s 1960 Wisconsin primary campaign from several different perspectives. How did you research the details of the many personal stories shared in the book?
I did my best to find information from every source I could, including interviews, archival materials, and newspaper reports, to name a few. But the real magic occurs when you can triangulate the sources to paint a vivid scene. I love it when you can take a line from an interview transcript and pair it with a newspaper account. This triangulation allowed me to see the same scene from multiple angles, which allowed me to write these scenes more vividly.
Do you have any favorite people or anecdotes that stand out to you from this era of Wisconsin history?
Oh, I love them all. But I suppose I’m particularly partial to Jerry Bruno, an eighth-grade dropout forklift driver from Kenosha, who became the director of the Kennedy for President Club of Wisconsin. Later, Bruno was President Kennedy’s advance man and planned several major presidential trips, including the ill-fated trip to Dallas in 1963.
I also love Vel Phillips, the first woman and first Black person to serve on Milwaukee’s Common Council. Although she was initially skeptical of JFK’s position on civil rights, he won her over. Their friendship proved vital to Kennedy’s deepening understanding of issues of race. Her impact was felt long beyond the Wisconsin primary.
What is the most surprising or interesting thing you learned while working on this project?
In 1962, President Kennedy remarked to a Milwaukee crowd, “I suppose there is no training ground for the presidency, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea for a president to have stood outside of [Mayer’s] meat factory . . . at 5:30 in the morning with the temperature ten above.” I was stunned to learn how Kennedy credited his experiences in Wisconsin to his future success as a president. Make no mistake: his time in Wisconsin came with adversity. But ultimately, overcoming adversity was central to his success in the general election.