Harold Meyerson reminds us about the role West Virginia has previously played in Democratic politics:
In 1960, the nomination process was still controlled by the political organizations that dominated the various state convention delegations (that didn't change until the convention of 1972). Only 16 states had primaries in 1960, and many of those, West Virginia's included, were beauty contests, with no binding effect on the state's delegates. Candidates entered presidential primaries -- and usually, just a handful of them -- for one reason only, and that was to impress upon the political bosses who controlled the nomination process that they were, in fact, electable. ...
Early polling showed Kennedy, who received much the most (and frequently most fawning) press coverage of any candidate early in the campaign, leading in West Virginia, but that was before voters discovered his religion. His campaign's young pollster, Lou Harris, reported that Kennedy's 70-to-30 percent lead in Kanawha County (which includes the state capital, Charleston) before Wisconsin fell to a 60-to-40 percent deficit afterwards.
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--The Editors
