Thirty years ago today, predominantly Protestant West Virginia said yes to a Catholic and played a pivotal role in the making of a president. When John F. Kennedy routed Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey in the state's Democratic primary on May 10, 1960, he put to rest the notion that a Catholic couldn't be president, experts said. ``It propelled John Kennedy to the nomination and undermined the religious issue,'' said West Virginia Wesleyan professor Robert Rupp, who is organizing a symposium Wednesday to discuss the role of religion, the media and campaign techniques in what he calls ``The Primary That Made a President.'' ``The West Virginia primary really was the difference in John Kennedy's success or defeat,'' said Ted Sorensen, Kennedy's former speechwriter. ``Given the handicap of his religion and to some extent the handicap of his age, he knew he would not be the choice of bosses in the back rooms. He had to win in the primaries and, above all, he had to win in Protestant areas,'' Sorensen said Wednesday. Kennedy's advisers expected the worst from West Virginia, about 90 percent Protestant at the time, although Kennedy had won five of nine earlier primaries. Kennedy beat Humphrey in West Virginia, 236,510 votes to 152,187. Although the vote made political history, West Virginia's people and the grinding, inescapable poverty some of them lived in made a lasting impression on the scion of a wealthy Massachusetts family. ``He had seen poverty before,'' Sorensen said. ``But the long-term hardship faced by many of the people he met in West Virginia, the look on their face and the stories they told made a very deep impression on him. It wasn't a theory any longer.'' Kennedy spent more time campaigning in West Virginia than anywhere else. His advisers, supporters and family members hit every chicken dinner, student rally and ladies' auxiliary meeting they could. ``It was an exhausting campaign. We went to every hill and hollow,'' Sorensen said. When he was asked about his Catholicism, Kennedy's standard response was to talk about his family's military service, a vote-swaying appeal in a state with a high percentage of soldiers, sailors and airmen. ``He said, `Nobody asked my brother about his religion when he died for his country in World War II,''' said Charles Peters, who managed Kennedy's Kanawha County effort and is now editor of the Washington Monthly. Kennedy also had Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr., son of the most popular president in West Virginia, on his side. ``That was as if God's son had said it's all right to vote for this Catholic,'' Peters said. West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler, a first-term congressman at the time, was convinced Kennedy's religion would cost him the state. He changed his mind after he saw the Kennedy family in action. ``It impressed me so much that they, as a family team, knew exactly what needed to be done without any kind of chitchat,'' Hechler said. The Kennedy and Humphrey campaigns differed markedly. Kennedy chartered a plane at one point to fly to campaign stops; Humphrey rode around in a bus. Kennedy's theme song was ``High Hopes'' by Frank Sinatra; Humphrey had a folk singer. But the Kennedy high style didn't scare off the simple folk of West Virginia. Peters said he advised against bringing Jacqueline Kennedy to campaign in West Virginia. ``I thought she would come across as a snobbish, Northeast woman who would contrast unfavorably with the down-to-earth Muriel Humphrey,'' Peters said. ``Instead she was a big hit.''
