In 1960 , the first presidential election after the admission of Alaska and Hawaii , Richard Nixon pledged to visit all 50 states following his nomination at the Republican National Convention . Nixon was defeated in the general election by Democrat John F. Kennedy , in one of the closest presidential campaigns in American history . Many observers and commentators in succeeding years , such as Larry Sabato , have criticized Nixon 's fifty-state pledge as a factor in his loss , suggesting that it forced him to place less emphasis on close states . Eight years later , in 1968 , Nixon ran for president again and won a three-way race against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and independent candidate George Wallace . His achievement of visiting every state in his previous campaign made Nixon the first president ever to accomplish this task , though not during a winning campaign
Republican National Convention
1960 Republican National Convention
Fifty-state strategy