The Daily Aztec Opinion section is inaugurating a new weekly segment: Throwback Thursday. Every week, it’ll explore how it covered 24 previous presidential elections. We start our series with the 1960 elections, where Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy faced off against Republican Vice-President Richard Nixon. During this election, The Daily Aztec chose to not endorse a candidate. It explained its decision in an editorial on Nov. 4, 1960.

The newspaper espoused this nonpartisan stance, running a competing editorial on the same issue from Raoul Lowery, a representative from the Young Republicans, and Jeff Fishel, President of San Diego State’s Democratic Club.

The newspaper also addressed the long-standing idea that the two candidates were actually quite similar. In a multi-page editorial history professor Dr. Nelson Norman, detailed the differences between Republicans and Democrats in everything from philosophy of government to agriculture.

Most notably, The Daily Aztec ran an article on Edward “Ted” Kennedy’s visit to the school in support of his older brother. A survey conducted by the newspaper among students indicated overwhelming support for Nixon — 62 percent against Kennedy’s 37 percent. According to the article, “one man polled said he majored in girls and would vote for Charlie Brown for President.”

Four days later, Kennedy defeated Nixon by a margin of 0.16 percent in the popular vote.