Unpublished. From left: Jackie Kennedy, turned to someone behind her; President Dwight Eisenhower; President-Elect Kennedy; and on the right, Vice-President-Elect Lyndon Johnson and outgoing VP Richard Nixon, January 1961. Two months earlier, Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge lost one of the closest elections of the 20th century to Kennedy and LBJ.

President-elect Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson, after his victory in the 1964 election.

Not originally published in LIFE. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, attend inaugural festivities with Vice President Hubert Humphrey (second from right) and his wife, Muriel, in 1965.

Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas) talks with staff and reporters while on a plane in April 1960, before accepting John Kennedy's offer to be his running mate.