Eisenhower defeated Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson, the grandson of Grover Cleveland’s vice president. Stevenson served as governor of Illinois. President John F. Kennedy later appointed Stevenson as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Eisenhower handily defeated Stevenson by an electoral vote count of 442 to 89 in 1952, and an electoral vote count of 457 to 73 in 1956.