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1932 Election
In 1932, the third year of the Great Depression, the Republican party nominated President Herbert Hoover and Vice President Charles Curtis.
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1940 Election
In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term by a margin of nearly 5 million.
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1836 Election
The election of 1836 was largely a referendum on Andrew Jackson, but it also helped shape what is known as the second party system.
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1884 Election
This race, marred by negative campaigning and corruption, ended in the election of the first Democratic president since 1856.
In 1936 the Democratic party nominated President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner. The Republican party, strongly opposed to the New Deal and "big government," chose Governor Alfred M. Landon of Kansas and Fred Knox of Illinois.
The 1936 presidential campaign focused on class to an unusual extent for American politics. Conservative Democrats such as Alfred E. Smith supported Landon. Eighty percent of newspapers endorsed the Republicans, accusing Roosevelt of imposing a centralized economy. Most businesspeople charged the New Deal with trying to destroy American individualism and threatening the nation's liberty. But Roosevelt appealed to a coalition of western and southern farmers, industrial workers, urban ethnic voters, and reform-minded intellectuals. African-American voters, historically Republican, switched to fdr in record numbers.
In a referendum on the emerging welfare state, the Democratic party won in a landslide--27,751,612 popular votes for fdr to only 16,681,913 for Landon. The Republicans carried two states--Maine and Vermont--for 8 electoral votes; Roosevelt received the remaining 523. The unprecedented success of fdr in 1936 marked the beginning of a long period of Democratic party dominance.
The Reader's Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Copyright © 1991 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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This Day in History
Feb 9
Lead Story
Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1971
On this day in 1971, pitcher Leroy "Satchel" Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In August of that…
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