United States presidential election, 1928

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Presidential electoral votes by state.

The United States presidential election of 1928 pitted Republican Herbert Hoover against Democrat Alfred E. Smith. The Republicans were identified with the booming economy of the 1920s and Smith, a Roman Catholic, suffered politically from anti-Catholic prejudice, the legacy of corruption in his Tammany Hall, and his wet (antiprohibition) positions, leading to a landslide victory for Hoover.

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Republican Party nomination

With President Coolidge choosing not to enter the race, the race for the nomination was wide open. The leading candidates were Secretary of Commerce Herbert C. Hoover, former Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Curtis. There was also a draft-Coolidge movement, which failed to gain significant traction.

In the few primaries that mattered Hoover didn't do as well as expected, and it was thought that the President or Vice President Charles Dawes might accept a draft in case of a deadlock, but Lowden withdrew just as the convention was about to start, paving the way for a Hoover victory.

The Republican Convention was held in Kansas City, Missouri from June 12 to June 15, and the results were:

• Herbert Hoover 837
• Frank O. Lowden 74
• Charles Curtis 64

With Hoover disinclined to interfere in the selection of his running mate, the party leaders were at first partial to giving Dawes a shot at a second term, but when this information leaked, Coolidge sent an angry telegram saying that he would consider a second nomination for Dawes, whom he hated, a "personal affront." So, it was offered to Senator Curtis, who accepted, and he was nominated unanimously.

In his acceptance speech a week after the convention ended, Secretary Hoover said: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of this land... We shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this land."

[edit] Democratic Party nomination

With the memory of the Teapot Dome scandal rapidly fading, and the current state of prosperity making that year's Presidential nomination not worth all that much, most of the major Democratic leaders such as William G. McAdoo were content to sit this one out. One who didn't was NY Governor Alfred E. Smith, who had tried twice before. The party bosses decided that it was safe to give him what would be, for all intents and purposes, an empty honor.

The 1928 Democratic National Convention was held in Houston, Texas, June 26 to June 28 and Smith became the candidate on the first ballot.

The leadership asked the delegates to nominate Sen. Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas, who was in many ways Smith's political polar opposite, to be his running mate, and he was nominated for Vice-President.

Smith was the first Roman Catholic to gain a major party's nomination for President, and his religion became an issue during the campaign. Many Protestants feared that Smith would take orders from church leaders in Rome in making decisions affecting the country.

[edit] Prohibition Party nomination

The Prohibition Convention was held in Chicago from July 10 through July 12. Although Smith did not openly come out against Prohibition, he was perceived by many as soft in the war against alcohol. Some members of the Prohibition Party wanted to throw their support to Hoover, thinking that their candidate would not win and that they didn't want their candidate to provide the margin by which Smith would win. Nonetheless, William F. Varney was nominated for President over Hoover by a margin of 68–45. Hoover was on the California ballot as the Prohibition candidate.

[edit] Socialist Party nomination

With the death of Eugene V. Debs in 1926, the party needed a new standard-bearer, and found one in Norman Thomas, who would be nominated for the next twenty years.

[edit] General election

A campaign truck advertises that Hoover's story is being conveyed by the new medium of "talking pictures," 1928.

With both major candidates actually actively campaigning across the country, plus the introduction of such novelties as radio commercials and sound newsreels, the 1928 fall campaign may well be considered the first modern presidential race.

[edit] Results

The election was held on November 6, 1928.

Republican candidate Herbert Hoover won election by a wide margin on pledges to continue the economic boom of the Coolidge years. Smith won the electoral votes only of the traditionally Democratic US South and two New England States. Hoover even triumphed in Smith's home state of New York by a narrow margin.

Smith's Catholicism hurt him in the South, where several states were won by the Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. At the same time, his religion helped him with New England immigrants, which may explain his narrow victories in traditionally Republican Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Smith achieved one other distinction in this election: the Democrats won a majority of large cities for the first time, signaling a trend of immense significance.

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1928 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 28, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 28, 2005).

[edit] Bibliography

• Kristi Andersen, The Creation of a Democratic Majority: 1928-1936 (1979), statistical analysis of voting
• Bornet, Vaughn Davis; Labor Politics in a Democratic Republic: Moderation, Division, and Disruption in the Presidential Election of 1928 (1964) online edition
• Douglas B. Craig. After Wilson: The Struggle for Control of the Democratic Party, 1920-1934 (1992)online edition see Chap. 6 "The Problem of Al Smith" and Chap. 8 "'Wall Street Likes Al Smith': The Election of 1928"
• Christopher M. Finan. Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior. (2003)
• Michael J. Hostetler; "Gov. Al Smith Confronts the Catholic Question: The Rhetorical Legacy of the 1928 Campaign" Communication Quarterly, Vol. 46, 1998
• Lichtman, Allan. Prejudice and the old politics: The Presidential election of 1928 (1979), statistical study
• Edmund A. Moore; A Catholic Runs for President: The Campaign of 1928 (1956) online edition
• Daniel F. Rulli; "Campaigning in 1928: Chickens in Pots and Cars in Backyards," Teaching History: A Journal of Methods, Vol. 31#1 pp 42+ (2006) online version with lesson plans for class
• Robert A. Slayton, Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith (2001), is the standard scholarly biography
• Sweeney, James R. “Rum, Romanism, and Virginia Democrats: The Party Leaders and the Campaign of 1928.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90 (October 1982): 403–31.

[edit] Primary sources

• Hoover, Herbert. The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933 (1952),
• Smith, Alfred E. Campaign Addresses 1929.

[edit] See also

• President of the United States
• U.S. Senate election, 1928
• History of the United States (1918-1945)

[edit] External links

• 1928 popular vote by counties

[edit] Navigation