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United States presidential election, 1932

← 1928 November 8, 1932 1936 →

Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Herbert Hoover Party Democratic Republican Home state New York California Running mate John Nance Garner Charles Curtis Electoral vote 472 59 States carried 42 6 Popular vote 22,821,277 15,761,254 Percentage 57.4% 39.7%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Hoover/Curtis, Blue denotes those won by Roosevelt/Garner. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election Herbert Hoover Republican Elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic

The United States presidential election of 1932 took place as the effects of the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression were being felt intensely across the country. President Herbert Hoover's popularity was falling as voters felt he was unable to reverse the economic collapse, or deal with prohibition. Franklin D. Roosevelt used what he called Hoover's failure to deal with these problems as a platform for his own election, promising reform in his policy called the New Deal. Roosevelt won by a landslide, and this "critical election" marked the collapse of the Fourth Party System or Progressive Era. The voters soon were realigned into the Fifth Party System, dominated by Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

See also: 1932 Democratic National Convention

• Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. governor of New York
• Al Smith, former U.S. governor of New York
• John Nance Garner, U.S. Speaker of the House from Texas
• Harry F. Byrd, former U.S. governor of Virginia
• James A. Reed, U.S. senator from Missouri
• Albert Ritchie, U.S. governor of Maryland
• William H. Murray, U.S. governor of Oklahoma
• Will Rogers, movie star from Oklahoma
• Newton D. Baker, former U.S. Secretary of War from Ohio
• George White, U.S. governor of Ohio
• Melvin Alvah Traylor, banker from Illinois

Candidates gallery

• Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York
• former Governor Al Smith of New York
• Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas
• former Governor Harry F. Byrd of Virginia
• Senator James A. Reed of Missouri
• Governor Albert Ritchie of Maryland
• Governor William H. Murray of Oklahoma Governor William H. Murray of Oklahoma
• Movie star Will Rogers of Oklahoma
• former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker of Ohio

Throughout the winter and spring of 1932, New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt was viewed as the heavy favorite to win the Democratic nomination. However, he did receive some unexpected setbacks, such as when Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee, defeated Roosevelt in the Massachusetts primary. As the Democratic Convention opened in Chicago, Roosevelt was believed to have more delegate votes than all of his opponents combined. Due to the two-thirds rule, however, many of Roosevelt's rivals hoped that he would be unable to win the nomination, and that the delegates would turn to them in later ballots.

On the first ballot Roosevelt was well ahead of his rivals, of whom the strongest was Smith, but he was still below the two-thirds percentage he needed to win. On the next two ballots Roosevelt's total went up only slightly, and his managers - Louis McHenry Howe and James Farley - became concerned that if he did not win the nomination on the next few ballots, his strength would ebb and move to other candidates. Before the fourth ballot began, Farley and Howe cut a deal with the press baron William Randolph Hearst in which FDR would make John Nance Garner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and who with Hearst's backing was also a candidate for the nomination, his Vice President. Garner and his manager, Texas Congressman Sam Rayburn, agreed to the deal and on the fourth ballot Garner withdrew his candidacy and supported Roosevelt. Additionally, former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo, whose own presidential ambitions were thwarted by Al Smith eight years before, gleefully changed California's votes from Garner to Roosevelt, which set off a stampede that led to Roosevelt's nomination by the end of the fourth ballot.

The Democratic Party Platform included repeal of Prohibition (devolving the decision of allowing or prohibiting alcohol to the individual states to decide for themselves).

Republican Party nomination

See also: 1932 Republican National Convention

• John J. Blaine, U.S. senator from Wisconsin
• Calvin Coolidge, former President of the United States from Massachusetts
• Herbert Hoover, President of the United States from California
• Joseph Irwin France, former U.S. senator from Maryland
• James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr., former U.S. senator from New York

Candidates gallery

• Senator John J. Blaine of Wisconsin
• former President Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts
• President Herbert Hoover of California
• former Senator Joseph Irwin France of Maryland

As the year 1932 began, the Republican Party still had hopes that the worst of the Depression was over; in any case President Herbert Hoover controlled the party. Little-known former U.S. Senator Joseph Irwin France ran against Hoover in the primaries, often however, Hoover was unopposed. His primary wins were tempered by two events: first, Hoover entered the Maryland primary and defeated France in his home state; second, few delegates to the national convention were chosen in the primaries.

Hoover's managers at the Republican National Convention ran a tight ship, not allowing expressions of concern for the direction of the nation. Hoover was nominated on the first ballot with 98% of the delegate vote.

The tally was spectacularly lopsided:

Both the agricultural Republicans and the extreme hard money Republicans (the latter hoping to nominate Coolidge) balked at the floor managers and voted against the renomination of Vice President Charles Curtis, who won with just 55% of the delegate votes.

General election

Campaign

After making a dangerous airplane trip from his Hyde Park estate to the Democratic convention, Roosevelt accepted the nomination in person. In this history-making speech, he committed himself to battling the Great Depression in the United States with a "New Deal" when he stated: "I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people." Roosevelt's trip to Chicago was the first of several successful, precedent-making moves designed to make him appear to be the candidate of change in the election. Large crowds greeted Roosevelt as he traveled around the nation; his campaign song "Happy Days Are Here Again" became one of the most popular in American political history.

In contrast, Hoover was widely blamed for the Great Depression; for more than two years, Hoover had been issuing statements that the worst was over, only to have the economy make further downturns. Along with the anti-sentiment from the deaths of veterans in the Bonus Army incident his chances of a second term were slim to none. Hoover's attempts to campaign in public were a disaster, as he often had objects (especially rotten fruit and vegetables) thrown at him or his vehicle as he rode through city streets. In his addresses, Hoover attacked Roosevelt as a dangerous radical who would only make the Depression worse by raising taxes and increasing the federal debt to pay for expensive welfare and social-relief programs. However, with unemployment at 23.6%, Hoover's criticisms of the New Deal plan did nothing more than further lower his popularity with the public and it was said that "Even a vaguely talented dog-catcher could have been elected president against the Republicans...". Hoover even received a letter from an Illinois man that said "Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous".

Hoover called Roosevelt a "chameleon in plaid" and Roosevelt called Hoover a "fat, timid capon." In the last days of campaigning, Hoover criticized Roosevelt's "nonsense ... tirades ... glittering generalizations ... ignorance" and "defamation."

The election was held on November 8, 1932. Maine held separate state elections in September.

1932 was a realigning election. Roosevelt and the Democratic ticket won a sweeping victory over Hoover and the Republicans, extending their control over the U.S. House and gaining control of the U.S. Senate. Twelve years of Republican leadership came to an end, and 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House would ensue. Until 1932, the Republicans had controlled the Presidency for 56 of the previous 72 years, dating to Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860. After 1932, the Democrats would control the Presidency for 28 of the next 36 years, until the 1968 presidential election created a new alignment which favored the Republicans (cemented in 1980). The vote for Roosevelt was nearly eight million higher than that for Smith in 1928, an increase of 52%. Hoover's popular vote was reduced by 26% from his result in the 1928 election. In addition, the vote for most minor parties rose dramatically: increases of 230% for the Socialist Party (Norman Thomas's highest raw vote total of his campaigns); an increase of 112% for the Communist Party; an increase of 305% for the Prohibition Party; and an increase of 57% for the Socialist Labor Party.

Hoover's 17.76% margin of loss is the largest-ever margin of defeat for an incumbent President to date. He lost 42 of 48 states.

Results

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1932 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 31, 2005.Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005.

Close States

Margin of victory less than 10%:

1. Connecticut, 1.1%
2. New Hampshire, 1.4%
3. New Jersey, 1.9%
4. Delaware, 2.4%
5. Ohio, 2.9%
6. Massachusetts, 4.0%
7. Pennsylvania, 5.5%
8. Michigan, 7.9%
9. Kansas, 9.4%

Results by state

Bibliography

• Kristi Andersen, The Creation of a Democratic Majority: 1928-1936 (1979), statistical
• James McGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956)
• Frank Freidel, Franklin D. Roosevelt: The Triumph (1956)
• Frank Freidel, "Election of 1932", in Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., ed., The Coming to Power: Critical Presidential Elections in American History (1981),
• Harold F. Gosnell, Champion Campaigner: Franklin D. Roosevelt (1952)
• Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Great Depression, 1929-1941 (1952)
• Roy V. Peel and Thomas C. Donnelly, The 1932 Campaign: An Analysis (1935)
• Donald A. Ritchie, Electing FDR: The New Deal Campaign of 1932 (2007)
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The Crisis of the Old Order (1957),
• Jeff Campbell USA 2004.

See also

• United States Senate election, 1932
• United States House election, 1932
• History of the United States (1918-1945)

References

1. "Overall Unemployment Rate in the U.S. Civilian Labor Force, 1920–2007 — Infoplease.com". Infoplease.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
2. "Timeline of the Great Depression". Hyperhistory.com. Retrieved 2008-11-04.
3. ^ Cambell, Jeff (November 19, 2008). "Hoover's Popularity". Lonely Planet. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
4. ^ Gibbs, Nancy (November 10, 2008). "When New President Meets Old, It's Not Always Pretty". TIME. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

• 1932 popular vote by counties
• How close was the 1932 election? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University

Navigation

• United States presidential election, 1932
• History of the United States (1918–1945)