United States presidential election, 1932

United States presidential election, 1932
United States
November 8, 1932
531 electoral votes of the Electoral College
266 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout 56.9%[1] Steady 0.0 pp
 
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. Blue denotes those won by Roosevelt/Garner, red denotes states won by Hoover/Curtis. 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 was the 37th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1932. The election took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression that ruined the promises of incumbent President and Republican candidate Herbert Hoover to bring about a new era of prosperity. The Democratic nomination went to the well-known governor of the most populous state, New York's Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had been reelected governor in a landslide in 1930. Roosevelt united all wings of his party, avoided divisive cultural issues, and brought in a leading Southern conservative as his running mate, House Speaker John Nance Garner of Texas.

Roosevelt repeatedly blamed Hoover for the Depression and worsening economy. With unemployment above 20% in 1932 alone, Hoover was remiss to defend his record,[2] and Roosevelt promised recovery with a New Deal for the American people.[3] Roosevelt won by a landslide in both the electoral and popular vote, receiving the highest percentage of the popular vote for a Democratic nominee. The election marked the effective end of the Fourth Party System, dominated by Republicans. Subsequent landslides in the 1934 mid-term elections and following presidential election two and four years later respectively, signified the commencement of the Fifth Party System, dominated by Roosevelt's New Deal Coalition.[4]

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Republican candidates:

As the year 1932 began, the Republican Party believed Hoover's protectionism and aggressive fiscal policies would solve the depression. Whether they were successful or not, President Herbert Hoover controlled the party and had little trouble securing a re-nomination. Little-known former United States Senator Joseph I. France ran against Hoover in the primaries, but Hoover was often unopposed. France's primary wins were tempered by his defeat to Hoover in his home state of Maryland and the fact that few delegates to the national convention were chosen in the primaries.

Hoover's managers at the Republican National Convention, which met in Chicago between June 14 and 16, ran a tight ship, not allowing expressions of concern for the direction of the nation. He was nominated on the first ballot with 98% of the delegate vote.

The tally was spectacularly lopsided:

Presidential Ballot, RNC 1932
Herbert Hoover 1126.5
John J. Blaine 13
Calvin Coolidge 4.5
Joseph I. France 4
James Wolcott Wadsworth, Jr. 1

Both rural Republicans and hard-money Republicans (the latter hoping to nominate former President Calvin 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.

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic candidates:

The leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1932 was New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Speaker of the House John Nance Garner and former New York Governor Al Smith were trailing him. Before the 1932 Democratic National Convention met in Chicago between June 27 and July 2, Roosevelt was believed to have more delegate votes than all of his opponents combined. However, due to the "two-thirds" nominating rule then used by the Democrats, his opponents hoped that he would be unable to obtain the two-thirds majority necessary to win, and that they could gain votes on later ballots or coalesce behind a dark horse candidate.[5]:3–4

On the first three ballots Roosevelt had well over a majority of the delegate vote, but still lacked the two-thirds majority. Before the fourth ballot, his managers James Farley and Louis McHenry Howe struck a deal with House Speaker John Nance Garner: Garner would drop out of the race and support Roosevelt, and in return Roosevelt would agree to name Garner as his running mate. With this agreement, Roosevelt won the two-thirds majority and with it the presidential nomination.[5]

General election

Campaign

Hoover addresses a large crowd in his 1932 campaign.

After making an airplane trip to the Democratic convention, Roosevelt accepted the nomination in person. In his speech, Roosevelt promised to "abolish useless offices" and "eliminate unnecessary functions of Government", stating that "Government – Federal and State and local – costs too much", and even promised to help facilitate the "restoration of the trade of the world".[6] 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[5]:244 – and, indeed, the unofficial anthem of the Democratic Party.[7]

The Democrats were united as they had not been in 1928, and probably the most united the party had been in the entire Fourth Party System.[8] Roosevelt's Protestant background nullified the anti-Catholic attacks Smith faced in 1928, and The Depression seemed to be of greater concern among the American public that previous cultural battles. Prohibition was a favorite Democratic target, with few Republicans trying to defend it given mounting demand to end prohibition and bring back beer, liquor, and the resulting tax revenues.[9]

Roosevelt (seated, center) at Greenway Ranch in Williams, Arizona on September 26, 1932. He is accompanied by U.S. Senator from Arizona Carl Hayden standing far right, along with –among others –three Democrats from the U.S. Senate (seated): Pittman, Walsh, and Cohen.

In contrast, Hoover was not supported by many of the more prominent Republicans and violently opposed by others, in particular by a number of senators who had fought him throughout his administration and whose national reputation made their opposition of considerable importance. Many prominent Republicans even went so far as to espouse the cause of the Democratic candidate openly.[10]

Making matters worse for Hoover was the fact that many Americans blamed him for the Great Depression. For more than two years, President Hoover had been restricting trade and increasing taxes on the wealthy with legislation such as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act and the Revenue Act of 1932. Roosevelt lashed out at Hoover: "I accuse the present Administration of being the greatest spending Administration in peacetime in all our history."[11] Garner accused Hoover of "leading the country down the path of socialism."[12] The outrage caused by the deaths of veterans in the Bonus Army incident in the summer of 1932, combined with the catastrophic economic effects of Hoover's domestic policies, reduced his chances of a second term from slim to none. His attempts to campaign in public were a disaster, as he often had objects thrown at him or his vehicle as he rode through city streets. However, with unemployment at 23.6%,[13][14] Hoover's criticisms of Roosevelt's campaign promises did nothing more than further lower his popularity with the public. Roosevelt himself did not have a clear idea of the New Deal at this point, so he promised no specific programs.[15] It was said that "Even a vaguely talented dog-catcher could have been elected president against the Republicans." [16] Hoover even received a letter from an Illinois man that advised, "Vote for Roosevelt and make it unanimous."

Hoover called Roosevelt a "chameleon in plaid" and Roosevelt called President Hoover a "fat, timid capon".[17] In the last days of campaigning, Hoover criticized Roosevelt's "nonsense ... tirades ... glittering generalizations ... ignorance" and "defamation".[17]

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

Results

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of blue are for Roosevelt (Democratic) and shades of red are for Hoover (Republican).[18]

This was the first election since 1916 in which the Democratic candidate won.

Although the "other" vote (the combined vote total for candidates other than the nominees of the two major parties) of 1932 was three times that of 1928, it was considerably less than what had been recorded in 1920; the time of the greatest "other" vote with the exception of the unusual conditions prevailing in 1912 and 1924.

Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate, won the support of 22,817,883 voters (57.41%), the greatest vote ever cast for a candidate for the Presidency up until that time, and 1,425,000 greater than that cast for Hoover in 1928. It is to be noted that Hoover won a greater percentage of the vote in 1928, as did Harding in 1920. But the national swing of 35.17% impressed all who considered the distribution of the vote, and indicated that more than one-third of the electorate had switched from supporting the Republican Party to the Democratic Party. Only once in this period had there been a comparable shift; in 1920, there was a 29.29% swing towards the Republicans.[10] The swing from Smith in 1928 to Roosevelt in this year remains the greatest national swing of the electorate between presidential elections in the history of the United States.

1932 was a realigning election, as 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. 12 years of Republican leadership came to an end, and 20 consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House began.[17] 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, Democrats would control the Presidency for 28 of the next 36 years.

Roosevelt led the poll in 2,722 counties, the greatest number ever carried by a candidate for the presidency up until that time. Of these, 282 had never before been Democratic. Only 374 counties remained loyal to the Republican candidate. It is to be noted, however, that 1/2 of the total vote of the nation was cast in just eight states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin) and that in these states, Hoover polled 8,592,163 votes. In one section (West South Central), the Republican percentage sank to 16.21%, but in no other section did the party poll less than 30% of the vote cast. But the relative appeal of the two candidates in 1932 and the decline of the appeal of Hoover as compared with 1928 are shown in the fact that the Republican vote increased in 1932 in only 87 counties, while the Democratic vote increased in 3,003 counties.

The great vote cast for Hoover, and the fact that in only one section of the nation (West South Central) did he have less than 500,000 votes and in only three states outside of the South less than 50,000 votes, make it clear that the nation remained a two-party electorate, and that everywhere, despite the triumph of the Democrats, there was a party membership devoted to neither the new administration nor the proposals of the Socialist candidate who had polled 75% of the "other" vote (as well as the highest raw vote total of his campaigns).[19]

This election was the last time a Republican presidential candidate won a majority of black and African-American votes to date. As New Deal policies took effect, the strong support of black voters for these programs began a transition from their traditional support for Republicans to providing solid majorities for Democrats.

The Roosevelt ticket swept every region of the country except New England and carried many reliable Republican states that had not been carried by the Democrats since their electoral landslide of 1912, when the Republican vote was divided. Michigan voted Democratic for the first time since the emergence of the Republican Party. The state of Minnesota was carried by a Democrat for the first time in its history, leaving Vermont as the only remaining state never to be carried by a Democratic candidate (and it would not be until 1964). In contrast to the state’s solid support of Republicans prior to this election, Minnesota continued supporting Democrats in every presidential election but three since 1932, the exceptions being 1952, 1956, and 1972.

Roosevelt's victory with 472 electoral votes stood until the 1964 victory of Lyndon B. Johnson, who won 486 electoral votes in 1964, as the most ever won by a first-time contestant in a presidential election. He also bettered the national record of 444 electoral votes set by Hoover only four years earlier (and would shatter his own record when he was re-elected in 1936 with 523 votes).

Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote		 Running mate
Count Pct Vice-presidential candidate Home state Elect. vote
Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic New York 22,821,277 57.41% 472 John Nance Garner Texas 472
Herbert Hoover (Incumbent) Republican California 15,761,254 39.65% 59 Charles Curtis Kansas 59
Norman Thomas Socialist New York 884,885 2.23% 0 James H. Maurer Pennsylvania 0
William Z. Foster Communist Illinois 103,307 0.26% 0 James W. Ford Alabama 0
William David Upshaw Prohibition Georgia 81,905 0.21% 0 Frank S. Regan Illinois 0
William Hope Harvey Liberty Arkansas 53,425 0.13% 0 Frank Hemenway Washington 0
Verne L. Reynolds Socialist Labor New York 34,038 0.09% 0 John W. Aiken Massachusetts 0
Jacob Coxey Farmer-Labor Ohio 7,431 0.02% 0 Julius Reiter Minnesota 0
Other 4,376 0.01% — Other —
Total 39,751,898 100% 531 531
Needed to win 266 266

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. 

Popular vote
Roosevelt
  
 57.41%
Hoover
  
 39.65%
Thomas
  
 2.23%
Foster
  
 0.26%
Others
  
 0.45%
Electoral vote
Roosevelt
  
 88.89%
Hoover
  
 11.11%

Geography of results

Results by state

[20]

States won by Roosevelt/Garner
States won by Hoover/Curtis
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic		 Herbert Hoover
Republican		 Norman Thomas
Socialist		 Other Margin State Total
State electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % #
Alabama 11 207,91084.741134,67514.13-2,0300.83-7390.30-173,23570.61245,354 AL
Arizona 3 79,26467.03336,10430.53-2,6182.21-2650.22-43,16036.50118,251 AZ
Arkansas 9 189,60285.96928,46712.91-1,2690.58-1,2240.55-161,13573.06220,562 AR
California 22 1,324,15758.3922847,90237.39-63,2992.79-32,6081.44-476,25521.002,267,966 CA
Colorado 6 250,87754.816189,61741.43-13,5912.97-3,6110.79-61,26013.38457,696 CO
Connecticut 8 281,63247.40-288,42048.54820,8403.45-3,6510.61--6,788-1.14594,183 CT
Delaware 3 54,31948.11-57,07350.5531,3761.22-1330.12--2,754-2.44112,901 DE
Florida 7 206,30774.68769,17025.04-7750.28----137,13749.64276,252 FL
Georgia 12 234,11891.601219,8637.77-4610.18-1,1480.45-214,25583.83255,590 GA
Idaho 4 109,47958.66471,41738.27-5260.28-5,2032.79-38,06220.39186,625 ID
Illinois 29 1,882,30455.23291,432,75642.04-67,2581.97-25,6080.75-449,54813.193,407,926 IL
Indiana 14 862,05454.6714677,18442.94-21,3881.36-16,3011.03-184,87011.721,576,927 IN
Iowa 11 598,01957.6911414,43339.98-20,4671.97-3,7680.36-183,58617.711,036,687 IA
Kansas 9 424,20453.569349,49844.13-18,2762.31----74,7069.43791,978 KS
Kentucky 11 580,57459.0611394,71640.15-3,8530.39-3,9200.40-185,85818.91983,063 KY
Louisiana 10 249,41892.791018,8537.01----5330.20-230,56585.77268,804 LA
Maine 5 128,90743.19-166,63155.8352,4890.83-4170.14--37,724-12.64298,444 ME
Maryland 8 314,31461.508184,18436.04-10,4892.05-2,0670.40-130,13025.46511,054 MD
Massachusetts 17 800,14850.6417736,95946.64-34,3052.17-8,7020.55-63,1894.001,580,114 MA
Michigan 19 871,70052.3619739,89444.44-39,2052.35-13,9660.84-131,8067.921,664,765 MI
Minnesota 11 600,80659.9111363,95936.29-25,4762.54-12,6021.26-236,84723.621,002,843 MN
Mississippi 9 140,16895.9895,1803.55-6860.47----134,98892.44146,034 MS
Missouri 15 1,025,40663.6915564,71335.08-16,3741.02-3,4010.21-460,69328.621,609,894 MO
Montana 4 127,28658.80478,07836.07-7,8913.65-3,2241.49-49,20822.73216,479 MT
Nebraska 7 359,08262.987201,17735.29-9,8761.73-20.00-157,90527.70570,137 NE
Nevada 3 28,75669.41312,67430.59-------16,08238.8241,430 NV
New Hampshire 4 100,68048.99-103,62950.4249470.46-2640.13--2,949-1.43205,520 NH
New Jersey 16 806,39449.4916775,40647.59-42,9882.64-4,7190.29-30,9881.901,629,507 NJ
New Mexico 3 95,08962.72354,21735.76-1,7761.17-5240.35-40,87226.96151,606 NM
New York 47 2,534,95954.07471,937,96341.33-177,3973.78-38,2950.82-596,99612.734,688,614 NY
North Carolina 13 497,56669.9313208,34429.28-5,5910.79----289,22240.65711,501 NC
North Dakota 4 178,35069.59471,77228.00-3,5211.37-2,6471.03-106,57841.58256,290 ND
Ohio 26 1,301,69549.88261,227,31947.03-64,0942.46-16,6200.64-74,3762.852,609,728 OH
Oklahoma 11 516,46873.3011188,16526.70-------328,30346.59704,633 OK
Oregon 5 213,87157.995136,01936.88-15,4504.19-3,4680.94-77,85221.11368,808 OR
Pennsylvania 36 1,295,94845.33-1,453,54050.843691,2233.19-18,4660.65--157,592-5.512,859,177 PA
Rhode Island 4 146,60455.084115,26643.31-3,1381.18-1,1620.44-31,33811.77266,170 RI
South Carolina 8 102,34798.0381,9781.89-820.08----100,36996.13104,407 SC
South Dakota 4 183,51563.62499,21234.40-1,5510.54-4,1601.44-84,30329.23288,438 SD
Tennessee 11 259,47366.4911126,75232.48-1,7960.46-2,2350.57-132,72134.01390,256 TN
Texas 23 760,34888.062397,95911.35-4,4500.52-6690.08-662,38976.72836,426 TX
Utah 4 116,75056.52484,79541.05-4,0871.98-9460.46-31,95515.47206,578 UT
Vermont 3 56,26641.08-78,98457.6631,5331.12-1970.14--22,718-16.58136,980 VT
Virginia 11 203,97968.461189,63730.09-2,3820.80-1,9440.65-114,34238.38297,942 VA
Washington 8 353,26057.468208,64533.94-17,0802.78-35,8295.83-144,61523.52614,814 WA
West Virginia 8 405,12454.478330,73144.47-5,1330.69-2,7860.37-74,39310.00743,774 WV
Wisconsin 12 707,41063.4612347,74131.19-53,3794.79-6,2780.56-359,66932.261,114,808 WI
Wyoming 3 54,37056.07339,58340.82-2,8292.92-1800.19-14,78715.2596,962 WY
TOTALS:531 22,821,27757.41472 15,761,25439.6559 884,8852.23- 284,4820.72 7,060,02317.7639,751,898 US

Close states

Margin of victory less than 5% (74 electoral votes):

  1. Connecticut, 1.14%
  2. New Hampshire, 1.43%
  3. New Jersey, 1.90%
  4. Delaware, 2.44%
  5. Ohio, 2.85%
  6. Massachusetts, 4.00%

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (64 electoral votes):

  1. Pennsylvania, 5.51%
  2. Michigan, 7.92%
  3. Kansas, 9.43%

Statistics

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)

  1. Wilkinson County, Georgia 100.00%
  2. Armstrong County, South Dakota 100.00%
  3. Lancaster County, South Carolina 99.84%
  4. Sharkey County, Mississippi 99.82%
  5. Colleton County, South Carolina 99.69%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)

  1. Johnson County, Tennessee 84.51%
  2. Jackson County, Kentucky 84.28%
  3. Leslie County, Kentucky 82.96%
  4. Owsley County, Kentucky 79.08%
  5. Sevier County, Tennessee 77.01%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Other)

  1. Sheridan County, Montana 32.54%
  2. Thurston County, Washington 23.12%
  3. Clallam County, Washington 22.73%
  4. Berks County, Pennsylvania 22.17%
  5. Lake County, Minnesota 21.75%

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara.
  2. ↑ United States Unemployment Rate 1920–2010. Infoplease.com (January 26, 2010). Retrieved on July 14, 2013.
  3. ↑ Walsh, Kenneth T.. (September 10, 2008) The Most Consequential Elections in History: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Election of 1932 – US News and World Report. Usnews.com. Retrieved on July 14, 2013.
  4. ↑ History of American Political Parties
  5. 1 2 3 Neal, Stephen (2010). Happy Days Are Here Again: The 1932 Democratic Convention, the Emergence of FDR--and How America Was Changed Forever. HarperCollins. ISBN 9780062015419.
  6. ↑ Roosevelt's Nomination Address, New Deal Network.
  7. ↑ Arnold Shaw, The jazz age: popular music in the 1920s (1989) p. 228
  8. ↑ The Election of 1932 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and the First New Deal. Boundless.com. Retrieved on July 14, 2013.
  9. ↑ William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal 1932–1940 (1963) pp. 1–17
  10. 1 2 The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, pg. 29
  11. ↑ Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt, p 11
  12. ↑ F.D.R.'s Disputed Legacy, February 1, 1982 , TIME Magazine.
  13. ↑ "Overall Unemployment Rate in the U.S. Civilian Labor Force, 1920–2007 – Infoplease.com". Infoplease.com. Retrieved November 4, 2008.
  14. ↑ "Timeline of the Great Depression". Hyperhistory.com. Retrieved November 4, 2008.
  15. ↑ Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR): 1932 Election. Shmoop.com. Retrieved on July 14, 2013.
  16. ↑ Cambell, Jeff (November 19, 2008). "Hoover's Popularity". Lonely Planet.
  17. 1 2 3 Gibbs, Nancy (November 10, 2008). "When New President Meets Old, It's Not Always Pretty". TIME.
  18. ↑ The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932 – Google Books. Stanford University Press. 1934. Retrieved August 12, 2014.
  19. ↑ The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, p. 30
  20. ↑ "1932 Presidential General Election Data – National". Retrieved April 8, 2013.
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