U.S. Elections of 1928

Identification: The Event: U.S. presidential and congressional elections

Date: November 6, 1928

The results of the 1928 elections affirmed the Republican Party’s policies of the decade, handing the presidency to Herbert Hoover, strengthening the Republican grip on Congress, and eroding the Democratic “Solid South.” Hoover’s opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith, faced popular opposition because of his Catholicism, his open opposition to Prohibition, and his association with corrupt New York politics.

By 1928, “New Era” had become the popular term for the unprecedented economic growth and relative prosperity under President Calvin Coolidge’s administration, a phenomenon on which the Republican Party fully intended to capitalize in that year’s presidential and congressional elections. The GOP had cause for optimism: The Democratic Party had spectacularly self-destructed in the 1924 elections, and no significant setbacks had plagued the Coolidge administration during the four years since.

There is little doubt that Coolidge, who had assumed the presidency in 1923 upon the death of Warren G. Harding and was elected in his own right in 1924, could have had the Republican Party nomination (and most likely another presidential term) if he had wanted it. Despite being rather colorless and taciturn, the president’s pro-business orientation jibed perfectly with the sentiments of the majority of the electorate, and he was extremely popular. But on August 27, 1927, Coolidge announced he would not run, and into the breach stepped Secretary of Commerce Herbert Clark Hoover, easily the most popular official in Coolidge’s administration.

Known as the “Great Engineer” and the “Great Humanitarian,” Hoover had gained renown for his spectacular success as head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium (1914–1917), the U.S. Food Administration (1917–1919), and the American Relief Administration (1919–1921). His stature was such that he overwhelmed the rather tepid opposition from former Illinois governor Frank O. Lowden, Kansas senator Charles Curtis, and Indiana senator James E. Watson, as well as persistent “Draft Coolidge” initiatives. At the Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, which took place from June 12 to June 15, 1928, he outpolled his closest competitor, Lowden, by 837 votes to 74. Hoover declined to select a running mate, leaving the decision to the delegates. Initially, they favored the incumbent vice president, Charles G. Dawes, but opposition from Coolidge impelled them to select Curtis instead.

Democratic Convention

The Democratic National Convention met in Houston, Texas, on June 26, 1928, and ended on June 28. Unlike the 1924 convention, which had been a free-for-all, a majority consensus coalesced around New York governor Alfred E. Smith. Smith’s main opposition came from the southern delegations, who divided their support among Congressman Cordell Hull of Tennessee, Senator James A. Reed of Missouri, and Senator Walter F. George of Georgia. Smith was so close to a majority at the end of the first ballot that some delegations favoring Hull or some of the minor candidates changed their votes to put him over the top. Smith won the final ballot comfortably, but to counterbalance his image as a northeastern, liberal, urban Catholic who advocated the repeal of Prohibition, the convention endorsed Senate minority leader Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas as Smith’s vice presidential running mate. Robinson was a southern conservative serving a largely rural constituency and a self-avowed “dry” (a supporter of Prohibition).

The Smith camp waged an animated and optimistic campaign, despite their candidate’s disadvantages and Hoover’s popularity. Smith, who had been christened the “Happy Warrior” by fellow New York Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, was an effervescent, dynamic public speaker who far outshone the rather drab, monotone Hoover on the podium. The 1928 election witnessed the first widespread use of radio, however, and in this new mass medium, Hoover’s voice came across much more effectively than Smith’s heavily New York–accented broadcasts. Smith’s anti-Prohibition stance provoked fierce opposition from evangelistic ministers and worshippers, the most relentless being James Cannon, a politically influential Methodist bishop from Virginia. Hoover, though personally disdaining Prohibition, nevertheless publicly called for the continuation of the Eighteenth Amendment. Smith also endured prejudice as the first Roman Catholic nominee by a major party. A common perception was that a Catholic president would be bound to take orders from the pope and would not respect the boundaries between church and state. Smith’s ties to the New York political organization Tammany Hall, suspect due to its history of corruption, was also an issue for voters.

The Landslide

The Republican victory at the polls was one of the most resounding in history. Hoover remained aloof from his opponent, standing on the record of the New Era economic boom and declining to take up the issue of Smith’s Catholicism, and his strategy paid off handsomely. The electoral vote count was 444 for the Republicans and 87 for the Democrats. The popular vote count was 21.4 million to 15 million, while Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas polled 267,420 votes and American Communist Party nominee William Z. Foster garnered 48,770. The Republicans made unprecedented inroads into the South, capturing Texas, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia, and North Carolina, although the Deep South states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina remained in the Democratic fold. The only other states carried by the Smith-Robinson ticket were Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Riding on Hoover’s coattails, the Republicans strengthened their majority in both houses of Congress. The GOP picked up seven new seats in the Senate, while the Democrats failed to unseat even one Republican incumbent. Even more decisively, the Republicans gained thirty-two seats in the House of Representatives. The Farmer–Labor Party retained one of its two seats in Minnesota but lost the other to a Republican.

Impact

While there is no debate as to the outcome of the 1928 elections, there are varying opinions over its deeper long-term significance. The gains made by the Republicans in the upper and fringe areas of the South might have signaled the beginning of the end for Democratic domination of the states of the former Confederacy. Likewise, it has been speculated that Smith’s strong showing in urban areas, especially in the Northeast, heralded the genesis of the Democratic New Deal majority of 1933–1969, though some sources assert that these had been areas of Democratic strength for some years prior to 1928. There has also been ample debate concerning the significance of a Catholic candidate: John F. Kennedy’s well-publicized acknowledgment that he would not have been elected in 1960 if Smith’s run had not paved the way could have a sound basis in fact. Overall, then as now, the voters reacted to the party in power largely based on the state of the economy at the time; Hoover benefited from this in 1928, just as he would suffer negative consequences in 1932, after the boom years of the 1920s had evaporated into the Great Depression.

Bibliography

Allen, Frederick Lewis. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the Nineteen-Twenties. New York: Harper & Row, 1957. Takes a caustic, tongue-in-cheek approach to the 1928 election, depicting Smith as a praiseworthy crusader whose quest was doomed from the start.

Finan, Christopher M. Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002. A relatively short biography that focuses on Smith’s personality more than his politics.

Hicks, John D. Republican Ascendancy, 1921–1933. New York: Harper & Row, 1960. Considers alternate causes of the Smith campaign’s failure, such as not sufficiently reaching out to the agricultural sector and failing to offer a viable alternative to New Era farm policies.

Lichtman, Allan J. Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979. An analysis of the election that suggests the background of the two candidates had a decisive bearing on the ultimate results.

Perrett, Geoffrey. America in the Twenties: A History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982. Argues against the assumption that Smith was defeated because of his religion and asserts that his candidacy marked the genesis of the modern Democratic Party.

Slayton, Robert A. Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. New York: Free Press, 2001. Sees its subject as a political pioneer whose influence on American government since the 1920s has yet to be fully acknowledged.

Wilson, Joan Hoff. Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975. Implies the inevitability of a Republican victory while downplaying the role of religion and Prohibition.