U.S. Elections of 1936
The U.S. Elections of 1936, held on November 3, were significant as President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought reelection amidst the ongoing economic challenges of the Great Depression. This election was essentially a referendum on Roosevelt's first term and his New Deal policies, which aimed to provide relief and recovery for a nation grappling with high unemployment and economic instability. By 1936, the unemployment rate had decreased to 16.9 percent, suggesting some effectiveness of the New Deal initiatives like Social Security and public works projects.
Roosevelt's campaign emphasized that Americans were better off than in 1932, contrasting his administration with the previous Republican leadership under Herbert Hoover, which was widely criticized. Opposing him was Kansas Governor Alf Landon, the Republican nominee, who faced the dual challenge of countering Roosevelt's popularity and the legacy of his party's past failures. Landon's campaign struggled with a mixed message, oscillating between criticizing the New Deal and implicitly supporting some of its aspects.
Ultimately, Roosevelt won decisively, capturing 60 percent of the popular vote and nearly all electoral votes, thereby solidifying the Democratic Party's dominance in U.S. politics for decades. This election not only reinforced Roosevelt's leadership but also established a coalition of diverse voter groups under the New Deal, marking a transformative period in American political history.
U.S. Elections of 1936
The Event President Franklin D. Roosevelt was reelected, and Democrats increased their congressional majority
Date November 3, 1936
The 1936 election cemented the Democratic Party’s dominance in American politics until 1968. Roosevelt’s reelection confirmed his immense popularity with the American people and their support of his New Deal programs. The Republican Party continued to suffer from President Herbert Hoover’s perceived failure to deal with the Great Depression; voters had little confidence in Republicans’ ability to deal with the still-struggling economy.
On November 3, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the Democratic Party faced reelection, as did the entire United States House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate. That summer, Roosevelt told one of his advisers, Raymond Moley, that he was the only issue in the campaign. The election was a referendum on Roosevelt’s first four years as president. According to government statistics, when Roosevelt became president on March 4, 1933, the unemployment rate was almost 25 percent, industrial production had declined almost 50 percent since 1929, gross domestic product (GDP) had been halved, and one-third of the nation’s banks had collapsed. As president, Roosevelt inherited an economy in crisis with no sign of improvement.
New Deal and Roosevelt
The New Deal had a mixed record in combating the effects of the Great Depression, but its programs had cut unemployment to 16.9 percent by 1936. Drawing on his charisma and public relations skills, Roosevelt instilled confidence among the American people in their president and government—something Hoover had failed to do. Campaigning for reelection, Roosevelt repeatedly made two points: First, the American people were better off in 1936 than they had been in 1932; and second, the improvements were the result of his New Deal programs, which provided aid to farmers, public works projects for the unemployed, Social Security for the elderly, and relief for banks that saved the financial industry from collapse.
Alluding to Republican president Hoover, who was almost universally despised by Americans as a failure, Roosevelt repeatedly warned of the danger of returning to what he called the old leadership, which had brought the country to the brink of disaster in 1932. Roosevelt also benefited from the unsettling effects of groups such as the American Communist and Socialist parties and demagogues such as Roman Catholic priest Charles E. Coughlin (who voiced anti-Semitic and profascist views on his weekly radio program) and U.S. Senator Huey Long, who promised to “share the wealth” by heavily taxing the rich and redistributing that wealth, thereby guaranteeing to every American a house, a car, a radio, and one thousand dollars. In comparison with the purveyors of such extreme ideologies, Roosevelt and the Democrats seemed a safe choice for most Americans.
Kansas governor Alf Landon, the Republican nominee for president in 1936, appealed to both conservative and progressive Republicans. An oil man and fiscal conservative who had balanced Kansas’s budget, Landon had the support of business leaders. He also was a former member of the Bull Moose Party of Theodore Roosevelt and had sponsored measures similar to the New Deal programs during his term as governor. In addition, Republicans felt that Landon’s farm-state background might help him win over Western farmers who had voted for Roosevelt in 1932.
Landon’s campaign faced two major obstacles: how to combat the popularity of Roosevelt and the New Deal, and how to overcome the legacy of Hoover and convince the American people that the Republicans could do a better job dealing with the economy. Landon and the Republican Party denounced Roosevelt and the Democrats for spending recklessly, running huge budget deficits, and waging an assault on business and free enterprise. However, while denouncing the New Deal, the Republican Party also seemed to be endorsing it by supporting federal relief for the unemployed, Social Security for the elderly, aid to farmers, and the rights of workers to unionize. The campaign appeared ambivalent, if not inconsistent, about the New Deal: Endorsing it clearly was out of the question, but an outright rejection of the popular program would alienate more voters than it attracted. During the presidential campaign, Landon therefore alternated between attacking the New Deal and supporting Roosevelt’s plan, indicating he shared many of the president’s political goals.
Compared with Landon, Roosevelt was in a much easier political situation in 1936. After Roosevelt was renominated by his party, he used his acceptance speech to denounce “economy royalists”—big business and the rich—and insist that Americans were fighting to save “a great and precious form of government,” implicitly linking the salvation of the Americans with his presidency and the New Deal. Roosevelt ridiculed Republicans who claimed they could do what his administration had done, but cheaper and more efficiently, by reminding voters how much the economy had suffered under Hoover. Roosevelt also noted that conservative ideology demands that injustices be corrected to promote peace, thereby associating his New Deal policies with order and peace at a time of tremendous social upheaval.
Roosevelt was reelected in a landslide. He won by 27 million votes, carrying all but two states (Maine and Vermont) and winning 60 percent of the popular vote. Landon received only 16 million votes. Roosevelt captured the largest percentage of electoral votes since President James Monroe in 1820. In Congress, the Democratic Party retained control of both houses, gaining twelve seats in the House of Representatives to push its already sizable advantage to a 334-89 majority. The Democrats also gained six seats in the Senate, bringing their total to 75 seats (versus 17 for the Republicans).
Impact
The 1936 election cemented the Democratic Party’s dominance in American politics until 1968 by uniting diverse groups into what has been called the New Deal Party System or Coalition. With the exception of business groups, which remained largely loyal to the Republican Party, Roosevelt and his New Deal programs rallied white Southerners, Northern African Americans, farmers, blue-collar and working class voters, intellectuals, and members of labor unions to vote Democratic for more than thirty years. The Democratic Party won all but two presidential elections between 1932 and 1968 and controlled Congress for all but four years (1947-1949 and 1953-1955). For this reason, Roosevelt is known as the Father of the Modern Democratic Party.
Bibliography
Atler, Jonathan. The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. An account of how Roosevelt’s policies during his first one hundred days in office restored people’s trust in the government’s ability to deal with the Great Depression.
Flynn, Kathryn. The New Deal: A Seventy-fifth Anniversary Celebration. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith, 2008. A detailed account of the major New Deal programs enacted during Roosevelt’s presidency.
Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1933-1940. New York: Harper & Row, 2009. A comprehensive account of Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Shlaes, Amity. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. Conservative view of the New Deal, arguing that the New Deal failed and actually prolonged the Great Depression.
Smith, Jean Edward. FDR. New York: Random House, 2008. An expanded biography of Roosevelt.