Politics: The 1936 Republican Nomination Race

POLITICS: THE 1936 REPUBLICAN NOMINATION RACE

Drawing Ideological Battle Lines

The presidential election of 1936 was one of the most ideologically charged in American history. The policy differences between Democrats and Republicans expressed in that year would continue in the same general outline for the rest of the twentieth century. Traditionally the party of states' rights, the Democratic Party became the party of the federally constructed welfare state. Conversely, Republicans abandoned their defense of federal power, a position they had held since the Civil War and Reconstruction, and embraced local and states' rights.

The Republican Candidate Search

The impressive gains of the Democrats in the 1932 and 1934 elections made it difficult for the Republicans to find a viable candidate. Frank Lowden, a former governor of Illinois, was promoted by those who wished to see a moderately liberal probusiness candidate. Lowden, a contestant for the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, was in his seventies and declined to run. Sen. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan, with aspirations focused on the 1940 presidential election, also refused. Sen. William E. Borah of Idaho was a possibility early on, but he was opposed by party conservatives, and his chances dwindled. Frank Knox, publisher of the Chicago Daily News, was also a contender for the nomination, but it was the middle-of the-road governor of Kansas, Alfred M. "A1P Landon, who quickly became the front-runner. As the only Republican governor elected in the Democratic landslide of 1934, Landon, poised and with a proven track record, could, it was hoped, draw votes. At the Republican National Convention, which began on 9 June in Cleveland, Landon was nominated on the first ballot. Knox became the Republican vice-presidential candidate after Vandenberg declined Landon's request. Knox, one of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and a colonel during World War I, used his editorial skills to mount a vigorous attack on the policies of the New Deal, accusing Roosevelt of leading the country down the path toward communism. Landon, a long-time progressive, sought to mitigate the influence of the party's conservative wing, but his success was uneven. Displeased with some aspects of the party platform, Landon sent a message to the convention that emphasized his support for legislation to regulate the hours and wages of women and children and his belief in the need for an expanded civil service. Though divided between conservative and progressive factions, the Republican Party mounted a vigorous campaign against Roosevelt. The Republicans berated the Democrats for fiscal irresponsibility, abandoning the gold standard, and establishing a social-security system that would, they argued, lower workers' purchasing power by its increased tax demands. Nevertheless, Landon seemed at times to be promising to outspend the Democrats on federal support for farmers and aid to the unemployed. To promote their candidates, Republicans hired a New York advertising agency, spending $14,198,203 on the campaign, while the Democrats spent $9,228,407. In the month before the election a Literary Digest poll—which had never been wrong—predicted a victory for Republicans and gave them hope that their strategy had worked.