U.S. Elections of 1932
The U.S. Elections of 1932 were profoundly influenced by the Great Depression, which had drastically altered the political landscape following the economic prosperity of the 1920s. President Herbert Hoover, who had been elected in 1928, faced significant backlash due to his perceived inability to effectively address the economic crisis after the stock market crash of 1929. The Republican National Convention in June 1932 reaffirmed Hoover as their nominee despite his dwindling popularity, while the Democratic National Convention saw a competitive race that ultimately led to Franklin D. Roosevelt's nomination. Roosevelt’s campaign focused on instilling hope and presenting a vision of economic revival through the "New Deal" concept, contrasting sharply with Hoover's more conservative, hands-off approach.
As the November elections approached, public sentiment favored Roosevelt, and the Democratic Party achieved a historic victory, securing 472 electoral votes and nearly 23 million popular votes compared to the Republicans' 59 electoral votes. This shift not only marked the beginning of Roosevelt's presidency but also established a Democratic majority in Congress that laid the groundwork for extensive policy changes aimed at addressing the economic struggles of the nation. The 1932 election is often viewed as a pivotal moment in U.S. history, signaling a significant shift towards a more interventionist government approach in economic affairs.
U.S. Elections of 1932
The Event U.S. presidential and congressional elections
Date November 8, 1932
Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidency by a landslide margin, and his Democratic Party assumed control of both houses of Congress. The Democratic Party’s electoral triumph signaled the end of the dominance of the Republican Party as the majority political faction, dating to 1864, and the advent of a similar period of hegemony by the Democrats, lasting until 1968.
The Great Depression was the predominant issue during the 1932 election. The economic boom of the 1920’s, so closely identified with the administration of President Calvin Coolidge, and thus with the Republican Party as a whole, had evaporated during the early months of the Herbert Hoover administration. Hoover, the secretary of commerce under Coolidge, had been elected overwhelmingly in 1928. Dubbed “the Great Engineer,” Hoover had gained a reputation as an expert who could devise a solution to remedy any situation. His largely triumphal career had included outstanding accomplishments in the private sector before he catapulted to fame as the de facto director of the Committee for Relief in Belgium; official director of the United States Food Administration, 1917-1918; and secretary of commerce from 1921 until 1928. Riding the wave of prosperity and buttressed by his reputation as a problem solver, Hoover seemed unstoppable.
The stock market crash of October, 1929, and the ensuing Depression transformed the national political complexion. Hoover, though one of the more progressive individuals within the Republican Party, was nonetheless slow to grasp the true depth of the problem, and only belatedly realized that more was needed than conventional laissez-faire economic remedies. His appeals to volunteerism and his attempts to coax big business into reinvesting in the economy and maintaining existing levels in employment and salaries went largely unheeded, and his one innovative initiative, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, proved to be belated and inadequate.
Republican and Democratic National Conventions
The Republicans convened for the purpose of nominating their electoral ticket from June 14 to 16, 1932, in Chicago, Illinois. Though Hoover had slumped in popularity and a general sense of apprehension and unease prevailed within party ranks, the president and his supporters dominated the party apparatus and would have been difficult to unseat. Those who wished to shake off the liability of an unpopular incumbent placed their hopes in former Maryland senator John Irwin France, but when he faltered in the primaries, some turned to Wisconsin candidate Senator John J. Blaine and former president Coolidge, who was the choice of the ultraconservatives, but who never indicated that he wanted the nomination. Hoover was nominated easily on the first ballot, garnering all but 22‹¨« delegate votes, 13 of which went to his closest rival, Blaine. The incumbent vice president Charles Curtis of Kansas was likewise renominated.
Chicago was also the site of the Democratic National Convention, which was held from June 30, to July 2, 1932. Unlike the Republican National Convention, the choice for president was not a foregone conclusion. Although the suave, charismatic governor of New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the favorite, he faced strong opposition from Alfred E. Smith, the party’s 1928 nominee, and Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas. Smith was supported and bankrolled by the small but highly active, financially conservative branch of the Democratic Party and upset Roosevelt in the Massachusetts primary. Entering the convention, Smith and Garner, who had the backing of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst, were able to deny Roosevelt the first ballot nomination. However, the work of Roosevelt’s “Brains Trust” advisory team coupled with an alleged political deal with Hearst and Garner, in which Roosevelt offered Garner the vice presidential nomination, set the stage for a dramatic fourth ballot switch to Roosevelt by the California delegation led by Senator William Gibbs McAdoo. This maneuver led to further defections to Roosevelt and gave the New York governor the nomination at 945 delegates to 190 for Smith. Garner was chosen as Roosevelt’s running mate.
The Campaign and November Elections
The Democratic strategy was to build their presidential candidate’s credibility by instilling a sense of confidence in his commitment to revive the economy. The party also wanted to convey an overall sense of optimism, while not sounding either too conservative or excessively radical. Rexford Guy Tugwell, Raymond Moley, and other speechwriters followed this line of thinking and in doing so, devised some memorable, comforting, but vague phraseology: The promise of a “new deal” for the American people proved the most durable.
By contrast, Hoover seemed tired and listless, and his campaign was disjointed. His mishandling of the Bonus Army March crisis contributed to the aura of malaise associated with his efforts. Hoover’s perceived coldness toward the Bonus Army marchers’ petition and his perceived weakness in allowing General Douglas MacArthur to exceed his orders and violently dismantle the group’s tent city at Anacostia Flats may have struck the final blow to whatever slim chances his campaign might have had. His continued emphasis on self-help, limited governmental intervention, and a cooperative economic retrenchment along traditional lines came across as lame and too disinterested to effectively pull the nation out of its economic slump.
The November results revealed the full extent of the Republican debacle: The Democrats amassed 472 electoral votes and 22,821,277 popular votes as opposed to totals of 59 and 15,761,254 for the Republicans. The strongest third party candidacies were the Socialist Party, running perpetual candidate Norman Thomas, at 884,885 popular votes, and the Communist Party USA, led by William Z. Foster, at 103,307. In Congress, the Democrats achieved a veto-proof majority, gaining ninety-seven seats in the House of Representatives and thirteen in the Senate.
Impact
So crushing was the Democratic victory that Roosevelt felt free to interpret the results as a mandate from the voters for change and experimentation, rather than as a strictly negative reaction against the Depression. The election became a license for the first one hundred days New Deal initiatives that followed. The generally moderate-liberal domestic agenda launched by Roosevelt prevailed as the Democratic agenda well into the years of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. The Republicans’ defeat was such that they remained a marginal force throughout the rest of the 1930’s and did not recover their majority-party status until the 1946 elections or their occupancy of the White House until 1953.
Bibliography
Badger, Anthony J. FDR: The First Hundred Days. New York: Hill and Wang, 2009. Though the book focuses primarily on the aftermath of the 1932 election, the opening chapter contains a clear and succinct account of the issues and personalities involved in the election.
Dickson, Paul, and Thomas B. Allen. The Bonus Army: An American Epic. New York: Walker, 2004. Definitive rendering of the Bonus Army events in Washington, D.C., which may have doomed the Hoover administration.
Ellis, Edward Robb. A Nation in Torment: The Great American Depression, 1929-1939. New York: Coward-McCann, 1970. Explains the causes behind the Republican debacle of 1932 but contains little about the process and mechanics of the election itself.
Kennedy, David M. Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Paints Roosevelt’s ability as a diplomat and conciliator as the reason for the Democratic victory.
McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1993. The account of the 1932 elections that follows the classic theory that the Democratic victory was a “sure thing.” Highly critical of the role played by Smith but laudatory of the role played by Roosevelt’s Brains Trust.
Schwarz, Jordan A. The Interregnum of Despair: Hoover, Congress, and the Depression. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1970. Provides a detailed chapter on the election and is told in an engaging style that focuses on the diverse personalities involved.
Shlaes, Amity. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. Takes a broad view of the events surrounding the 1932 elections; supplements the account of the political struggle with the salient social, intellectual, and economic currents.