Going through the eighth year of the Great Depression, Roosevelt was busy pushing his New Deal contract through congress. His ideas of the unemployment benefits and social security for the people were extremely popular as it gave the people a safety net in case of emergencies. Roosevelt was trying hard to push the nation out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt's ideas were still not finished, thus in 1936 he ran for re-election for the democratic party. In Roosevelt's first term, he encountered many critiques of his works on both the New Deal as well as the Second New Deal (the unemployment benefits and WPA) in 1935 from old supporters who had turned on the ideas of Roosevelt. One of these people was Senator Huey Long from Louisiana, an old supporter of Roosevelt who now had ideas of his own. Huey Long was a big threat to Roosevelt because if the Democratic party was to be split between Roosevelt and Huey, their chance of winning would be slim. However, something happened in September 10th of 1935 that would help Roosevelt claim more democratic votes was the Assassination of Huey Long. Things really worked out for Roosevelt when he came up against the Republican nominationee for president Alfred Landon, who was one of the more moderates for his party. Landon won 984/1003 Republican votes at a Republican Convention held as an attempt by the Republicans to regain the Presidential position after Hoover's loss in 1932. Onto the Election, Roosevelt had the support of the farmers, poor and industrial workers while Landon held onto the belief that government intervention was bad for the economy. Roosevelt's New Deal in his first term was very popular and people continued to seek Roosevelt rather than Landon for the Presidential position. There were other candidates that also ran for the Presidential position, but their parties were inferior to the populous and popular parties of the Democratic and Republican parties. Some of the people that ran for their parties were William Lemke (union), Norman Thomas (Socialist), Earl Browder (Communist), D. Leigh Colvin (Prohibition), John W. Aiken (Socialist Labor). Their popular votes only amounted to a little over 1 million combined, while Roosevelt had 27.5 million and Landon had 17 million popular votes. Based on the Electoral College, Roosevelt won with 523 to Landon's 8 electoral votes. Roosevelt had carried all the states except Maine and Vermont! This was one of the biggest marginal difference in history. In both elections for Roosevelt, he had smashed his opponents and won by a huge marginal difference against Hoover aswell as Landon.
Roosevelt definitely won by a landslide. The American people really seemed to overwhelmingly support him, although there definitely were some supporters of Landen, who received 17 million popular votes of his own. In the end, I think Roosevelt's attitudes towards the Depression and public charisma were more than enough to get him elected. Also, he was the only presidential candidate to be elected four times!
ReplyDeleteSource: Freedom From Fear textbook, Great Depression PBS video, in-class lectures
It is obvious that Roosevelt's persistence, and passion made the nation fall in love with him. He pushed long and hard to bring the nation out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt's New Deal in his first term was very popular and people continued to seek Roosevelt rather than Landen for the Presidential position. Resulting in him winning the election by a significant amount of votes.
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