Alf Landon - 1936 Presidential Election

1936 Presidential Election

In 1936, Landon sought the Republican presidential nomination opposing the re-election of FDR. At the Republican National Convention in 1936, Landon's campaign manager John Hamilton mobilized the younger elements of the party against the faction led by Herbert Hoover. Landon won the nomination on the first ballot; the convention selected Chicago newspaper publisher (and FDR's future Secretary of the Navy) Frank Knox as his running mate.

Landon proved to be an ineffective campaigner who rarely traveled. Most of the attacks on FDR and social security were developed by Republican campaigners rather than Landon himself. In the two months after his nomination he made no campaign appearances. As columnist Westbrook Pegler lampooned, "Considerable mystery surrounds the disappearance of Alfred M. Landon of Topeka, Kansas.... The Missing Persons Bureau has sent out an alarm bulletin bearing Mr. Landon's photograph and other particulars, and anyone having information of his whereabouts is asked to communicate direct with the Republican National Committee."

Landon respected and admired Roosevelt and accepted much of the New Deal but objected that it was hostile to business and involved too much waste and inefficiency. Late in the campaign, Landon accused Roosevelt of corruption – that is, of acquiring so much power that he was subverting the Constitution. Landon said:

"The President spoke truly when he boasted... 'We have built up new instruments of public power.' He spoke truly when he said these instruments could provide 'shackles for the liberties of the people... and... enslavement for the public.' These powers were granted with the understanding that they were only temporary. But after the powers had been obtained, and after the emergency was clearly over, we were told that another emergency would be created if the power was given up. In other words, the concentration of power in the hands of the President was not a question of temporary emergency. It was a question of permanent national policy. In my opinion the emergency of 1933 was a mere excuse.... National economic planning—the term used by this Administration to describe its policy—violates the basic ideals of the American system.... The price of economic planning is the loss of economic freedom. And economic freedom and personal liberty go hand in hand."

The 1936 presidential election was extraordinarily lopsided. Although Landon gained nearly 17 million votes and obtained the endorsement of track star Jesse Owens, he lost the popular vote by more than 10 million votes. He lost his home state Kansas and carried only Maine and Vermont for a total of 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 523. FDR's win was the most crushing electoral victory since the 1820 election. The overwhelming Roosevelt victory prompted Democratic Party boss James Farley to joke, "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont".

The 1936 Presidential election turned out to be a huge disappointment for the Republicans, particularly because they were unable to persuade black voters, who had switched over to the Democrats, to vote for Alf Landon. The Republican Party's strategy to lure blacks during the 1936 election was targeted at black churches. On October 28, 1936, "the Republican national campaign organization in Maryland faced with thousands of colored voters to the Democratic Party, has sent $5 checks to more than 400 colored pastors in the state.". The $5 contributions were sent along with letters one of which stated, “Dear Brother: the campaign will soon end and on November 3, we will go to the poll with our congregations and vote for the party, which has been the most helpful to our people. The Republican Party". Further, despite the Republican's ambitious strategy to win over black voters, the Democrats received 71 percent of the black vote compared to the 29 percent received by the Republicans during the election (Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies).