The Election of 1928: Race and Creed
In 1928, President Calvin Coolidge decided not to seek re-election. Coolidge became President in August of 1923 upon the death of President Warren Harding. He completed Harding's term and was elected in his own right in 1924. He probably could have won another term, but decided that, having been President for almost 6 years, that was enough. The presumptive Republican nominee was Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, a very popular cabinet member, and Hoover did end up winning the GOP nomination in a resounding first ballot victory. (Hoover received 827 votes, compared to the 74 that second place finisher Governor Frank Lowden of Illinois received.)
Hoover selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas as his running mate. Curtis (who was born on January 25, 1860, 151 years ago today) was of 3/4 Native American ancestry and was raised on the Kaw Reservation in Kansas by his grandmother. He became a successful lawyer and later a Congressman, State Senator and United States Senator from Kansas. He was the Senate Majority Leader at the time he was selected as Hoover's running mate, and had finished third in the running for the GOP nomination in 1928, behind Hoover and Lowden. The racism that was more prevalent in that era did not seem to affect Curtis's electability either in Kansas, within his party or nationally.
Any prejudice that electoral season seemed directed at the Democratic nominee for President, New York Governor Al Smith, who became the first Roman Catholic to be nominated by a major party to run for President. His religion became an issue during the campaign. Many Protestants expressed concern that Smith would take his orders from the Pope about decisions affecting the country. The same arguments would be made against President John F. Kennedy 32 years later.
Hoover won election, winning 444 electoral votes compared to 87 for Smith. This election was the first time in history when Texas had gone Republican. Hoover had even won in Smith's home state of New York. He had campaigned on a promise to continue the economic prosperity of the Coolidge years. Voters obviously had no idea what was in store for them in the next four years. There was negaivity in the campaign from both sides.Smith's Catholicism hurt him in the South, where several states were won by the Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. Conversely, Democrats tried to paint Hoover as a friend of African Americans. Mississippi Governor Theodore Bilbo claimed that Hoover had met with a black member of the Republican National Committee and danced with her. It seems strange now to think that any reasonable person would see this as somehow negative.
In one of the most inaccurate statements ever made in a campaign, Hoover had said "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of this land. We shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this land." If only that had been the case.
Hoover selected Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas as his running mate. Curtis (who was born on January 25, 1860, 151 years ago today) was of 3/4 Native American ancestry and was raised on the Kaw Reservation in Kansas by his grandmother. He became a successful lawyer and later a Congressman, State Senator and United States Senator from Kansas. He was the Senate Majority Leader at the time he was selected as Hoover's running mate, and had finished third in the running for the GOP nomination in 1928, behind Hoover and Lowden. The racism that was more prevalent in that era did not seem to affect Curtis's electability either in Kansas, within his party or nationally.
Any prejudice that electoral season seemed directed at the Democratic nominee for President, New York Governor Al Smith, who became the first Roman Catholic to be nominated by a major party to run for President. His religion became an issue during the campaign. Many Protestants expressed concern that Smith would take his orders from the Pope about decisions affecting the country. The same arguments would be made against President John F. Kennedy 32 years later.
Hoover won election, winning 444 electoral votes compared to 87 for Smith. This election was the first time in history when Texas had gone Republican. Hoover had even won in Smith's home state of New York. He had campaigned on a promise to continue the economic prosperity of the Coolidge years. Voters obviously had no idea what was in store for them in the next four years. There was negaivity in the campaign from both sides.Smith's Catholicism hurt him in the South, where several states were won by the Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. Conversely, Democrats tried to paint Hoover as a friend of African Americans. Mississippi Governor Theodore Bilbo claimed that Hoover had met with a black member of the Republican National Committee and danced with her. It seems strange now to think that any reasonable person would see this as somehow negative.
In one of the most inaccurate statements ever made in a campaign, Hoover had said "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of this land. We shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this land." If only that had been the case.