Election of 1928

Usually, the importance and significance of a presidential election are front and center of the election itself. The most influential aspect of the election is typically the crux of the debates and platforms of the candidates and political parties. However, the presidential election of 1928 is one example of an election whose significance can be seen in hindsight. The winner of this election would lead the United States in the early and crushing years of the Great Depression, an event few could have predicted in November 1928. What were the core issues of the presidential election of 1928? Who were the candidates? Who won the election? And what was the lasting significance of the presidential election of 1928?

Election of 1928 Issues

The main issue debated by the candidates in the presidential election of 1928, though not the decisive issue that would decide the election, was which political and economic policies would continue to grow the prosperities of the 1920s. An expanding middle-class, a booming economy, and the rise of the United States as a global power after World War I created the "Roaring Twenties," The Republican and Democratic parties positioned themselves to the voters as the best options for continued growth. Other minor issues were social policies such as nativism and prohibition.

However, the core issues that ultimately decided the presidential election of 1928 were focused on the backgrounds and experiences of the candidates.

Election of 1928 Candidates

The presidential election that would see out the "Roaring Twenties" brought two candidates to the forefront of politics that were new breeds of candidates. Both came from two varying backgrounds with opposing experiences and politics. The candidacies of Democrat Alfred E. Smith and Republican Herbert Hoover were as divided on the issues of this election as the American people themselves.

Alfred E. Smith: Democrat

The national Democratic Party, influenced by its wing in northern cities, nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York. Smith was the first presidential candidate to embody the urban working class and European Catholic immigrants. A Catholic and the grandson of Irish peasants, Smith began his political career as a Tammany Hall ward heeler, became a dynamic state legislative leader and reformer, and matured as the effective four-term governor of the nation's most populous state.

Fig. 1 - Presidential Candidate Alfred E. Smith, Democrat

However, even with an exceptional political record as governor, Smith had liabilities that would influence middle-class voters, who would be an essential voting bloc of this election. He spoke in a heavy New York accent and often wore a brown derby highlighting his ethnic working-class origins. Middle-class reformers questioned his ties to the political bosses of Tammany Hall; temperance advocates opposed him as a "wet" candidate. The governor's most significant handicap, however, was his religion. Although Smith insisted that his beliefs would not affect his duties as president, most Protestants opposed his candidacy as they feared his loyalty to the Pope might influence his decisions as president.

Herbert Hoover: Republican

Fig. 3 - Republican Presidential Candidate Herbert Hoover

The Republican nominee, Herbert Hoover, was also a new candidate and the Secretary of Commerce. Hoover, having held appointed positions, had never run for political office. Hoover did not campaign hard to be the Republican nominee, delivering only several campaign speeches. He rested his candidacy on his outstanding career as an engineer and administrator; for many Americans, he embodied the continued promise of the Progressive Era. Beyond that, Hoover benefited from eight years of Republican prosperity through the 1920s and strong support from the business community. He promised voters his vision of individualism and philanthropic endeavor would banish poverty from the United States.

Election of 1928: Winner

Hoover won a stunning victory in the presidential election of 1928. He received fifty-eight percent of the popular vote to Smith's forty-one percent and 444 electoral votes to Smith's 87. Because many southern Protestants had issues voting for a Catholic candidate, Hoover carried Texas, Virginia, and North Carolina for the Democratic Party for the first time since the Reconstruction Era. Smith took Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the north, and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas in the south.

Fig. 4 - Electoral map of the Presidential Election of 1928

Election of 1928 Significance

There are several significant aspects of the presidential election of 1928. The first is the beginning of the reorientation of the Republican and Democratic parties that started during the Reconstruction Era. Smith had won the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island and also carried the nation's twelve most populous cities.

The Democrats began fashioning a new identity as the party of urban masses and social welfare liberalism: a shift that would become a permanent pillar of their party platform pushed through by the New Deal in the 1930s. Juxtaposed to this shift are the Republican shift towards individualism, small government, and fiscal conservatism, shifting away from the strong federal government powers consolidated by Lincoln. With the election of 1928, Democrats and Republicans began to reshape their identities to those recognized in modern U.S. politics.

Secondly, and ironically, Herbert Hoover, who ran on a platform of banishing poverty through individualism, winning the election put him in the position of leading the United States when the Great Depression struck in 1929. The Republicans had long claimed credit for the prosperity of the 1920s, and now the Republicans could not escape blame for the depression.