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Thirty-seventh United States presidential election of 1932

AndyHogan14, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Date

The 1932 election took place on Tuesday, November 8, 1932.

Candidates

• Herbert Hoover, incumbent president of the United States (winner)
• Joseph Irwin France, former Senator of Maryland
• Calvin Coolidge, former president of the United States (declined)
• Dwight Morrow, Senator from New Jersey (died)

• Franklin Roosevelt, governor of New York (winner)
• Al Smith, former Democratic presidential candidate in 1928
• John Nance Garner, Speaker of the House from Texas (won vice-presidential nomination)
• William Henry Davis Murray, governor of Oklahoma

Final tickets

Herbert Hoover (right) for president & Charles Curtis (left) for vice president

Franklin Roosevelt (right) for president & John Nance Garner (left) for vice president (Note: This photo was taken in 1942, years after this election)

Campaining & major issues

This election is one of the most memorable in American history. In 1928, the Republicans were dominating the political landscape. The economy had been booming, and many Democrats theorized that 1932 would be the last election the Democrats would ever take part in. However, that all changed in late 1929, when the stock market crashed, followed by the worst economic depression in American history, known today as the Great Depression. One in four Americans became unemployed. An infamous symbol of the depression were "Hoovervilles" - towns of shacks and other shelters made of scraps of various material that were built by the homeless. Many people have a misconception that Hoover did nothing to stop the depression; in fact, he did quite a bit. It didn't help though, and Hoover didn't help himself as he refused to end his small-government approach. Some argued he had actually made the depression worse. Therefore, by 1932, he was immensely unpopular, but he was still popular in the Republican party, so they easily renominated him, along with his vice president. The Democrats now had a chance. Originally, it looked like the Democratic candidate would once again be Al Smith, who lost to Hoover in 1928. Eventually, though, he was overtaken by Franklin Roosevelt, who rejuvenated the Democrats, and he won their nomination. Roosevelt outlined what he called the "New Deal", a set of policies that would help ease the depression. These policies would make many new government organizations, and would overall make the government have much more power. Some of the New Deal policies were actually things Hoover was already doing. The election was mostly Franklin Roosevelt criticizing Hoover's handling of the depression, followed by Hoover saying Roosevelt's policies were too socialist. At the end of the day, the question for voters was what they cared about more: getting the depression fixed or preventing an unprecedented expansion of the federal government? As it turns out, many people chose the same option.