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- Overview
- The nominations
- The campaign
United States presidential election of 1932, American presidential election held on Nov. 8, 1932, in which Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Pres. Herbert Hoover. The 1932 election was the first held during the Great Depression, and it represented a dramatic shift in the political alignment of the country. Republicans had dominated the presidency for almost the entire period from 1860, save two terms each won by Grover Cleveland and by Woodrow Wilson (who benefited from a split in the Republican Party in 1912). And even in 1928 Hoover had crushed Democrat Alfred E. Smith, winning 444 electoral votes to Smith’s 87. Roosevelt’s victory would be the first of five successive Democratic presidential wins.
(Read Eleanor Roosevelt’s Britannica essay on Franklin Roosevelt.)
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U.S. Presidential History Quiz
At the Republican convention in Chicago in June, Hoover was renominated easily, but there was a battle for the vice presidential slot as Vice Pres. Charles Curtis was challenged unsuccessfully by James Harbord, who had served as John Pershing’s chief of staff in World War I. At the Democratic convention in Chicago two weeks later, Roosevelt had the...
The depression was the only issue of consequence in the presidential campaign of 1932. The American public had to choose between the apparently unsuccessful policies of the incumbent Hoover, who blamed the depression on external events and alleged that Roosevelt would intensify the disaster, and the vaguely defined New Deal program presented by Roosevelt. While Roosevelt avoided specifics, he made clear that his program for economic recovery would make extensive use of the power of the federal government. In a series of addresses carefully prepared by a team of advisers popularly known as the Brain Trust, he promised aid to farmers, public development of electric power, a balanced budget, and government policing of irresponsible private economic power. Besides having policy differences, the two candidates presented a stark contrast in personal demeanour as well. Roosevelt was genial and exuded confidence, while Hoover remained unremittingly grim and dour. On election day Roosevelt received nearly 23 million popular votes (57.3 percent) to Hoover’s nearly 16 million (39.6 percent); the electoral vote was 472 to 59. In a repudiation not just of Hoover but also of the Republican Party, Americans also elected substantial Democratic majorities to both houses of Congress.
In the four months between the election and Roosevelt’s inauguration, Hoover sought Roosevelt’s cooperation in stemming the deepening economic crisis. But the two were unable to find common ground, as Roosevelt refused to subscribe to Hoover’s proposals, which Hoover himself admitted would mean “the abandonment of 90 percent of the so-called new deal.” As a result, the economy continued to decline. By inauguration day—March 4, 1933—most banks had shut down, industrial production had fallen to just 56 percent of its 1929 level, at least 13 million wage earners were unemployed, and farmers were in desperate straits. In his inaugural address Roosevelt promised prompt, decisive action, and he conveyed some of his own unshakable self-confidence to millions of Americans listening on radios throughout the land. “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper,” he asserted, adding, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
For the results of the previous election, see United States presidential election of 1928. For the results of the subsequent election, see United States presidential election of 1936.
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Elected President. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democratic. The 1932 United States presidential election was the 37th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1932. The election took place against the backdrop of the Great Depression. The incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover was defeated in a landslide by Democrat ...
Having won a landslide victory in 1928, Hoover was defeated in another landslide in the election in November 1932. He won only 6 of the 50 states. In Hoover’s election campaign, his speeches ...
The presidential election of 1932 marked a turning point in United States political and economic history. The Democratic Party, reduced to minority status following the Civil War and particularly after the financial panic of 1893, emerged as the nation's majority party with the ushering in of the New Deal. The transition from the Herbert Hoover ...
The United States presidential election of 1932 took place as the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression were being felt intensely across the country. President Herbert Hoover's popularity was falling as voters felt he was unable to reverse the economic collapse, or deal with prohibition.
The Campaign and Election of 1932: Political observers in the early 1930s were of decidedly mixed opinion about the possible presidential candidacy of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Many leaders of the Democratic Party saw in Roosevelt an attractive mixture of experience (as governor of New York and as a former vice presidential candidate) and appeal ...
