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Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1932 · Democratic nominee
Governor of New York 1929–32; Democratic nominee 1932; 32nd President, four terms.
Nominated on the fourth ballot at Chicago after a Garner–Hearst deal delivered Texas and California. Broke precedent by flying to the convention to accept in person. Campaigned across the country September–November on a program that mixed fiscal orthodoxy with relief, farm, power and regulatory pledges; deliberately left the content of the "new deal" open.
Positions (57)
| Issue | Position | Kind | Strength | Attribution | Ev. | First | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farm prices and agricultural surplus | Restore purchasing power to the farming half of the nation | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-07 | kept |
| Farm prices and agricultural surplus | Raise staple farm prices by a tariff-equivalent benefit plus voluntary production control, at no cost to the Treasury | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | keptcontested |
| Planned use of land and retirement of marginal farmland | A national policy of planned land use — economic soil survey and retirement of marginal farmland | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-14 | kept |
| Farm and home mortgage relief | Government assistance to keep home-owners and farm-owners from foreclosure | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-07 | kept |
| Regulation of banks and securities | Separate investment banking from commercial banks; tighter national-bank supervision; faster payouts to depositors of closed banks | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Regulation of securities issuance and exchanges | Federal regulation of securities and commodity exchanges, interstate holding companies and interstate utility rates | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Regulation of securities issuance and exchanges | Require full public disclosure on all offerings of stocks and bonds | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Regulation of securities issuance and exchanges | No implied government approval of foreign bond sales; officials will not try to move stock prices | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-08-20 | keptcontested |
| Control of credit expansion | Prevent another runaway credit expansion through government information, not government control of credit | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-06 | superseded |
| Balancing the federal budget | Balance the federal budget annually within revenues | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | brokencontested |
| Level of federal spending | Cut the cost of the federal government by at least 25 percent | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | reversedcontested |
| Campaign finance and lobbying | Continuous publicity of political contributions; stronger Corrupt Practices Act; curb paid lobbies | pledge_forward | directional_stance | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | abandoned |
| Naval arms and disarmament | International agreements for the reduction of armaments | pledge_forward | directional_stance | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | broken |
| Level of military spending | An adequate Army and Navy without a near-billion-dollar peacetime burden | pledge_forward | directional_stance | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | reversed |
| Policy toward Latin America and the Western Hemisphere | Non-interference in other nations' affairs and cooperation with Western Hemisphere nations | pledge_forward | directional_stance | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| International economic and monetary conferences | Convene international monetary and economic conferences to stabilize currencies and restore trade | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | brokencontested |
| European war debts and reparations | No cancellation of the war debts — make payment possible by restoring trade | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | superseded |
| Philippine independence | Independence for the Philippines; ultimate statehood for Puerto Rico | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Adherence to the World Court | Adhere to the World Court; arbitration of disputes; consultation to enforce the Kellogg-Briand Pact | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | blocked |
| Child welfare and schooling | Maintain the Children's Bureau; keep children in school to sixteen; expand vocational education | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-13 | partial |
| Public ownership of electric power | Public development of hydro-electric power on the St. Lawrence model, with national control of interstate transmission | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-18 | kept |
| Regulation of utility rates and holding companies | Eight-point federal utility program: publicity, Federal Power Commission control of holding companies, prudent-investment rate base | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-18 | partial |
| Public ownership of electric power | The next federal hydro-electric development will be on the Columbia River | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-21 | kept |
| Reforestation and land policy | Employ a million men reforesting marginal and abandoned land | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-07-02 | partial |
| Overall role and scale of the federal government | "A new deal for the American people" — work and security through liberal, planned government action | pledge_forward | vague_gesture | candidate_direct | A | 1932-01-22 | keptcontested |
| Overall role and scale of the federal government | Remove government from private enterprise except public works and natural resources | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | reversedcontested |
| Overall role and scale of the federal government | Government as a check on concentrated economic power — "individualism" redefined as equality of opportunity | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-08-20 | kept |
| Reorganization of the executive branch | Reorganize the Department of Agriculture as the machinery for national agricultural planning | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-14 | partial |
| Overall role and scale of the federal government | An "economic declaration of rights" — the right to make a living and the right to safe savings | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-23 | keptcontested |
| Reorganization of the executive branch | A long-range plan consolidating the federal government's scattered public-health and welfare agencies | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-13 | partial |
| Reorganization of the executive branch | Consolidate the seven federal farm-mortgage agencies under a single purpose | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-21 | kept |
| Sickness and health insurance | Sickness insurance as a "minimum requirement" alongside old-age and unemployment insurance | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | B | 1932-10-06 | abandoned |
| Restriction of immigration | Continue immigration restriction to protect labor, but end abuses against individual families in enforcement | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-31 | kept |
| National economic planning | National economic planning on the model of the 1917 war mobilization | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-07 | partialcontested |
| Antitrust and concentration of economic power | Strengthen and impartially enforce the antitrust laws | pledge_forward | directional_stance | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | reversed |
| National economic planning | Industry leaders to organize cooperatively for the common good; government regulates only as a last resort | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-23 | partialcontested |
| Public works as employment policy | Public works spending is only a stopgap, not a cure for unemployment | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-07 | reversed |
| Public works as employment policy | Expand self-sustaining public works and temporary federal work (forests, flood control, waterways), with advance planning | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Housing and slum clearance | Slum clearance and modern housing for the urban poor as a "human necessity" among public works | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-13 | partial |
| Public works as employment policy | 'Employment for all surplus labor at all times' through self-liquidating public works (the Shearon letter, as Hoover read it) | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | opponent_characterization | B | 1932-10-22 | partialcontested |
| Distribution of national income and purchasing power | A more equitable distribution of national income — higher reward to labor, lower to speculative capital | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-05-22 | partialcontested |
| Working hours and labor standards | Spread employment by substantially reducing hours of labor, starting in government service | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Child labor | No return to sweatshops or children working in factories | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-02 | kept |
| Public employment offices | A federally coordinated system of state employment offices (the vetoed Wagner bill) | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-13 | kept |
| Restoring the commodity price level (reflation) | Restore commodity prices toward their former dollar value rather than write down all debts | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-05-22 | kept |
| Gold standard and currency basis | A sound currency preserved at all hazards | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | reversedcontested |
| National Prohibition | Repeal the Eighteenth Amendment by state conventions; legalize beer now; states control liquor and bar the saloon | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Federal responsibility for relief | Federal leadership in distress relief — federal credit to states whose resources are exhausted | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Old-age pensions and social insurance | Old-age insurance under state laws | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Unemployment insurance | Unemployment insurance under state laws | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-06-27 | kept |
| Income and inheritance tax progressivity | Raise revenue by graduated income, inheritance and profits taxes, not taxes on necessities | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-07-30 | partial |
| Local government consolidation and the tax burden on land | Presidential leadership to consolidate local governments and lift the tax burden on land | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-14 | |
| Tariff levels | Revise the tariff downward through reciprocal trade agreements | pledge_forward | directional_stance | candidate_direct | A | 1932-04-07 | kept |
| Tariff levels | A "competitive" tariff set through a scientific Tariff Commission, with anti-log-rolling rules and a public counsel | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-29 | superseded |
| Railroad regulation and consolidation | Six-point railroad program — conditional federal support, receivership reform, ICC regulation of trucks and holding companies, consolidation | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-09-17 | partial |
| Benefits for disabled and service-connected veterans | Full justice and generosity for veterans disabled by actual wartime service — silence on the bonus | pledge_forward | directional_stance | party_platform | A | 1932-06-27 | partialcontested |
| Veterans' bonus and benefits | No early payment of the veterans' bonus until the budget is balanced with a cash surplus | pledge_forward | specific_pledge | candidate_direct | A | 1932-10-19 | blocked |