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1936 · election 1936-11-03

A referendum on the New Deal. Roosevelt, renominated without opposition, ran on his record ('economic royalists', 'I welcome their hatred') and a platform of continuing relief, social security, wages-and-hours and farm programs, while promising a balanced budget from rising national income. Landon, the only Republican governor re-elected in 1934, accepted a platform that pledged to preserve free enterprise and the Constitution, cut spending, repeal the compulsory old-age insurance plan for a pay-as-you-go pension, repeal the reciprocal trade agreements and continue farm cash benefits. The Union Party (Lemke, backed by Coughlin, Townsend and G. L. K. Smith) tried to hold the inflationist left. The Literary Digest straw poll predicted Landon; Roosevelt won 60.8% and 523 of 531 electoral votes, carrying every state but Maine and Vermont.

Context

• The Great Depression 1929-10-24 – 1941-12-07 — Economic collapse following the 1929 crash; ~25% unemployment by 1933.
• Dust Bowl 1930-01-01 – 1940-12-31 — Prolonged drought and soil erosion across the Plains.
• Townsend old-age pension movement 1933-09-30 – 1936-11-03 — Dr. Francis Townsend's $200-a-month pension plan built about two million club members by 1936, pushed Congress toward Social Security, and fed the Union Party.
• Share Our Wealth movement and Huey Long's assassination 1934-02-23 – 1935-09-10 — Long's Share Our Wealth clubs (7.5 million claimed members) threatened a 1936 third-party run until he was shot in Baton Rouge on Sept. 8, 1935; his following passed to Gerald L. K. Smith and the Union Party.
• The "Second New Deal" (1935) 1935-04-08 – 1935-08-30 — Emergency Relief Appropriation Act (WPA), Wagner Act, Social Security Act, Banking Act, Public Utility Holding Company Act and the Wealth Tax Act, all enacted April–August 1935.
• Schechter decision voids the NIRA 1935-05-27 — The Supreme Court unanimously struck down the National Industrial Recovery Act's code system; the NRA and its wage-hour codes lapsed.
• Italian invasion of Ethiopia 1935-10-03 – 1936-05-09 — Mussolini's conquest of Ethiopia; League sanctions failed; the U.S. applied the 1935 Neutrality Act arms embargo.
• Butler decision voids the AAA 1936-01-06 — United States v. Butler (6–3) held the Agricultural Adjustment Act's processing tax and production-control scheme unconstitutional; Congress substituted the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act (Feb. 29, 1936).
• Drought of 1936 1936-06-01 – 1936-09-30 — The hottest, driest summer on record across the Plains and Midwest; Roosevelt toured the drought states and called a Des Moines drought conference (Sept. 3) that Landon attended.
• Spanish Civil War 1936-07-17 – 1939-04-01 — Nationalist rising against the Spanish Republic; Germany and Italy aided Franco; the U.S. extended its arms embargo to the conflict in January 1937.

Candidates