1936 - Roosevelt vs. Landon
Roosevelt campaigns in 1936; Courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library
Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt faces Governor Alf Landon of Kansas, the Republican nominee. James A. Farley, the chairman of the National Democratic Committee, estimates that Roosevelt’s campaign will only need to raise $2 million. The GOP jumps on the remark, charging that Roosevelt plans to rely on billions of dollars in New Deal funding to influence the election.
The Democrats, hard-pressed financially as usual, once again try to attract large numbers of small donations, forming a National Council of Roosevelt Electors with operations in all 48 states. Roosevelt autographs stacks of books commemorating that year’s Democratic National Convention, which are then sold for $100 apiece, raising $250,000 for the campaign. The Democrats also stage a massive fundraising dinner in Philadelphia, persuading 1,300 donors to pay $100 apiece for a meal of fruit cocktail, consommé, filet mignon, two vegetables, a salad, dessert, and coffee.
Primarily, though, the Democrats rely most heavily on a new source of cash: organized labor. John L. Lewis, the president of the United Mine Workers of America and founder of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, wants to have his picture taken with FDR as he presents him with a $250,000 check. Roosevelt, worried about publicly appearing beholden to labor unions, declines the offer. Nevertheless, Lewis eventually pumps twice that much into the Roosevelt campaign, breaking it into a series of smaller donations. Ultimately, the Democrats raise $2.4 million and go into debt to spend another $500,000 in the effort to reelect Roosevelt.
The Republicans, as in the past, turn mostly to big donors to bankroll Landon’s campaign. Members of the Du Pont family and their business associates contribute at least $383,000 to national and state committees, and publisher William Randolph Hearst, who supported Roosevelt four years earlier, this time gives $30,000 to Landon. Copper mining and smelting scion Robert Guggenheim, oleomargarine mogul Frazier Jelke, wire-rope manufacturing heir John A. Roebling, and Republican National Committee treasurer Charles Barnett Goodspeed give $25,000 apiece. Even with those deep pockets, Landon struggles to raise money, and by October, the campaign reportedly is running a $500,000 deficit and struggling to come up with another $200,000 for get-out-the-vote efforts. A last-minute fundraising push puts the Landon campaign into the black, barely, at $5 million — twice what Roosevelt has raised, but not nearly enough to overcome the incumbent’s vast advantage in popularity. In November, Roosevelt wins in a landslide, taking the popular vote by 60.8 to 36.5 percent, and winning the Electoral College by an astonishing 523–8 tally.
SOURCES: “$3,500,000,000 Held in Democrats’ Fund,” The New York Times, August 2, 1936; “New Groups To Aid Roosevelt Fight,” The New York Times, September 3, 1936; Gil Troy, “Money and Politics: The Oldest Connection,” The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 1997; “Money, Money, Money,” Time, November 2, 1936; George Thayer, Who Shakes the Money Tree? — American Campaign Financing Practices From 1789 to the Present (New York: Simon and Schuster), 1973; “Du Pont Party Gifts Listed at $383,000,” The New York Times, October 13, 1936; “Republicans Seen in Need of Funds,” The New York Times, October 10, 1936.
Previous election year: 1896 - McKinley vs. Bryan
Next year: 1943
Next election year: 1972 - Nixon vs. McGovern