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1956 - Eisenhower vs. Stevenson

President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s reelection campaign outdoes the Democrats financially by an even wider margin than in 1952, amassing nearly $8 million — twice as much as the Democratic Party and its labor union supporters are able to raise. As newspaper columnist Drew Pearson reports, some of Eisenhower’s support comes from oil tycoons Sid Richardson and Clint Murchison, who not only pump money into the GOP campaign treasury but also pick up several thousand dollars in pre-convention hotel bills for Eisenhower’s campaign staff. Republican campaign committees also get $64,000 from seven ambassadors that Eisenhower appointed during his first term, and another $91,800 from six supporters who later will be given ambassadorships. John Hay Whitney, whom Eisenhower will later appoint ambassador to Great Britain, gives $37,500, while future ambassador to Ceylon Maxwell H. Gluck contributes $21,500 and John C. Folger, who will be rewarded with a post in Belgium, donates $11,500.

Adlai Stevenson’s campaign, in contrast, attracts far greater numbers of contributors — a month after the nominating convention, the list of Stevenson donors amounts to 13,177 names, compared with 624 at that point in 1952. But as Matt McCloskey, the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, notes, “Most of it has come in small bills — an average of between $6 and $7 apiece.” In an age when pricey electronic media is becoming more and more crucial to campaigns, Stevenson gets into financial trouble trying to keep up with Eisenhower. In October, CBS announces that it is canceling a scheduled five-minute TV election ad because the Democrats have failed to pay in advance for the airtime. Ultimately, Stevenson ends his campaign at least $800,000 in the red.

While a University of Michigan survey reveals that only 10 percent of the American public has made a contribution to either candidate, a wealthy few apparently are eager to stay on the good side of whoever wins. Among them is George Eccles, the president of the First Security Corporation of Utah, who tells Fortune magazine that he gives to both the Republican and Democratic candidates because “I believe it is important to maintain the financial strength of both major parties.”

In November, Eisenhower crushes Stevenson at the polls, taking the popular vote by 57.4 percent to 42.0 percent and winning 457 votes in the Electoral College to just 73 for the Democrat.