The 1934 California gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1934. Held in the midst of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, the 1934 election was amongst the most controversial in the state's political history, pitting conservative
Republican Frank Merriam against former
Socialist Party member turned
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
Upton Sinclair, author of ''
The Jungle''. A strong
third party challenge came from
Progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
Raymond L. Haight
Raymond LeRoy Haight (July 18, 1897 – September 2, 1947) was an American lawyer and politician from California. Involved in the Republican and Commonwealth-Progressive parties, Haight ran as a third party candidate during the 1934 California ...
, a Los Angeles lawyer campaigning for the political
center. Much of the campaign's emphasis was directed at Sinclair's
EPIC movement, proposing interventionist reforms to cure the state's ailing economy. Merriam, who had recently assumed the governorship following the death of
James Rolph, characterized Sinclair's proposal as a step towards
communism.
Negative campaigning funded by the
film industry was used against Sinclair to favor the Merriam campaign, as briefly depicted in the 2020 American
biographical drama film ''
Mank
''Mank'' is a 2020 American black-and-white Biographical film, biographical Drama (film and television), drama film about screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and his Screenplay for Citizen Kane, development of the screenplay for ''Citizen Kane' ...
''.
[Mitchell, Greg]
‘Mank’ and Politics: What Really Happened in 1934 California
New York Times, Dec. 7, 2020.
Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election results
Results by county
References
Further reading
* Antognini, Richard. "The Role of A.P. Giannini in the 1934 California Gubernatorial Election." ''Southern California Quarterly'' 57.1 (1975): 53–86
online* Barger, Bob. "Raymond L. Haight and the Commonwealth Progressive Campaign of 1934" ''California Historical Society Quarterly'' 43 (September, 1964), pp 219–30
online* Hill, Patricia Lucy. "Upton Sinclair and the 1934 California gubernatorial election." (MS thesis, Portland State University, 1978
online
* Larsen, Charles E. "The Epic Campaign of 1934." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 27.2 (1958): 127–147
online* Mitchell, Greg. ''The campaign of the century: Upton Sinclair's race for governor of California and the birth of media politics'' (Random House, 1992).
* Rising, George G. "An EPIC Endeavor: Upton Sinclair's 1934 California Gubernatorial Campaign." ''Southern California Quarterly'' 79.1 (1997): 101–124
online* Singer, Donald L. "Upton Sinclair and the California Gubernatorial Campaign of 1934." ''Southern California Quarterly'' 56.4 (1974): 375–406
online
{{US Third Party Election
California
1934
Events
January–February
* January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established.
* January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...
Gubernatorial
November 1934 events