The selection of the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate for the

1956 United States presidential election The 1956 United States presidential election was the 43rd quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 6, 1956. President Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully ran for reelection against Adlai Stevenson II, the former Illinois ...

occurred at the party's

national convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nationa ...

on August 16, 1956. Former presidential candidate and

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

's Senator Estes Kefauver defeated

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' Senator

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

Background

Senator

John Sparkman John Jackson Sparkman (December 20, 1899 – November 16, 1985) was an American jurist and politician from the state of Alabama. A Southern Democrat, Sparkman served in the United States House of Representatives from 1937 to 1946 and the United St ...

, who was the party's vice presidential nominee in 1952, was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate and later became the head of Alabama's delegation to the national convention, but did not make an attempt at the presidential or vice presidential nomination. On July 9, Governor Frank G. Clement, who was speculated as a possible vice presidential candidate, was selected to give the keynote address at the national convention, but he stated that he had no intention of seeking the vice presidency. Former Massachusetts Governor Paul A. Dever stated that although Kennedy was not an active candidate he was in the running for the vice presidential nomination and that the Massachusetts, Missouri, Ohio, Michigan, and New Jersey delegations would support him. Senator

Spessard Holland Spessard Lindsey Holland (July 10, 1892 – November 6, 1971) was an American lawyer and politician. He served as the 28th Governor of Florida from 1941 to 1945, and later as a US senator for Florida from 1946 to 1971. He would be the first pers ...

stated that a Stevenson-Kennedy ticket would easily carry Florida, and other Kennedy supporters stated that having a Catholic vice presidential nominee would guarantee 132 electoral votes along with those from the

Solid South The Solid South or Southern bloc was the electoral voting bloc of the states of the Southern United States for issues that were regarded as particularly important to the interests of Democrats in those states. The Southern bloc existed especial ...

. California Attorney General

Pat Brown Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he w ...

came out in support of an open vice presidential ballot and that Senators

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

, and Al Gore Sr. and Governor Clement were excellent choices.

Balloting

After winning the presidential nomination,

Adlai Stevenson II Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was twice the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I, the 23rd vice president o ...

announced that he would allow the convention delegates to choose his running mate and did not support any candidate. Governor W. Averell Harriman, who had received the second highest amount of delegates on the presidential ballot, also announced that he was not interested in the vice presidential nomination. On August 16, 1956, the vice presidential ballot started with multiple Southern favorite sons being supported on the first ballot. The plan of the Southern delegations was to deny Estes Kefauver a majority on the first ballot, due to his anti-segregation views, and then to unify behind an acceptable candidate. Kefauver's home state, Tennessee, supported Senator Al Gore Sr. on the first ballot and then realigned its support to Kennedy on the second and third ballots. After initially leading on the first ballot Kefauver fell behind Kennedy on the second before receiving a majority on the third ballot after Gore withdrew and endorsed him, resulting in Kefauver in first place and Kennedy in second. Governor

Orval Faubus Orval Eugene Faubus ( ; January 7, 1910 – December 14, 1994) was an American politician who served as the 36th Governor of Arkansas from 1955 to 1967, as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1957, he refused to comply with a unanimous ...

, who had opposed Kefauver's nomination, stated that his nomination "leaves us with a lot of hard work to do before November".

Results

References

{{United States vice presidential candidate selection Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, 1956

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection, 1956