The 1936 Democratic National Convention was held in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
from June 23 to 27, 1936. The convention resulted in the nomination of
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Vice President John N. Garner
John Nance Garner III (November 22, 1868 – November 7, 1967), known among his contemporaries as "Cactus Jack", was an American Democratic politician and lawyer from Texas who served as the 32nd vice president of the United States under Fran ...
for reelection.
Changes to rules
At the 1936 Democratic Convention, the rule requiring candidates for
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
and
Vice President to have a majority of two-thirds of the delegates votes to win nomination, which had existed since 1832, was abolished.
Roosevelt had long pushed for the rule's abolition, in part due to past deadlocks: for example, the
1924 convention had required 103 ballots over roughly two weeks to nominate
John W. Davis.
[
The conventioneers provided that a simple majority of delegates would be required to win nomination, allowing for candidates to more easily be nominated and thus produce less balloting. In this regard, only one Democratic Convention after 1932 has required multiple ballots (that of 1952, which required three).
This also began the decline of the South's clout at Democratic conventions, making it easier for the Democrats to begin adopting ]civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
and other liberal ideas into their platforms, since the two-thirds rule had long given the South a ''de facto'' veto power on presidential nominees.
With the rule's abolition, Missouri Senator Bennett Champ Clark noted that "the Democratic Party is no longer a sectional party, it has become a great national party."[ ultimately leading to the Dixiecrat movement and Nixon's 1968 ]Southern strategy
In American politics, the Southern strategy was a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. As the civil rights movement and dismantling of ...
.
South Carolina Senator Ellison D. Smith walked out of the convention once he saw that a black minister, Marshall L. Shepard
Marshall Lorenzo Shepard, Sr. (July 10, 1899 – February 21, 1967) was an American Christianity, Christian clergyman and politician. Affiliated with the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, his political career was focused in the ...
, was going to deliver the invocation.
Results
The Balloting:
President Roosevelt and Vice President Garner were renominated by acclamation without need for a roll-call vote.
In his acceptance speech on June 27 at the adjacent Franklin Field, Roosevelt remarked, "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."
See also
* History of the United States Democratic Party
* 1936 Democratic Party presidential primaries
* List of Democratic National Conventions
* United States presidential nominating convention
* 1936 Republican National Convention
* 1936 United States presidential election
References
External links
Democratic Party Platform of 1936
at ''The American Presidency Project''
Roosevelt Nomination Acceptance Speech for President at DNC
(transcript) at ''The American Presidency Project''
*
{{Authority control
1936 conferences
1936 United States presidential election
1936 in Pennsylvania
1930s in Philadelphia
Political conventions in Philadelphia
Pennsylvania Democratic Party
Political events in Pennsylvania
Democratic National Conventions
June 1936 events