1928 United States presidential election in New York

← 1924 November 6, 1928 1932 →
Turnout	68.3%[1] 12.0pp
Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith Party Republican Democratic Home state California New York Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph T. Robinson Electoral vote 45 0 Popular vote 2,193,344 2,089,863 Percentage 49.79% 47.44%
County results Hoover   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Smith   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%
President before election Calvin Coolidge Republican Elected President Herbert Hoover Republican

The1928 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 6, 1928. All contemporary 48 states were part of the1928 United States presidential election. State voters chose 45 electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.

New York was won byRepublican formerSecretary of CommerceHerbert Hoover ofCalifornia, who was running againstDemocraticGovernor of New YorkAlfred E. Smith. Hoover's running mate wasSenate Majority LeaderCharles Curtis ofKansas, while Smith's running mate wasSenatorJoseph Taylor Robinson ofArkansas.

Hoover won with a plurality of 49.79 percent of the vote to Smith's 47.44 percent, a margin of 2.35 points.Socialist candidateNorman Thomas finished a distant third, with 2.44 percent. Although New York was Al Smith's home state and he had been elected governor there, the 1920s were a fiercely Republican decade in American politics, and New York during theFourth Party System was a fiercely Republican state in presidential elections. In 1928, Herbert Hoover won the third consecutive nationwide Republican landslide, and the economic boom and social good feelings of theRoaring Twenties under popular Republican leadership proved too much for Smith to overcome both nationally and in his home state.

However, Smith's performance in New York was still impressive in the context of the 1920s, and highly significant in shaping the state's political development. In the elections preceding 1928, New York had been more Republican than the nation as a whole, even in the nationwide Republican landslides of1920 and1924. Smith's narrow 2-point defeat in the midst of the nationwide Republican landslide of 1928 made New York State 15% moreDemocratic than the national average. Smith's 47.44 percent was also the highest vote share a Democratic presidential candidate had received in New York State since formerNew York GovernorGrover Cleveland won the state in1892, asWoodrow Wilson only won the state with 41% in1912 when the Republican vote was split.

Smith dramatically improved upon how Democrats before him had done and laid the groundwork for turning the state Democratic in1932 and beyond. In1920 and1924, Republicans had swept every county in New York State and Democrats had received less than 30% of the vote. In 1928, Smith came within 2 points of winning the state by sweeping all five boroughs of heavily populatedNew York City, winningAlbany County, home to the state capital ofAlbany, along with neighboringRensselaer County, and winning two counties innorthern New York along theSaint Lawrence River,Clinton County andFranklin County.

Key to Smith's strength in New York State was his sweep of the five massively populated boroughs ofNew York City. A New York City native, Smith took over 60% of the vote inManhattan andthe Bronx, and also won majorities inBrooklyn,Queens, andStaten Island. Up to this point, 1928 was the strongest victory ever for a Democrat in the city. Smith, aRoman Catholic ofIrish,Italian, andGerman immigrant heritage, held special appeal to Catholic and ethnic immigrant communities that populated cities like New York andBoston. The first Catholic to be nominated on a major-party ticket, Smith's Catholicism would severely weaken his candidacy in many rural parts of the country, especially in theSouth,^[4] but would prove an asset in appealing to voters in New York.^[5] The urban, ethnic coalition that delivered New York City to Al Smith would prove to be a harbinger of long-term realignment of both the city and the state toward the Democratic Party.^[5] 1928 began a Democratic winning streak in New York City that has never been broken since, as New York City would be solidified as one of the most Democratic cities in the United States,^[6] and a major obstacle to overcome for any Republican seeking to compete in New York State. 1928 also turned the state capital of Albany, which had previously been a Republican city, into a Democratic bastion in upstate New York. This was the first time Democrats swept all five boroughs of New York City, which would also occur in 1932 and 1936.

Hoover, for his part, was able to hold on to New York State's electoral votes in 1928 by sweeping much of traditionally staunchly Republican upstate New York andLong Island, where efforts from Hoover's future successorFranklin D. Roosevelt could not swing dry, Protestant Yankee voters to Smith.^[7] In addition, the turnout and vote number margins were not yet there in New York City in 1928 to overcome Republican dominance in the rest of the state. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt would build on Smith's coalition to flip New York State into the Democratic column, winning the state with virtually the same county map as Smith, but with stronger vote number margins and turnout. After 1928, New York state would not vote Republican again until 1948.

• United States presidential elections in New York
• Presidency of Herbert Hoover

• 1928 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in New York (state)
• 1928 New York (state) elections

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