 | This articleis missing information about influence of theGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927 on the election. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on thetalk page.(September 2025) |
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531 members of theElectoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 56.9%[1] 8.0pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Presidential election results map.Red denotes states won by Hoover/Curtis,blue denotes those won by Smith/Robinson. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held in theUnited States on November 6, 1928. In alandslide victory, theRepublican ticket of Secretary of CommerceHerbert Hoover and SenatorCharles Curtis defeated theDemocratic ticket of New York GovernorAl Smith and SenatorJoseph T. Robinson.
After PresidentCalvin Coolidgedeclined to seek reelection, Hoover emerged as the Republican Party's frontrunner. As Hoover's party opponents failed to unite around a candidate, Hoover received a large majority of the vote at the1928 Republican National Convention. The strong state of the economy discouraged some Democrats from running, and Smith was nominated on the first ballot of the1928 Democratic National Convention. Hoover and Smith had been widely known as potential presidential candidates long before the 1928 campaign, and both were generally regarded as outstanding leaders. Both were newcomers to the presidential race and presented in their person and record an appeal of unknown potency to the electorate. Both faced serious discontent within their respective parties' membership, and both lacked the wholehearted support of their parties' organization.[2]
In the end, the Republicans were identified with the booming economy of the 1920s, and Smith, aRoman Catholic, suffered politically fromanti-Catholic sentiment particularly in theSolid South, his opposition toProhibition, and his association with the legacy of corruption byTammany Hall. Hoover won a third straight Republican landslide and made substantial inroads in the traditionally-DemocraticSolid South by winning several states that had not voted for a Republican since the end ofReconstruction. Smith carried the five states of theDeep South, his running mate's home state of Arkansas, and theNortheastern states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Hoover's victory made him the first president born west of the Mississippi River, and he remains the most recentCabinet secretary to win a presidential election.Charles Curtis became the first (and thus far the only) Native American vice president, and the first vice president with acknowledged non-European ancestry.[a] This was the last Republican presidential victory until1952. As of 2025, this is the most recent presidential election in which the winning ticket was the same party as the incumbent without being the incumbent President or Vice President.
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| Herbert Hoover | Charles Curtis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1921–1928) | U.S. Senator fromKansas (1907–1913 & 1915–1929) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ID: 208 votes[3] HCV: 837 votes 2,045,928 votes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Candidates in this section are sorted by their highest vote count on the nominating ballot | ||||||
| Frank Orren Lowden | Charles Curtis | James Eli Watson | George W. Norris | Guy D. Goff | Calvin Coolidge | Frank B. Willis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | .jpg) |  | .jpg) |  | |  |
| Governor ofIllinois (1917–1921) | U.S. Senator fromKansas (1924–1929) | U.S. Senator fromIndiana (1916–1933) | U.S. Senator fromNebraska (1913–1943) | U.S. Senator fromWest Virginia (1925–1931) | U.S. President fromMassachusetts (1923–1929) | U.S. Senator fromOhio (1921–1928) |
| ID: 111 votes[3] W: Before 1st Ballot HCV: 74 votes 1,317,799 votes | ID: 23 votes[3] HCV: 64 votes 0 votes | ID: 33 votes[3] HCV: 45 votes 228,795 votes | ID: 27 votes[3] HCV: 24 votes 259,548 votes | ID: 0 votes[3] HCV: 18 votes 128,429 votes | DTR ID: 10 votes[3] HCV: 17 votes 12,985 votes | Died:March 30 84,461 votes |
With PresidentCalvin Coolidgechoosing not to seek re-election, the race for the nomination was wide open. The leading candidates wereSecretary of CommerceHerbert Hoover, former Illinois GovernorFrank Orren Lowden andSenate Majority LeaderCharles Curtis. A movement to draft Coolidge failed to gain traction with party insiders or even persuade Coolidge himself.[4][5]
In the few primaries that mattered, Hoover did not perform as well as expected, leaving him with fewer than half the number of pledged delegates that he needed to win the nomination. Lowden in turn only had half the number of delegates that Hoover did, leaving it looking unlikely that the first rounds of voting would produce a majority for any candidate. Attempts were made to sound out Coolidge and Vice PresidentCharles G. Dawes as to whether they would be willing to enter the race and break a potential deadlock between Hoover and Lowden, but both Coolidge and Dawes remained aloof. The matter was unexpectedly resolved when the convention voted to adopt a platform that repudiated theMcNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill, in turn causing Lowden to withdraw his candidacy in protest, and leaving no obvious challenger to Hoover. The only real competition that remained came from Senator Curtis, whose campaign was left with far too little time to win over the Lowden supporters.[6]
The Republican Convention was held inKansas City, Missouri from June 12 to 15 and nominated Hoover on the first ballot. With Hoover disinclined to interfere in the selection of his running mate, the party leaders were at first partial to giving Dawes a shot at a second term, but when that information leaked, Coolidge sent an angry telegram that said that he would consider a second nomination for Dawes, whom he hated, a "personal affront".[7] To attract votes from farmers who were concerned about Hoover's pro-business orientation, the nomination was instead offered to Curtis. He accepted and was nominated overwhelmingly on the first ballot.[8] Curtis was the first candidate ofNative American ancestry nominated by a major party for national office.
In his acceptance speech eight weeks after the convention ended, Hoover said: "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of this land... We shall soon with the help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this land."[9] That sentence would haunt Hoover during theGreat Depression.
| Presidential Ballot | Vice Presidential Ballot | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Herbert Hoover | 837 | Charles Curtis | 1,052 |
| Frank Orren Lowden | 74 | Herman Ekern | 19 |
| Charles Curtis | 64 | Charles G. Dawes | 13 |
| James Eli Watson | 45 | Hanford MacNider | 2 |
| George W. Norris | 24 | ||
| Guy D. Goff | 18 | ||
| Calvin Coolidge | 17 | ||
| Charles G. Dawes | 4 | ||
| Charles Evans Hughes | 1 |
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| Al Smith | Joseph T. Robinson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 42nd Governor of New York (1919–1920 & 1923–1928) | U.S. Senator fromArkansas (1913–1937) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Campaign | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ID: 410 votes[3] HCV: 849.19 votes 515,389 votes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Candidates in this section are sorted by their highest vote count on the nominating ballot | ||||||
| Cordell Hull | Walter F. George | James A. Reed | Atlee Pomerene | Jesse H. Jones | Evans Woollen | William A. Ayres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | .jpg) | .jpg) |  |  |  |  |
| Congressman fromTennessee (1923–1931) | U.S. Senator fromGeorgia (1922–1957) | U.S. Senator fromMissouri (1911–1929) | U.S. Senator fromOhio (1911–1923) | Owner of theHouston Chronicle fromTexas | Lawyer and banker fromIndiana | Congressman fromKansas (1923–1934) |
| ID: 24 votes[3] HCV: 71.84 votes 0 votes | ID: 28 votes[3] HCV: 52.5 votes 0 votes | ID: 36 votes[3] HCV: 52 votes 207,799 votes | ID: 47 votes[3] HCV: 47 votes 13,957 votes | ID: 0 votes[3] HCV: 43 votes 0 votes | ID: 30 votes[3] HCV: 32 votes 146,934 votes | ID: 20 votes[3] HCV: 20 votes 0 votes |
| Pat Harrison | Richard C. Watts | Gilbert Hitchcock | Edwin T. Meredith | Henry T. Allen | Albert Ritchie | Thomas J. Walsh |
 |  | .jpg) |  |  |  |  |
| U.S. Senator fromMississippi (1919–1941) | Chief Justice ofSouth Carolina (1927–1930) | U.S. Senator fromNebraska (1911–1923) | U.S. Secretary of Agriculture fromIowa (1920–1921) | Major General fromKentucky | Governor ofMaryland (1920–1935) | U.S. Senator fromMontana (1913–1933) |
| ID: 0 votes[3] HCV: 20 votes 0 votes | ID: 0 votes[3] HCV: 18 votes 0 votes | ID: 16 votes[3] HCV: 16 votes 51,019 votes | ID: 2 votes[3] HCV: 0 votes 57 votes | ID: 0 votes[3] HCV: 0 votes 0 votes | ID: 16 votes[3] W: June 18 0 votes | ID: 0 votes[3] W: May 5 60,243 votes |
Owing to theeconomic prosperity in the country and rapidly fading public memory of theTeapot Dome scandal, the Democratic Party's prospects looked dim. New York GovernorAl Smith had previously made two attempts to secure the Democratic nomination.[10]
The1928 Democratic National Convention was held inHouston, Texas, on June 26 to 28, and Smith became the candidate on the first ballot.
The leadership asked the delegates to nominate SenatorJoseph Taylor Robinson of Arkansas, in many ways Smith's political polar opposite, to be his running mate, and Robinson was nominated for vice-president.[11][12]
Smith was the firstRoman Catholic to gain a major party's nomination for president, and his religion became an issue during the campaign. Many Protestants feared that Smith would take orders from church leaders in the Vatican in making decisions affecting the country.[13][14]
| Presidential Ballot | 1st Before Shifts | 1st After Shifts | Vice Presidential Ballot | 1st |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Al Smith | 724.67 | 849.19 | Joseph Taylor Robinson | 1,035.17 |
| Cordell Hull | 71.84 | 50.84 | Alben W. Barkley | 77 |
| Walter F. George | 52.5 | 52.5 | Nellie Tayloe Ross | 31 |
| James A. Reed | 48 | 52 | Henry Tureman Allen | 28 |
| Atlee Pomerene | 47 | 3 | George L. Berry | 17.5 |
| Jesse H. Jones | 43 | 43 | Dan Moody | 9.33 |
| Evans Woollen | 32 | 7 | Duncan U. Fletcher | 7 |
| Pat Harrison | 20 | 8.5 | John H. Taylor | 6 |
| William A. Ayres | 20 | 3 | Lewis Stevenson | 4 |
| Richard C. Watts | 18 | 18 | Evans Woollen | 2 |
| Gilbert Hitchcock | 16 | 2 | Joseph Patrick Tumulty | 1 |
| A. Victor Donahey | 5 | 5 | ||
| Houston Thompson | 2 | 2 | ||
| Theodore G. Bilbo | 0 | 1 |
| 1928 Socialist Party ticket | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Norman Thomas | James H. Maurer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Presbyterian Minister fromNew York | State Representative fromPennsylvania (1915–1919) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Held in the Finnish Socialist Hall in New York City, the eighth Socialist Party Convention met on the thirteenth of April.James Maurer, a former State Representative, President of thePennsylvania Federation of Labor and then Councilman for the city ofReading, was widely considered the frontrunner in the months before the convention met. For his boomers however, Maurer stood that his duties as councilman precluded the possibility of any national tour that would be required of his nomination for the presidency, and this declination was made definitive on the tenth of April.[15]Norman Thomas, a Presbyterian minister who had been one of Maurer's boomers and had himself made it known that he was not a candidate for the Socialist nomination rather swiftly became the new frontrunner, and plans were made for a draft effort. Thomas and Maurer were nominated unanimously for president and vice president respectively, with both men accepting their nominations. The only trouble arose on the question of Prohibition, where there remained a split in the party between those who supported the Eighteenth Amendment and those, like Convention ChairVictor Berger, who preferred that it be handled on a state-by-state basis. In the end it was agreed that the party remain silent on the issue of Prohibition.[16]
| 1928 Workers Party ticket | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| William Z. Foster | Benjamin Gitlow | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chairman of the party fromMassachusetts | State Assemblyman fromNew York (1918–1918) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Held in theMecca Temple in New York City, the second Workers' Party Convention met on the twenty-fifth of May.Jay Lovestone served as the convention's keynote speaker, denouncing the Democratic, Republican and Socialist Parties and claiming that the Communists would turn the next "imperialist war" into a civil war. Party ChairWilliam Foster was named as the party's candidate for the presidency whileBenjamin Gitlow, a former opponent of Foster's within the party, was named as its candidate for vice president.[17]Scott Nearing was also considered a possible contender for either position on ticket.[18] A platform was adopted which, in addition to calling for American workers to overthrow the capitalistic system of government, also demanded the enactment of social insurance, the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act, a five-hour workday, the withdrawal of troops from Nicaragua and China, and the recognition of the Soviet Union.
| 1928 Socialist Labor Party ticket | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verne L. Reynolds | Jeremiah D. Crowley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Steamfitter fromMichigan | Activist fromNew York | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Held in New York City, the tenth Socialist Labor Party Convention met on the twelfth of May. Initially the ticket was a duplicate of the one nominated four years prior,Frank Johns of Oregon for the presidency andVerne Reynolds of Michigan for Vice President; however Johns, while campaigning inBend, Oregon, died while attempting to rescue a young boy who had fallen into the river shortly after one of his opening campaign events.[19] With their standard-bearer having passed, the executive committee of the party tendered the presidential nomination to Reynolds, with the place of vice presidential nominee being filled byJeremiah Crowley of New York. Speaking of the "decay of the Capitalistic System", Reynolds campaigned on the idea ofIndustrial democracy.[20]
| 1928 Prohibition Party ticket | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| William F. Varney | James A. Edgerton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Insurance Agent fromNew York | Poet and Philosopher fromVirginia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Held at theLa Salle Hotel in Chicago, the fifteenth Prohibition Party Convention met on the tenth of July. Dr.D. Leigh Colvin and other Prohibitionists had found both the Republican and Democratic planks regarding Prohibition as unsatisfactory, and there was open discussion of nominating a ticket despite the continued reversals the party had suffered since 1920.[21] The name of former GovernorGifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania was bandied about as a potential contender, though there were those like Colvin who wanted to take advantage of the Democrat's nomination of a Wet Catholic by nominating a Dry Southern Democrat to the head of the ticket in the hopes of carrying one of the Southern states;William Gibbs McAdoo, SenatorRobert Owen of Oklahoma, and formerIRS CommissionerDaniel Roper were other names considered for a draft.[22] A merger with the Farmer-Labor Party was contemplated for a time, and a committee was appointed which named a potential ticket of Gifford Pinchot for President and former GovernorWilliam Ellery Sweet of Colorado for Vice President; however neither man responded to inquiries whether they would accept the nomination, and eventually both the Prohibition and Farmer-Labor Parties tabled motions calling for fusion.[23]
There remained immense pressure within the party to nameHerbert Hoover as their choice for president despite his dithering on the issue of Prohibition enforcement in the eyes of the stricter Drys, and indeed when the balloting for the presidential nomination commenced Hoover was found to be the second most popular choice of the delegates. Those opposed to Hoover rallied on the second ballot however behind frontrunnerWilliam Varnery, an insurance salesman and party regular fromNew York.James Edgerton, aVirginian native who had headed the Jefferson-Lincoln League in the failed effort to fuse the Prohibition and Farmer-Labor Parties, was nominated for the vice presidency.[24] An olive branch was still offered to Hoover however, with the Prohibition Party promising to withdraw their ticket and endorse his candidacy were he make a public declaration in favor of Prohibition, that they would uphold the Volstead Act, and that they would present legislation to better enforce both during their term as president.[25] Indeed, there remained a concerted effort to withdraw the ticket from the race, resulting in a meeting by the Party National Executive Committee on whether Varney should drop out. Varney himself was opposed to this plan, and in a narrow vote, four to three, the effort to effectively endorse Hoover for the presidency failed.[26] Still, there remained a concern that the ticket might potentially spoil the race and accidentally result in Smith's election to the presidency, and so care was taken to avoid any repeat of1884; Prohibition Party electors were not filed in New York, and Varney and Edgerton were to confine their campaigning to the Solid South and the Border States, reasoning that many Dry Democrats there might still vote for Smith unless they were given a third option.[27]
| 1928 Farmer-Labor Party ticket | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Frank E. Webb | LeRoy R. Tillman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| for President | for Vice President | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Colonel fromCalifornia | Businessman fromGeorgia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Held in Chicago, the third Farmer-Labor Party Convention met on the tenth of July. A merger with the Prohibition Party was contemplated for a time, and a committee was appointed which named a potential ticket ofGifford Pinchot for president and former GovernorWilliam Ellery Sweet of Colorado for Vice President; however neither man responded to inquiries whether they would accept the nomination, and eventually both the Farmer-Labor and Prohibition Parties tabled motions calling for fusion.[23] Initially the party had nominated SenatorGeorge Norris of Nebraska for President, but Norris adhered to an earlier declaration that he had made where he felt that the political machinery necessary to wage a successful campaign for the presidency was not possible to establish so late in the campaigning season.[28][29] To run alongside Norris the party had namedWilliam J. Vereen of Georgia, a cotton textile manufacturer, but refused to consider his nomination under any circumstances once the press had brought it to his attention. Some months later the presidential nomination was tendered to ColonelFrank Elbridge Webb ofCalifornia, with the vice presidential nomination being offered to SenatorJames Reed ofMissouri after Webb rejected the idea of potentially running with SenatorJames Heflin ofAlabama; as with Vereen, Reed had no prior knowledge of his impending nomination and wholly rejected it, purportedly saying "Who in hell is Webb?".[30] A third man, Dr.Henry Alexander ofNorth Carolina was then nominated in Reed's stead, but on September 18 Alexander requested that his name be withdrawn from the ticket and he later endorsed Al Smith for the presidency.[31][32] At some point afterLeRoy Tillman, a nephew of the late SenatorBenjamin Tillman of South Carolina, was nominated in Alexander's stead.[33]
Anti-Catholicism was a significant burden for Smith's campaign. Protestant ministers warned that he would take orders from the Pope, whom many Americans sincerely believed wouldmove to the United States to rule the country from a fortress in Washington, DC. A popular joke of the time was that Smith sent a one-word telegram after the election toPope Pius XI saying, "Unpack."[34][35] Beyond the conspiracy theories, a survey of 8,500Southern Methodist Church ministers found only four who supported Smith, and the northern Methodists, Southern Baptists, andDisciples of Christ were similar in their opposition. Many voters who rejected the anti-CatholicKu Klux Klan, which had declined from its peak in the mid 1920s until the 1928 campaign partially revived it, justified their opposition to Smith on their belief that the Catholic Church was an "un-American" and "alien culture" that opposed freedom and democracy.[35]
An example was a statement issued in September 1928 by the National Lutheran Editors' and Managers' Association that opposed Smith's election. The manifesto, written by Dr. Clarence Reinhold Tappert, warned about "the peculiar relation in which a faithful Catholic stands and the absolute allegiance he owes to a 'foreign sovereign' who does not only 'claim' supremacy also in secular affairs as a matter of principle and theory but who, time and again, has endeavored to put this claim into practical operation." The Catholic Church, the manifesto asserted, was hostile to American principles of separation of church and state and of religious toleration.[36] Groups circulated a million copies of a counterfeit oath, claiming that fourth-degreeKnights of Columbus members swore to exterminate Freemasons and Protestants and to commit violence against anyone if the church ordered.[37] Smith's opposition to Prohibition, a key reform promoted by Protestants, also lost him votes, as did his association withTammany Hall. Because many anti-Catholics used the issues to cover for their religious prejudices, Smith's campaign had difficulty denouncing anti-Catholicism asbigotry without offending others who favored Prohibition or disliked Tammany corruption.[35]
Scott Farris notes that the anti-Catholicism of the American society was the sole reason behind Smith's defeat, as even contemporary Prohibition activists would admit that their main problem with the Democratic candidate was his faith and not any political view -Bob Jones Sr., a prominent Protestant pastor inSouth Carolina, said: "I'll tell you, brother, that the big issue we've got to face ain't the liquor question. I'd rather see a saloon on every corner of the South than see the foreigners elect Al Smith president."[38] A Methodist newspaper in Georgia called Catholicism "a degenerate type of Christianity," while Southern Baptist churches ordered their followers to vote against Smith, claiming that he would close down Protestant churches, end freedom of worship and prohibit reading the Bible. Charles Hillman Fountain, a Protestant writer, insisted that Catholics should be barred from holding any office. Farris states that "More disturbing than the ridiculous and the dangerous was the respectable anti-Catholicism", as contemporary newspapers and Protestant churches tried to mask their anti-Catholicism as genuine concern. Protestant activists insisted that Catholicism represented an alien culture and medieval mentality, claiming that Catholicism was incompatible with American democracy and institutions. Catholics were portrayed as reactionary despite being more left-wing than mainstream American Protestant congregations at the time.[38]William Allen White, a renowned newspaper editor, warned that Catholicism would erode the moral standards of America, saying that "the whole Puritan civilization which has built a sturdy, orderly nation is threatened by Smith." WhileHerbert Hoover avoided raising the issue of Catholicism on the campaign trail, he defended the Protestant actions in a private letter:
There are many people of intense Protestant faith to whom Catholicism is a grievous sin, and they have as much right to vote against a man for public office because of that belief. That is not persecution.[38]
Those issues made Smith lose several states of theSolid South that had been carried by Democrats sinceReconstruction.[39] However, in many southern states with sizable African American populations, the vast majority of whom could not vote due to poll taxes, restricted primaries, and hostile local election officials, it was widely believed that Hoover supported integration or at least was not committed to maintainingsegregation. This overcame opposition to Smith's campaign in areas with large nonvoting black populations. Mississippi GovernorTheodore G. Bilbo claimed that Hoover had met with a black member of theRepublican National Committee and danced with her. Hoover's campaign quickly denied the "untruthful and ignoble assertion".[40]
Smith's religion helped him with Roman CatholicNew England immigrants, especially Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans, which may have explained his narrow victories in traditionally-Republican Massachusetts and Rhode Island and his narrow loss in his home state of New York, where previous Democratic presidential candidates had lost by double digits, but Smith lost by only 2%.[41]
The total vote exceeded that of1924 by nearly eight million, which was nearly twice the vote cast in1916 and nearly three times that of1896. Every section in the Union increased its vote although theMountain,East South Central andWest South Central States did so least of all. The greatest increases were in the heavily populated(Northeastern)Mid-Atlantic andEast North Central States, where more than 4,250,000 more votes were cast, more than half of the nationwide increase. There was an increase of over a million each in New York and Pennsylvania.[43]Much of the increase could be attributed to women voting in ever increasing numbers since gaining the national vote in 1920.
Hoover won 200 counties in the Southern United States while Smith won 122 traditionally Republican counties in the Northern United States, with 77 of those counties being majority Catholic.Warren G. Harding had won in all twelve cities with populations above 500,000 in the1920 election, but Smith won inCleveland,Milwaukee,New York City,San Francisco, andSt. Louis, and lost inBaltimore andPittsburgh by less than 10,000 votes. Hoover won in the traditionally DemocraticBirmingham,Dallas, andHouston. Smith was the first Democratic nominee in the 20th century to win a majority of the twelve largest cities in the country. The net vote totals in the twelve largest cities shifted from Republican to Democratic with Harding having won by 1,540,000 in 1920, Coolidge by 1,308,000 in 1924, while Smith won by 210,000.Samuel Lubell wrote inThe Future of American Politics thatFranklin D. Roosevelt's victory in the1932 election was preceded by Smith's increased vote totals in urban areas.[44]
Smith's results in the cities in the election improved uponJohn W. Davis' results in the 1924 election. The Democratic vote inBoston rose from 35.5% to 66.8%, inMilwaukee from 9.7% to 53.7%, inSaint Paul, Minnesota from 10.1% to 51.2%,San Francisco from 6.4% to 49.4%, inCleveland from 9.1% to 45.6%, inChicago from 20.3% to 46.5%, inPittsburgh from 8.7% to 42.4%, in Philadelphia from 12.1% to 39.5%, inMinneapolis from 6.3% to 38.8%, inDetroit from 7.1% to 36.8%, and inSeattle from 6.6% to 31.9%. In the boroughs ofNew York City the vote percentages rose from 33.6% to 67.7% inThe Bronx, 39.6% to 60.8% inManhattan, 31.9% to 59.5% inBrooklyn, 31% to 53.4% inQueens, and 42% to 53.4% inStaten Island. He improved in all of those cities fromJames M. Cox's results in 1920.[44]
Hoover won the election by a wide margin on pledges to continue the economic boom of the Coolidge years. He received more votes than any previous candidate of the Republican Party in every state except five: Rhode Island, Iowa, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Tennessee.[45] The Hoover vote was greater than the Coolidge vote in 2,932 counties; it was less in 143 of the comparable counties.[46] The 21,400,000 votes cast for Hoover also touched the high-water mark for all votes for a presidential candidate until then and were an increase of more than 5,500,000 over the Coolidge vote four years earlier.[2] The Republican ticket made substantial inroads in theSouth: the heaviest Democratic losses were in the three Southern sections (South Atlantic, East South Central, West South Central). The losses included 215 counties that had never before supported a Republican presidential candidate, distributed as follows: Alabama (14), Arkansas (5), Florida (22), Georgia (4), Kentucky (28), Maryland (3), Mississippi (1), Missouri (10), North Carolina (16), Tennessee (3), Texas (64), Virginia (26), West Virginia (4). In Georgia, eight counties recorded more votes cast for "anti-Smith" electors than either major-party candidate.[43]
The eleven states of the former Confederacy provided 7.48% of Hoover's votes, with him taking 47.41% of the vote in that region. This was the best showing for a Republican in that region at that point in time.[47] The electoral votes of North Carolina and Virginia had not been awarded to a Republican since1872, and Florida had not been carried by a Republican since the heavily disputed election of1876. Texas was carried by a Republican for the first time in its history, which left Georgia as the only remaining state never carried by a Republican presidential candidate. Georgia would not be won by a Republican until1964, whenBarry Goldwater carried the state. Smith also carried staunchly Democratic Alabama by barely 7,000 votes. In all, Smith carried only six of the eleven states of the formerConfederacy, the fewest carried by a Democratic candidate since the end ofReconstruction.
Smith polled more votes than had any previous Democratic candidate in 30 of the 48 states, all but Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. In only four of them (Tennessee, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico) did Smith receive fewer votes than Davis had in 1924.[43] HistorianAllan Lichtman notes that since the sole defining issue of the election was anti-Catholicism, it radically realigned states' voting patterns. Hoover carried Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia — none of which had backed a post-Reconstruction Republican, while Smith carried historically-Republican Massachusetts and Rhode Island despite the national Republican landslide. In doing so, Smith became the first Democrat to ever win a majority of the vote in Massachusetts, and the first since 1852 to win a majority in Rhode Island. Lichtman further proves this by pointing out that Smith and Hoover had very similar political views save for religion and Prohibition, and yet the 1928 election had a turnout of 57%, despite previous 1920s American elections having their turnouts below 50%.[38]
Smith received nearly as many votes as Coolidge had in 1924, and his vote exceeded Davis's by more than 6,500,000.[43] The Democratic vote was greater than in 1924 in 2080 counties and fell in 997 counties. In only one section did the Democratic vote drop below 38%, thePacific, which was the only one in which the Republican vote exceeded 60%. However, the Democrats made gains in five sections; of those counties, fourteen had never been Democratic and seven had been Democratic only once. The size and the nature of the distribution of the Democratic vote illustrated Smith's strengths and weaknesses as a candidate. Despite evidence of an increased Democratic vote, Smith's overwhelming defeat in theelectoral college and the retention of so few Democratic counties reflected Hoover's greater appeal. Smith won the electoral votes of only theDeep South of the DemocraticSolid South, Robinson's home state of Arkansas, and theNew England states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, both of which had a large proportion of Catholic voters. His 87 electoral votes were the fewest that a Democratic candidate had won since the 80 votes earned byHoratio Seymour in1868. Hoover even carried Smith's home state of New York by a narrow margin. Smith carried 914 counties, the fewest in theFourth Party System. The Republican total leaped to 2,174 counties, a larger number than even the 1920 landslide.[43]
Third-party support sank almost to the vanishing point, as the election of 1928 proved to be a two-party contest to a greater extent than any other in the Fourth Party System. Until the major split before the1948 election in the Democratic Party betweenSouthern Democrats and the more liberal Northern faction, no further significant third-party candidacies as seen in 1912 and 1924 were to occur. All "other" votes totaled only 1.08 percent of the national popular vote. TheSocialist vote sank to 267,478, and in seven states, there were no Socialist votes.[43]
It was the last election in which the Republicans won North Carolina until 1968, the last in which they won Kentucky and West Virginia until 1956, the last in which they won Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington until 1952, the last in which they won Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon until 1948, and the last in which they won Ohio, Wisconsin, and Wyoming until 1944.
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote | Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote | ||||
| Herbert Hoover | Republican | California | 21,427,123 | 58.11% | 444 | Charles Curtis | Kansas | 444 |
| Al Smith | Democratic | New York | 15,015,464 | 40.90% | 87 | Joseph T. Robinson | Arkansas | 87 |
| Norman Thomas | Socialist | New York | 267,478 | 0.73% | 0 | James H. Maurer | Pennsylvania | 0 |
| William Z. Foster | Communist | Massachusetts | 47,351 | 0.12% | 0 | Benjamin Gitlow | New York | 0 |
| Verne L. Reynolds | Socialist Labor | Michigan | 21,589 | 0.06% | 0 | Jeremiah D. Crowley | New York | 0 |
| William F. Varney | Prohibition | New York | 20,095 | 0.05% | 0 | James A. Edgerton | Virginia | 0 |
| Frank Webb | Farmer-Labor | California | 7,591 | 0.03% | 0 | LeRoy R. Tillman | Georgia | 0 |
| Other | 321 | 0.00% | — | Other | — | |||
| Total | 36,807,012 | 100% | 531 | 531 | ||||
| Needed to win | 266 | 266 | ||||||
Source (Popular Vote):Leip, David."1928 Presidential Election Results".Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. RetrievedJuly 28, 2005.
Source (Electoral Vote):"Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996".National Archives and Records Administration. RetrievedJuly 28, 2005.
| Hoover | 58.21% | |||
| Smith | 40.80% | |||
| Thomas | 0.73% | |||
| Others | 0.26% | |||
| Hoover | 83.62% | |||
| Smith | 16.38% | |||
Source:[48]
| States/districts won bySmith/Robinson |
| States/districts won byHoover/Curtis |
| Herbert Hoover Republican | Al Smith Democratic | Norman Thomas Socialist | William Foster Communist | Verne Reynolds Socialist Labor | Margin | State Total | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | % | electoral votes | # | % | # | |
| Alabama | 12 | 120,725 | 48.49 | - | 127,797 | 51.33 | 12 | 460 | 0.18 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | -7,072 | -2.84 | 248,982 | AL |
| Arizona | 3 | 52,533 | 57.57 | 3 | 38,537 | 42.23 | - | - | - | - | 184 | 0.20 | - | - | - | - | 13,996 | 15.34 | 91,254 | AZ |
| Arkansas | 9 | 77,751 | 39.33 | - | 119,196 | 60.29 | 9 | 429 | 0.22 | - | 317 | 0.16 | - | - | - | - | -41,445 | -20.96 | 197,693 | AR |
| California | 13 | 1,162,323 | 64.69 | 13 | 614,365 | 34.19 | - | 19,595 | 1.09 | - | 112 | 0.01 | - | - | - | - | 547,958 | 30.50 | 1,796,656 | CA |
| Colorado | 6 | 253,872 | 64.72 | 6 | 133,131 | 33.94 | - | 3,472 | 0.89 | - | 675 | 0.17 | - | - | - | - | 120,741 | 30.78 | 392,242 | CO |
| Connecticut | 7 | 296,614 | 53.63 | 7 | 252,040 | 45.57 | - | 3,019 | 0.55 | - | 730 | 0.13 | - | 622 | 0.11 | - | 44,574 | 8.06 | 553,031 | CT |
| Delaware | 3 | 68,860 | 65.03 | 3 | 36,643 | 34.60 | - | 329 | 0.31 | - | 59 | 0.06 | - | - | - | - | 32,217 | 30.42 | 105,891 | DE |
| Florida | 6 | 144,168 | 56.83 | 6 | 101,764 | 40.12 | - | 4,036 | 1.59 | - | 3,704 | 1.46 | - | - | - | - | 42,404 | 16.72 | 253,672 | FL |
| Georgia | 14 | 99,369 | 43.36 | - | 129,602 | 56.56 | 14 | 124 | 0.05 | - | 64 | 0.03 | - | - | - | - | -30,233 | -13.19 | 229,159 | GA |
| Idaho | 4 | 97,322 | 64.22 | 4 | 52,926 | 34.93 | - | 1,293 | 0.85 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 44,396 | 29.30 | 151,541 | ID |
| Illinois | 29 | 1,769,141 | 56.93 | 29 | 1,313,817 | 42.28 | - | 19,138 | 0.62 | - | 3,581 | 0.12 | - | 1,812 | 0.06 | - | 455,324 | 14.65 | 3,107,489 | IL |
| Indiana | 15 | 848,290 | 59.68 | 15 | 562,691 | 39.59 | - | 3,871 | 0.27 | - | 321 | 0.02 | - | 645 | 0.05 | - | 285,599 | 20.09 | 1,421,314 | IN |
| Iowa | 13 | 623,570 | 61.77 | 13 | 379,311 | 37.57 | - | 2,960 | 0.29 | - | 328 | 0.03 | - | 230 | 0.02 | - | 244,259 | 24.20 | 1,009,489 | IA |
| Kansas | 10 | 513,672 | 72.02 | 10 | 193,003 | 27.06 | - | 6,205 | 0.87 | - | 320 | 0.04 | - | - | - | - | 320,669 | 44.96 | 713,200 | KS |
| Kentucky | 13 | 558,064 | 59.33 | 13 | 381,070 | 40.51 | - | 837 | 0.09 | - | 293 | 0.03 | - | 340 | 0.04 | - | 176,994 | 18.82 | 940,604 | KY |
| Louisiana | 10 | 51,160 | 23.70 | - | 164,655 | 76.29 | 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | -113,495 | -52.58 | 215,833 | LA |
| Maine | 6 | 179,923 | 68.63 | 6 | 81,179 | 30.96 | - | 1,068 | 0.41 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 98,744 | 37.66 | 262,171 | ME |
| Maryland | 8 | 301,479 | 57.06 | 8 | 223,626 | 42.33 | - | 1,701 | 0.32 | - | 636 | 0.12 | - | 906 | 0.17 | - | 77,853 | 14.74 | 528,348 | MD |
| Massachusetts | 18 | 775,566 | 49.15 | - | 792,758 | 50.24 | 18 | 6,262 | 0.40 | - | 2,461 | 0.16 | - | 772 | 0.05 | - | -17,192 | -1.09 | 1,577,823 | MA |
| Michigan | 15 | 965,396 | 70.36 | 15 | 396,762 | 28.92 | - | 3,516 | 0.26 | - | 2,881 | 0.21 | - | 799 | 0.06 | - | 568,634 | 41.44 | 1,372,082 | MI |
| Minnesota | 12 | 560,977 | 57.77 | 12 | 396,451 | 40.83 | - | 6,774 | 0.70 | - | 4,853 | 0.50 | - | 1,921 | 0.20 | - | 164,526 | 16.94 | 970,976 | MN |
| Mississippi | 10 | 27,153 | 17.90 | - | 124,539 | 82.10 | 10 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | -97,386 | -64.20 | 151,692 | MS |
| Missouri | 18 | 834,080 | 55.58 | 18 | 662,562 | 44.15 | - | 3,739 | 0.25 | - | - | - | - | 340 | 0.02 | - | 171,518 | 11.43 | 1,500,721 | MO |
| Montana | 4 | 113,300 | 58.37 | 4 | 78,578 | 40.48 | - | 1,667 | 0.86 | - | 563 | 0.29 | - | - | - | - | 34,722 | 17.89 | 194,108 | MT |
| Nebraska | 8 | 345,745 | 63.19 | 8 | 197,959 | 36.18 | - | 3,434 | 0.63 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 147,786 | 27.01 | 547,144 | NE |
| Nevada | 3 | 18,327 | 56.54 | 3 | 14,090 | 43.46 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4,237 | 13.07 | 32,417 | NV |
| New Hampshire | 4 | 115,404 | 58.65 | 4 | 80,715 | 41.02 | - | 465 | 0.24 | - | 173 | 0.09 | - | - | - | - | 34,689 | 17.63 | 196,757 | NH |
| New Jersey | 14 | 925,285 | 59.77 | 14 | 616,162 | 39.80 | - | 4,866 | 0.31 | - | 1,240 | 0.08 | - | 488 | 0.03 | - | 309,123 | 19.97 | 1,548,195 | NJ |
| New Mexico | 3 | 69,645 | 59.01 | 3 | 48,211 | 40.85 | - | - | - | - | 158 | 0.13 | - | - | - | - | 21,434 | 18.16 | 118,014 | NM |
| New York | 45 | 2,193,344 | 49.79 | 45 | 2,089,863 | 47.44 | - | 107,332 | 2.44 | - | 10,876 | 0.25 | - | 4,211 | 0.10 | - | 103,481 | 2.35 | 4,405,626 | NY |
| North Carolina | 12 | 348,923 | 54.94 | 12 | 286,227 | 45.06 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 62,696 | 9.87 | 635,150 | NC |
| North Dakota | 5 | 131,441 | 54.80 | 5 | 106,648 | 44.46 | - | 936 | 0.39 | - | 842 | 0.35 | - | - | - | - | 24,793 | 10.34 | 239,867 | ND |
| Ohio | 24 | 1,627,546 | 64.89 | 24 | 864,210 | 34.45 | - | 8,683 | 0.35 | - | 2,836 | 0.11 | - | 1,515 | 0.06 | - | 763,336 | 30.43 | 2,508,346 | OH |
| Oklahoma | 10 | 394,046 | 63.72 | 10 | 219,174 | 35.44 | - | 3,924 | 0.63 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 174,872 | 28.28 | 618,427 | OK |
| Oregon | 5 | 205,341 | 64.18 | 5 | 109,223 | 34.14 | - | 2,720 | 0.85 | - | 1,094 | 0.34 | - | 1,564 | 0.49 | - | 96,118 | 30.04 | 319,942 | OR |
| Pennsylvania | 38 | 2,055,382 | 65.24 | 38 | 1,067,586 | 33.89 | - | 18,647 | 0.59 | - | 4,726 | 0.15 | - | 380 | 0.01 | - | 987,796 | 31.35 | 3,150,610 | PA |
| Rhode Island | 5 | 117,522 | 49.55 | - | 118,973 | 50.16 | 5 | - | - | - | 283 | 0.12 | - | 416 | 0.18 | - | -1,451 | -0.61 | 237,194 | RI |
| South Carolina | 9 | 5,858 | 8.54 | - | 62,700 | 91.39 | 9 | 47 | 0.07 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | -56,842 | -82.85 | 68,605 | SC |
| South Dakota | 5 | 157,603 | 60.18 | 5 | 102,660 | 39.20 | - | 443 | 0.17 | - | 232 | 0.09 | - | - | - | - | 54,943 | 20.98 | 261,865 | SD |
| Tennessee | 12 | 195,388 | 53.76 | 12 | 167,343 | 46.04 | - | 631 | 0.17 | - | 111 | 0.03 | - | - | - | - | 28,045 | 7.72 | 363,473 | TN |
| Texas | 20 | 367,036 | 51.77 | 20 | 341,032 | 48.10 | - | 722 | 0.10 | - | 209 | 0.03 | - | - | - | - | 26,004 | 3.67 | 708,999 | TX |
| Utah | 4 | 94,618 | 53.58 | 4 | 80,985 | 45.86 | - | 954 | 0.54 | - | 46 | 0.03 | - | - | - | - | 13,633 | 7.72 | 176,603 | UT |
| Vermont | 4 | 90,404 | 66.87 | 4 | 44,440 | 32.87 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 45,964 | 34.00 | 135,191 | VT |
| Virginia | 12 | 164,609 | 53.91 | 12 | 140,146 | 45.90 | - | 250 | 0.08 | - | 173 | 0.06 | - | 180 | 0.06 | - | 24,463 | 8.01 | 305,358 | VA |
| Washington | 7 | 335,844 | 67.06 | 7 | 156,772 | 31.30 | - | 2,615 | 0.52 | - | 1,541 | 0.31 | - | 4,068 | 0.81 | - | 179,072 | 35.75 | 500,840 | WA |
| West Virginia | 8 | 375,551 | 58.43 | 8 | 263,784 | 41.04 | - | 1,313 | 0.20 | - | 401 | 0.06 | - | - | - | - | 111,767 | 17.39 | 642,752 | WV |
| Wisconsin | 13 | 544,205 | 53.52 | 13 | 450,259 | 44.28 | - | 18,213 | 1.79 | - | 1,528 | 0.15 | - | 381 | 0.04 | - | 93,946 | 9.24 | 1,016,831 | WI |
| Wyoming | 3 | 52,748 | 63.68 | 3 | 29,299 | 35.37 | - | 788 | 0.95 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 23,449 | 28.31 | 82,835 | WY |
| TOTALS: | 531 | 21,427,123 | 58.21 | 444 | 15,015,464 | 40.80 | 87 | 267,478 | 0.73 | - | 48,551 | 0.13 | - | 21,590 | 0.06 | - | 6,411,659 | 17.42 | 36,807,012 | US |
Margin of victory less than 1% (5 electoral votes):
Margin of victory less than 5% (95 electoral votes):
Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (60 electoral votes):
Tipping point state:
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)
Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)
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