The former vice president Calvin Coolidge had become president after the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Coolidge had successfully handled the discovery of criminal activity within Harding’s administration (the Teapot Dome Scandal), gaining trust from the electorate. The 1924 election had three key candidates: Coolidge, renominated for... More
The Republicans met in Kansas City where they nominated on the first ballot Herbert Hoover, food administrator during World War I and Secretary of Commerce in the Harding and Coolidge administrations. A cheerless, laconic man, he had studied engineering and worked as a federal administrator. Hoover was also a painfully... More
The prosperity of the 1920s ended abruptly on 29 October 1929 when the stock market crash obliterated the savings and confidence of millions of Americans. As the 1932 campaign approached the Republicans met in a joyless convention in Philadelphia – only a miracle could stave off Hoover’s defeat, and the... More
Two-term governor of Kansas, Alfred ‘Alf’ Landon, was chosen as the Republican candidate to run against incumbent Democratic president Franklin D. Roosevelt (F.D.R.). Roosevelt’s New Deal had achieved some financial stability in the years following the crash of 1929 and the measures he had put in place were popular with... More
Lawyer and former Democratic activist Wendell L. Willkie emerged as a dark-horse Republican presidential candidate after favourites Thomas E. Dewey and Robert A. Taft failed to secure nomination. Roosevelt decided, after some reluctance, to run for a third term, with the less-popular Henry A. Wallace as running mate. In the... More
In the midst of war, the election of 1944 saw more success for the Republican party than in any other recent election, yet they were still unable to unseat Franklin D. Roosevelt and prevent him from an unprecedented fourth term in office. Roosevelt ran for president with senator Harry Truman... More
Franklin D. Roosevelt had died in 1945, less than three months into his fourth term. Harry S. Truman had succeeded him, taking office with little knowledge of the former administration’s plans and promises. He had been successful in ending the war and entering the United Nations, but his popularity was... More
1952 saw Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five-star general and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, win the Republican nomination, with Richard D. Nixon as running mate. After internal disputes and unrest, the Democrats settled on Adlai E. Stevenson, a candidate with an impressive political past. With a... More
Eisenhower had enjoyed a successful presidency, ending the Korean War and overseeing economic growth. A second term in office was put in doubt in 1955 when he suffered a heart attack. A full recovery led to his renomination, but he then underwent abdominal surgery. Eisenhower’s ill-health turned focus upon the... More
Massachusetts senator and Roman Catholic John F. Kennedy, with Lyndon B. Johnson for vice president, were the Democratic candidates running against Republican Richard Nixon and his strong running-mate Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. The Democrats focussed on civil rights, and the expansion of defence and foreign aid. The Republicans were keen... More
Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson had taken office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. He had successfully calmed a panicked nation and placed civil rights at the centre of his agenda, overseeing the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Barry M. Goldwater was the Republican candidate... More
In 1974, Nixon had become the first US president to resign, following the Watergate scandal. Vice President Gerald R. Ford succeeded him and, following tough competition from California governor Ronald Reagan in the primaries, was voted in as the Republican presidential candidate. For the Democrats, Jimmy Carter emerged as a... More