Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 6, 1928. In a landslide victory, the Republican ticket of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover and Senator Charles Curtis defeated the Democratic ticket of New York Governor Al Smith and Senator Joseph T. Robinson.
After President Calvin Coolidge declined 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 the 1928 Republican National Convention. The strong state of the economy discouraged some Democrats from running, and Smith was nominated on the first ballot of the 1928 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.The Presidential Vote, 1896–1932, Edgar E. Robinson, pg. 24
In the end, the Republicans were identified with the booming economy of the 1920s, and Smith, a Roman Catholic, suffered politically from anti-Catholic sentiment particularly in the Solid South, his opposition to Prohibition, and his association with the legacy of corruption by Tammany Hall. Hoover won a third straight Republican landslide and made substantial inroads in the traditionally-Democratic Solid South by winning several states that had not voted for a Republican since the end of Reconstruction. Smith carried the five states of the Deep South, his running mate's home state of Arkansas, and the Northeastern 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 recent incumbent Cabinet 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. This was the last Republican presidential victory until 1952. As of 2024, 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; the most recent election won by the Republican Party without Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, or a member of the Bush family on the ticket; and the most recent presidential election in which the incumbent president did not seek reelection despite being eligible for another term.
Nominations
Republican Party nomination
1928 Republican Party ticket for Presidentfor Vice President U.S. Secretary of Commerce(1921–1928) U.S. Senator from Kansas (1907–1913 & 1915–1929): 208 votes: 837 votes2,045,928 votes
Other candidates Candidates in this section are sorted by their highest vote count on the nominating ballotFrank Orren LowdenCharles CurtisJames Eli WatsonGeorge W. NorrisGuy D. GoffCalvin CoolidgeFrank B. WillisGovernorof Illinois(1917–1921)U.S. Senatorfrom Kansas(1924–1929)U.S. Senatorfrom Indiana(1916–1933)U.S. Senatorfrom Nebraska(1913–1943)U.S. Senatorfrom West Virginia(1925–1931)U.S. Presidentfrom Massachusetts(1923–1929)U.S. Senatorfrom Ohio(1921–1928): 111 votes: Before 1st Ballot: 74 votes1,317,799 votes: 23 votes: 64 votes0 votes: 33 votes: 45 votes228,795 votes: 27 votes: 24 votes259,548 votes: 0 votes: 18 votes128,429 votes: 10 votes: 17 votes12,985 votes: March 3084,461 votes
With President Calvin Coolidge choosing not to seek re-election, the race for the nomination was wide open. The leading candidates were Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, former Illinois Governor Frank Orren Lowden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Curtis. A movement to draft Coolidge failed to gain traction with party insiders or even persuade Coolidge himself.
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 President Charles 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 the McNary–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.
The Republican Convention was held in Kansas 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". 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. Curtis was the first candidate of Native American ancestry nominated by a major party for national office.
In his memoirs, Hoover details his response upon hearing he was nominated:My whole life has taught me what America means. I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay. It conferred upon me the mission to administer America’s response to the appeal of afflicted nations during the war. It has called me into the cabinets of two Presidents. By these experiences I have observed the burdens and responsibilities of the greatest office in the world. That office touches the happiness of every home. It deals with the peace of nations. No man could think of it except in terms of solemn consecration.In a later more broadly circulated 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." That sentence would haunt Hoover during the Great Depression.
+The ballotingPresidential Ballot Vice Presidential BallotHerbert Hoover 837 Charles Curtis 1,052Frank Orren Lowden74 Herman Ekern 19Charles Curtis 64 Charles G. Dawes 13James Eli Watson 45 Hanford MacNider 2George W. Norris 24 Guy D. Goff 18 Calvin Coolidge 17 Charles G. Dawes 4 Charles Evans Hughes 1
Democratic Party nomination
1928 Democratic Party ticket for Presidentfor Vice President 42ndGovernor of New York(1919–1920 & 1923–1928) U.S. Senator from Arkansas(1913–1937)Campaign: 410 votes: 849.19 votes515,389 votes
Other candidates
Candidates in this section are sorted by their highest vote count on the nominating ballotCordell HullWalter F. GeorgeJames A. ReedAtlee PomereneJesse H. JonesEvans WoollenWilliam A. AyresCongressmanfrom Tennessee(1923–1931)U.S. Senatorfrom Georgia(1922–1957)U.S. Senatorfrom Missouri(1911–1929)U.S. Senatorfrom Ohio(1911–1923)Owner of the Houston Chroniclefrom TexasLawyer and bankerfrom IndianaCongressmanfrom Kansas(1923–1934): 24 votes: 71.84 votes0 votes: 28 votes: 52.5 votes0 votes: 36 votes: 52 votes207,799 votes: 47 votes: 47 votes13,957 votes: 0 votes: 43 votes0 votes: 30 votes: 32 votes146,934 votes: 20 votes: 20 votes0 votesPat HarrisonRichard C. WattsGilbert HitchcockEdwin T. MeredithHenry T. AllenAlbert RitchieThomas J. WalshU.S. Senatorfrom Mississippi(1919–1941)Chief Justiceof South Carolina(1927–1930)U.S. Senatorfrom Nebraska(1911–1923)U.S. Secretary of Agriculturefrom Iowa(1920–1921)Major Generalfrom KentuckyGovernorof Maryland(1920–1935)U.S. Senatorfrom Montana(1913–1933): 0 votes: 20 votes0 votes: 0 votes: 18 votes0 votes: 16 votes: 16 votes51,019 votes: 2 votes: 0 votes57 votes: 0 votes: 0 votes0 votes: 16 votes: June 180 votes: 0 votes: May 560,243 votes
Owing to the economic prosperity in the country and rapidly fading public memory of the Teapot Dome scandal, the Democratic Party's prospects looked dim. New York Governor Al Smith had previously made two attempts to secure the Democratic nomination.
The 1928 Democratic National Convention was held in Houston, Texas, on June 26 to 28, and Smith became the candidate on the first ballot.
The leadership asked the delegates to nominate Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson of Arkansas, in many ways Smith's political polar opposite, to be his running mate, and Robinson was nominated for vice-president.
Smith was the first Roman 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.
+The BallotingPresidential Ballot 1st Before Shifts 1st After Shifts Vice Presidential Ballot 1stAl Smith 724.67849.19 Joseph Taylor Robinson 1,035.17Cordell Hull 71.8450.84 Alben W. Barkley 77Walter F. George 52.552.5 Nellie Tayloe Ross 31James A. Reed 4852 Henry Tureman Allen 28Atlee Pomerene 473 George L. Berry 17.5Jesse H. Jones 4343 Dan Moody 9.33Evans Woollen 327 Duncan U. Fletcher 7Pat Harrison 208.5 John H. Taylor 6William A. Ayres 203 Lewis Stevenson 4Richard C. Watts 1818 Evans Woollen 2Gilbert Hitchcock 162 Joseph Patrick Tumulty 1A. Victor Donahey 55 Houston Thompson 22 Theodore G. Bilbo 01
Other candidates
Socialist Party
1928 Socialist Party ticket for Presidentfor Vice President Presbyterian Ministerfrom New York State Representativefrom Pennsylvania(1915–1919)
Held in the Finnish Socialist Hall in New York City, the eighth Socialist Party Convention met on April 13. James Maurer, a former State Representative, President of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor and then Councilman for the city of Reading, 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. 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.
Workers (Communist) Party 1928 Workers Party ticket for Presidentfor Vice President Chairman of the partyfrom Massachusetts State Assemblymanfrom New York(1918–1918)