Voting Deliberatively: FDR and the 1936 Presidential Campaign by Mary E. Stuckey (review)

Mary Stuckey has produced another great book on Franklin D. Roosevelt, this time focusing on his 1936 presidential campaign for reelection and presenting a detailed account of the campaign with an effective discussion of all its variables. She provides setting and context in assessing the challenges Roosevelt faced in campaigning for a second term, the outcome of which was anything but certain. With continued economic diffıculties, a problematic domestic agenda, and the perception of an ineffective foreign policy, Republicans saw an opportunity to return to the White House. Stuckey enumerates the steps Roosevelt took to form a network of supporters who collectively secured a historic reelection campaign. The book includes four chapters, in addition to an introduction and a conclusion. Each chapter tackles a different segment of the campaign: creating a public opinion that relied on new “scientifıc” polling tools; empowering the public such that the president became the central feature of the campaign; expanding the political base and mobilizing voters by adding special constituent groups; and speaking for the public that in turn empowered the president.

While publicly Roosevelt acted as if he did not care to campaign and offıcially entered the contest as late as early fall 1936, behind the scenes he took an active role in forging new approaches to running for offıce. The campaign relied on key operatives such as James Farley and Emil Hurja, whose vast correspondence and “tracking poll” invention, respectively, provided state-of-the-art information and polling material and a continued picture of the campaign’s movement and successes. Farley’s vast correspondence afforded intricate information and summaries of opinions that helped FDR shape his campaign rhetoric. Roosevelt benefıtted from campaign insights not available to candidates before. Hence, he could calibrate his moves, including his rhetoric, and engage “in multilayered ways of connecting to the public, understanding its vagaries, and orchestrating communicative campaigns designed to influence and educate it” (27). He successfully increased the importance of extrapartisan groups by segmenting them based on specifıc interests. This move secured the votes of key constituents such as women, labor, minority ethnic groups, and, importantly, African Americans, who, for a long time, retained their loyalty to Lincoln’s party.

Republicans had plenty of material to mount an effective campaign, but they failed due to several factors, including the perception that they were beholden to greedy interests and that they did not care for the many who were still suffering due to the Great Depression. In addition, Alf Landon’s mildness and overall unimpressive candidacy was simply no match for Roosevelt, the consummate politician and political tactician. The New Deal was a central focus of the campaign, with Roosevelt able to tout his support of the downtrodden and the need for government help. When Roosevelt fınally entered the campaign, he resorted to tough speeches that ridiculed Republicans and their selfısh interests. Reminiscent of his fırst presidential campaign, the president focused on clear lines of demarcation between the two parties and their respective lines of reasoning. As in previous speeches during his fırst term, Roosevelt expressed his rather mild, if not altogether conservative, policies with antagonistic and divisive rhetorical flourishes. This was vintage Roosevelt, who did the same in attacking bankers for causing the Great Depression in his Fırst Inaugural Address, yet proposed policies that were altogether not antagonistic to banks, whose help he desperately needed. The campaign of 1936 was an impressive success, ratifying the New Deal coalition and generating the strong support of the urban northeast coalition that included Jews, Catholics, African Americans, and Southern Democrats. The Republican Party was badly damaged, though it outspent Democrats by more than 3 million dollars, an astounding fıgure then.

Stuckey’s research is original, relying on primary sources and culling insights that are sure to add to our overall understanding of this particular campaign and its innovative ideas and...