The Largest Landslide in History: The 1936 election

Many of the citizens of the United States of America were still in a depression in 1936, and although the New Deal policies were working for some people, the overall unemployment rate was high. As for the election season, Republicans met and Kansas governor Alf Landon won the nomination, while Frank Knox was nominated as vice-president. Landon really had nothing to run on to defeat Roosevelt, as FDR remained highly popular among Americans. Roosevelt won unanimous re-nomination, along with John Garner for VP. On election day, Roosevelt won 46 out of the 48 states, all but Maine and Vermont. He won almost 61% of the popular vote, and remains in the top three of all landslide elections in history, along with 1964 and 1984. Some magazines, like Literary Digest, did a poll and predicted Landon would win, greatly embarrassing the magazine after election day. Roosevelt's second term involved more of the New Deal attempts to try to get the economy flowing again. Also, in 1937, Inauguration Day was moved to January 20 instead of March 4. Near the end of Roosevelt's second term, Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War II. America started the Lend-Lease program with Britain and Russia, supporting them with arms in the fight against Hitler. There was a popular isolationist movement in America during this time, headed by such famous people as Charles Lindbergh. It appeared for a while the isolationist and anti-war crowd would get there way, until Pearl Harbor. Campaign items from this election are very common and often less than $10, especially the Landon word pins. Lots of buttons reference sunflowers, since Landon was from Kansas. Some jugate Landon buttons are more rare, but there are a few common examples. As for Roosevelt, many single picture pins are affordable from this election, and so are some paper items. The items I have pictured include a Landon poster, a group of Landon buttons, and a group of Roosevelt buttons. Some FDR items are hard to tell which election it's from since he ran with John Garner in 1932 and 1936.