"A New Deal for the American people:" The 1932 election

The Great Depression had struck many Americans hard, and the incumbent Herbert Hoover was going to have a hard time convincing the American people that he should remain in office. Some events near the end of Hoover's term had drawn strong criticism, such as the fiasco with the Bonus Army in D.C. in 1931. Heading into election season in the summer of 1932, Hoover campaigned for re-election, hoping to finish out another term, although it was possible to assume Hoover ran out of honor and dignity for himself instead of allowing Republicans to nominate someone else. For the Democrats, they knew they had a good chance at winning the White House back, and turning to NY governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, their strategy worked. Roosevelt was popular with Americans and not tied in to anything dealing with Hoover. On election day, Roosevelt and his running mate, John N. Garner, won in a landslide, one of the worst popular vote defeats for an incumbent in history. Roosevelt promised a "New Deal" during his inaugural speech, and in the first few months in 1933, introduced many programs to try to jump start the economy and employ the near 25% of the workforce currently in unemployment lines. Roosevelt's policies had mixed results, and all the government programs did not work as well as many thought, as unemployment would largely remain the same until the start of World War II. F.D.R. was very popular though, and in every election that he was in after this would win by large margins. Roosevelt brought hope for many Americans, and people believed the country was on the right path. As for campaign items, many Hoover items are more rare, since it was highly thought there was no chance of him winning re-election. For buttons, it's hard to distinguish which election they are from because he ran again in 1932 with the same VP nominee, Charles Curtis, and many jugate buttons are from the 1928 election. There are items titled "Keep Him on the Job" and so forth, but there are not lots of Hoover items from this election. Roosevelt items are more popular, especially single picture buttons and paper items. Any button showing both Roosevelt and Garner are more rare and often worth hundreds of dollars. Some of the items I have pictured include a re-elect Hoover poster, a Roosevelt inauguration program from 1933, and a Roosevelt button, although this could be from another election.