1928 U.S. presidential election

1928

Republican Herbert Hoover defeated Al Smith, the first Catholic nominee of a major party, in a contest shaped by Prohibition, prosperity and religious prejudice.

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The story

On November 6, 1928, Republican Herbert Hoover, the secretary of commerce and famed organizer of famine relief, defeated Democrat Al Smith, the governor of New York. Hoover won 444 electoral votes and 58.2 percent of the popular vote to Smith's 87 and 40.8 percent. Smith was the first Roman Catholic nominated for president by a major party, and he openly opposed Prohibition.

The economy was booming, and Hoover promised it would continue. Smith, a product of New York's immigrant neighborhoods, faced open anti-Catholic attacks and suspicion of his wet stance in the dry South and countryside. Hoover broke the Democratic Solid South, carrying Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. Yet Smith did unusually well in big cities among Catholic and immigrant voters, a shift that later formed part of Franklin Roosevelt's coalition. Less than a year after Hoover's inauguration, the stock market crashed.

Why it mattered

Hoover was in office when the 1929 crash began the Great Depression, which defined his presidency.
Smith's gains among urban immigrant voters became a building block of the New Deal coalition.
Anti-Catholic prejudice in 1928 shaped how John F. Kennedy addressed his religion in 1960.

Sources

United States presidential election of 1928 Britannica
1928 Electoral College Results National Archives

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At a glance

When: November 6, 1928
Where: United States (48 states)
Key people: Herbert Hoover (Republican, winner)
Al Smith (Democratic nominee)
Charles Curtis (vice president-elect)
Calvin Coolidge (outgoing president who chose not to run)

444 to 87electoral votes, Hoover over Smith

58.2%Hoover's share of the popular vote

422earlier events it rests on

19later events that depend on it