AS GOES MAINE SO GOES VERMONT

JFK+50:  Volume 6, No. 2118

FDR WON SECOND TERM 80 YEARS AGO TODAY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 3, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in an electoral landslide of historic proportions 523-8. The Republican, Alf E. Landon of Kansas, carried only two states, Maine and Vermont.  Democrats corrupted the long standing GOP slogan "As goes Maine, so goes the Nation" to "As goes Maine, so goes Vermont."

The final popular vote totals in the Election of 1936 were...

FDR (D) 27,747,636 (60.8%)
AEL (R)  16,679,543 (36.5%)

On October 14, 1936, FDR, speaking in Chicago, said...

"...I have talked to farmers.  I have talked to miners.  I have talked to industrial workers; and in all that I have seen and heard, one fact has been clear as crystal--that they are part and parcel of a rounded whole, and that none of them can succeed in his chosen occupation if those in the other occupations fail in their prosperity."

In support of FDR's re-election, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. wrote...

"My faith in Roosevelt and my belief in the ultimate triumph and broad benefit of his principles is much affected by my position as a father of a large family.  Out of a chaotic condition...our nation has become...relatively prosperous and harmonious..."

SOURCES
"Election of 1936:  A Democratic Landslide," United States History, www.u-s-history.com/

"I'm For Roosevelt," by Joseph P. Kennedy, Reynal and Hitchcock, New York, 1936

Manchester Elm Street

Library of Congress Photo (1936)