5th Term
Finally, following another two years of fighting tooth-and-nail against most New Deal legislation, the Republican Party had what it thought was a chance to recapture the presidency with the nomination of Governor Alf Landon of Kansas. Based on progress towards easing the wretched conditions of the citizens, President Roosevelt was enthusiastically renominated by his party and an energetic election ensued. Politicians in Delaware County were also caught up in the excitement at a pre-election rally, with War Board chairman and state Senator McClure stating: "I doubt his sincerity" in describing President Roosevelt's efforts to improve the economy. Congressman Wolfenden, in a more expressive mode, said: "What we need to save America is for the GOP to elect Landon and John McClure." In what appears to be a tribute towards working class women, he further elaborated: "I am for the Republican ticket from Landon down to the scrub woman, if there was a scrub woman on it."
Although FDR did not carry the county, he made an impressive showing of 65,117 votes to Landon's 74,899, in the official count. The Democrats did carry the City of Chester, 11,600 to 10,500, in a stunning rebuke to the McClure Machine.
Roosevelt carried the blue collar/working class towns of Aston, Chester Twp., Lower and Upper Chichester, Clifton Heights, Collingdale, Colwyn, Darby Boro, Darby Township., Eddystone, Marcus Hook, Parkside, Ridley Twp., Trainer and Tinicum, while Landon drew his strength from the more rural or upper middle class areas of the Marple, Newtown, Radnor, Springfield and Upper Darby. Wolfenden was reelected by an uncomfortably close margin, officially tallying 73,335 (52.6%) to Howard Kirk's 66,119 (47.4%). Wolfenden's popularity evidently was ebbing, as his opponent ran about 1,000 votes ahead of the President, and the congressman some 1,500 votes behind Governor Landon. By 1936, with the general popularity of the New Deal, Democratic registration in the county had surged to a high of 37,000 and the GOP outnumbered them by only 3.4 to one. However, this would only be temporary, and the Democrats would not have as many registered voters again until another twenty years later.
Nationally, the FDR juggernaut swept Landon aside with 60.7% of the vote and the Democrats took an additional eleven House seats from the GOP and now held a whopping 333 to 89 majority, with thirteen third party members. They commanded the Senate by over four to one, 75 to 17, with four elected from other parties.
This would be the Democrats greatest triumph in history and would mark the high-water mark of their national power. In spite of concerted and sometimes vicious attacks from the Republicans, the New Deal and the hope that it provided, had been decisively and overwhelmingly ratified by the working class, poor, elderly, blacks, and middle class across the nation.
Read more about this topic: James Wolfenden
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