Frank Gannett - Part in Polictics

Part in Polictics

Throughout his life, Gannett was active in politics. A majority of Gannett's newspapers were in solid Republican territory, though he never pushed his political pronouncements onto his papers. Gannett would always send his pronouncements to his editors with a note, "For your information and use, if desired," and editors were free to ignore them. Gannett backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his early years of presidency but by 1940 withdrew his support, denouncing the president as an "isolationist." Frank, amongst others, took a neutral stand to the New Deal in 1936. Before long he also opposing President Roosevelt's court-packing scheme of 1937. Frank Gannett briefly ran for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination, but lost to Wendell Willkie. He was a founding member of the National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government.