Smith W. Brookhart - After His Defeat

After His Defeat

After his 1932 defeat, Brookhart was a special advisor to the federal government on Soviet trade, until he resigned in 1935 and returned to Iowa. In this role, he was an early advocate for United States recognition of the Soviet Union.

Upon his return to Iowa, Brookhart made a final attempt to return to the Senate. He joined an already-crowded field of candidates for the Republican nomination for Senate in 1936, but finished a distant second to incumbent L. J. Dickinson. He then announced a plan to unite diverse progressive elements under a new banner, declined an opportunity to run for the Senate under a Farmer-Labor Party nomination, and endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 re-election.

After the 1936 election, Brookhart opened a law office in Washington, D. C., and remained there until 1943, when he went to Arizona for his health. He died in Prescott, Arizona, on November 15, 1944.

One of his sons, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Smith W. Brookhart Jr., served as an assistant trial counsel for the prosecution at the Nuremberg War Trials.