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William E. Borah's 1936 Presidential Candidacy
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Edited | Chronicler Jun 29, 2024 06:00pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Chronicler |
| News Date | Saturday, June 29, 2024 11:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | William E. Borah was a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 1936. He was a controversial member of the US Senate at the time, without strong support from either of the party's two wings. In 1936, Borah was the longest serving Senator and was often referred to in newspapers as the Dean of the Senate. His supporters ran one of only two nationwide Republican primary campaigns, but he was defeated for nomination at the Republican National Convention.
Borah served in the US Senate from 1907 until his death in 1940. Always opinionated and loquacious, Borah frequently received scattered support either for vice president or president (1912 to 1940). In the 1920s, Borah began an independent voting pattern, sometimes supporting the progressive Republicans. He often clashed with President Coolidge, and in 1925 he had an illegitimate child with Alice Roosevelt Longworth. As a bone dry prohibitionist, Borah asked the Republican presidential contenders in 1928 about their position on prohibition. Late in the campaign, Borah convinced Hoover to call a special session of Congress to draft agricultural and tariff legislation. When the Smoot-Hawley Tariff came up for a final vote, Borah voted against it. He began to vote against Hoover's bills to combat the Depression, joining a group of Senators that came to be called the insurgents; Borah generally differed from the progressives in the group primarily due to his strong stand on prohibition. Like the insurgents, Borah was a strict isolationist and used his position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to lobby against the League of Nations and the International Court. Also like the insurgents, he often voted against bills that would boost the agricultural economy in the West. Once FDR became president, Borah sometimes supported New Deal legislation.
Borah Considers 1936 Candidacy
After passing on several earlier races, Borah's name was commonly raised as a potential Republican nominee in 1936 against FDR. The Republicans were divided between the conservatives who believed that Hoover went too far combatting the Depression and the progressives who often voted for New Deal policies. Like the Populists of the late nineteenth century, Borah favored inflationary policies, which he believed would promote the interests of farmers. A major issue throughout his presidential campaign was the fact that he was 70 years old, which many believed was too old to serve as president (South Bend Tribune, 9/1/1935). When the Republican National Committee met on September 25, 1935 for a routine business meeting, Borah took action to promote his reputation. He held a press conference in which he opposed an effort in the League of Nations to condemn Mussolini's actions in Ethiopia, saying that the US should stay out of it and allow Europe to solve its own problems (Ogden Standard-Examiner, 9/26/1935).
Borah's unannounced candidacy received a boost in late 1935. The Gallup organization polled a group of Republicans in November about their presidential preference. Landon placed first with 33%, followed by Borah with 26%, then Hoover (who had already stated he would not be a candidate) with 12% and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. also with 12% (Cincinnati Enquirer, 12/2/1935). By the end of 1935, Borah supporters around the nation had recruited 200 people to run as pledged delegates to the 1936 Republican National Convention (Racine Journal Times, 12/31/1935).
As the year 1936 dawned, Borah's supporters were working to get him on the presidential primary ballots. The state Republian chairman in Ohio, Ed D. Schorr, held a press conference to cover various topics, but the most newsworthy element came when he spoke against the effort to get Borah on the ballot. He and the state party sought to choose a slate of unpledged delegates to send to the RNC (Bowling Green Daily Sentinel-Tribune, 1/2/1936). On January 9, Borah supporters in Wisconsin incorporated a Borah for President Club, which would allow them to raise funds. They also filed the first complete slate of delegates for the Wisconsin presidential primary (Oshkosh Northwestern, 1/10/1936).
An important event for Borah came late in January. His supporters in New York state held a meeting in Brooklyn and invited Borah to attend. He gave a short speech that he was willing for them to continue their efforts, which was accepted as an acknowledgement that he would run (Hazleton Standard-Speaker, 1/29/1936). As part of his presentation, he decided against the Townsend Plan, a forerunner of Social Security, and Francis Townsend announced the same day that Borah would not have his support (Ventura County Star, 1/29/1936).
Borah Announces his Candidacy
The Borah announcement came in an oblique way. At that time, Ohio required the filing of a statement that petitions for national convention delegates needed the acquiescence of the presidential contender. During a phone call between Borah supporters in Akron and the Senator, Borah agreed to give his approval for their efforts, the equivalent of a national declaration. On hearing the news, Ohio supporters of Frank Knox reported they would also contest the May primary in Ohio (Akron Beacon Journal, 2/5/1936).
Soon after his announcement, Gallop polled Republicans again. The February 1936 poll showed a shift towards Landon, who led with 43%. Borah placed second with 28, followed by Hoover with 17 and Knox with 7% (Oakland Tribune, 2/23/1936). Once Borah changed his stand on the Townsend Plan, Dr. Townsend endorsed him (Bend [OR] Bulletin, 3/23/1936). Throughout March, Borah's supporters were working to get him on the ballot in presidential primary states, sometimes unsuccessfully (such as Ohio and California).
During April 1936, five Republican primaries were held. As the only candidate on the ballot, Borah easily carried Wisconsin on April 7. One week later, Illinois and Nebraska voted. Borah campaigned for three days in Illinois after the Wisconsin vote (Decatur [IL] Herald and Review, 4/5/1936). Illinois and Nebraska voted on April 14. In Illinois, where Borah faced off against Frank Knox, the newspaperman won his home state by a 54-46% margin. Borah was the only name on the Nebraska ballot, but a quarter of Republican voters wrote in Landon. Then Massachusetts and Pennsylvania voted on April 28. Borah was the only person on the ballot in Pennsylvania, and he received 92% of the vote. No names appeared on the ballot in Massachusetts, and Bay State Republicans embarrassed Borah; Landon won 80% of the write-ins, followed by Hoover with 8% and then Borah with 4%.
Six states held Republican presidential primaries in May 1936. California and South Dakota voted on May 5. Borah had failed to get on the ballot in California. In South Dakota, Borah faced off against favorite son Warren Green, who eked out a razor-thin win with 50.2%. Ohio and West Virginia voted on May 12. Borah failed to get on the presidential preference ballot in Ohio, although he placed third on write-in votes; his candidates for delegate were defeated by a 2:1 margin. Borah won five delegates; his candidates for delegate performed particularly poorly in Black precincts because he came out against a federal bill to outlaw lynching (Chicago Tribune, 5/14/1936). His former lover Alice Roosevelt Longworth was elected as a delegate on a slate committed to Robert Taft. In West Virginia, Borah received 85% of the vote against a nuisance candidate, but in the races for delegate, candidates pledged to Landon and Knox outperformed those pledged to Borah (York Daily Record, 5/15/1936). Oregon voted on May 15; Borah was the only candidate on the ballot and won 90% of the vote. In the final presidential primary of 1936, Landon and Borah faced off in New Jersey. Landon carried the state by the wide margin of 79-21%.
1936 Republican National Convention
By the end of the primary season, Borah recognized that he didn't have the delegates to in the presidential nomination. Just prior to the convention, he drafted four planks for the platform that he handed to the platform committee when he arrived in Cleveland on July 8 (Springfield News-Sun, 6/9/1936). After the compromise on the platform, Borah decided that he would not have his name presented to the convention. On the presidential roll call, he still received 18 votes from Wisconsin and one from West Virginia.
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