Distribution of votes in the 1932 US presidential election

The US presidential election of 1932 was contested between incumbent President Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt of the Democratic Party. The election took place during the Great Depression, and although Hoover's administration presided over the outbreak of the depression, he received little competition for his party's nomination. Roosevelt was the overwhelming favorite to receive the Democratic nomination, however was not officially nominated until the fourth ballot of the convention.

Republican decline

The Republican Party had won 14 out of 18 elections since Lincoln's victory in 1860, and they oversaw a decade of significant prosperity in the 1920s, however the effects of the Wall Street Crash in October 1929 led to economic downturn and the breakdown of Republican leadership. Much of Roosevelt's campaign was based on highlighting the failures of Hoover's administration in the wake of the depression, as well as promising to repeal Prohibition, which was becoming increasingly unpopular (Democrats also argued that the taxation of alcohol sales would aid in economic recovery). Many prominent Republicans were openly critical of Hoover's leadership, with some going as far as supporting the opposite party, while the Democrats were more united and organized than they had been in decades.

Results

Following one of the most decisive victories in US presidential election history in 1928, Hoover was then on the receiving end of the largest swings in US history, losing 34 of the forty states he won in his previous election. Roosevelt won in a landslide, taking over 57 percent of the popular vote, and almost 89 percent of the electoral vote. Hoover's share of the popular vote was just forty percent, which gave him just 11 percent of the electoral vote, and this was eighteen percent fewer popular votes and 73 percent fewer electoral votes than in 1928. The third party candidate with the most votes was Norman Thomas of the Socialist Party, who received 2.2 percent of the popular vote. Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States in March 1933, and would win the next three elections, making him the only US president to spend more than two terms in the white house.