Landslide Win for FDR

Wednesday 4^th November 1936

As had been widely expected President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for a second term without difficulty. It was a definite personal endorsement of the man and his policy of the New Deal to combat the effects of the Great Slump. The only surprise lay in the crushing scale of his victory.

Early results showed him taking 46 out of 48 states, the greatest margin of any victory in more than a century. His opponent Alf Landon won only small states so Roosevelt’s margin in the electoral college was a huge 523 out of 531 votes. In the popular vote he polled half as many votes again as Landon. The Democrats did well in Congress albeit not as spectactularly. Perversely the solid Democrat majority was a mixed blessing. Party discipline was not strong and Roosevelt would face as much opposition from his own ranks as from the Republicans. It was on foreign policy that he had to move most cautiously.