Contested Conventions
This year, we may see a contested Democratic National Convention where the party’s Presidential nominee is unknown before the convention. Below, we’ll look at the history of contested Presidential nominating conventions.
Presidential Selection Process
Both parties nominate their Presidential candidate at a national convention held the summer before the election. There were no Presidential primaries until the early 1900s. Before that time, party bosses and leaders selected the convention delegates. Conventions could take many ballots to coalesce around a candidate. For example, in 1880, the leading candidates for the Republican nomination were former President Grant, Senator James Blaine from Maine, and Senator John Sherman from Ohio. Through the first 35 ballots(!) over several days, Grant received a plurality but not a majority of the delegate votes. On the 36th ballot, Blaine and Sherman told their delegates to vote for a compromise candidate, James Garfield of Ohio, who was nominated and went on to win the 1880 election.
Presidential primaries originated as reformers wanted to evaluate candidates’ popular opinion instead of political bosses’ opinion. By 1912, thirteen states had primaries. Extending primaries to all the states did not occur until the 1970’s.
1912
Republican Convention – William Howard Taft versus Teddy Roosevelt
Roosevelt won 9 out of the 13 primary elections. With the remaining states still selecting delegates through political caucuses and local conventions, Roosevelt lacked the necessary votes to win the nomination. A bitter fight erupted between Taft and Roosevelt as they lobbied the other delegates. Taft won most of those uncommitted delegates, winning the nomination. Because Roosevelt felt that party bosses had unfairly delivered delegates to Taft, he left the Republican party, forming a third party (the ‘bull moose party’).
Democratic Convention – Woodrow Wilson versus James Clark
House speaker Clark entered the convention with more delegates than Wilson, having won most of the primaries. As with the Republican Party, the primaries did not deliver enough delegates to win the nomination. At the convention, it took 46(!) ballots over several days to select Woodrow Wilson. Behind-the-scenes lobbying by various politicians, including former Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, eventually delivered the nomination to Wilson.
Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican vote in the 1912 election, delivering the Presidency to Woodrow Wilson.
1920
Republican Convention – Warren Harding versus Several Candidates
Several candidates, including General Leonard Wood, Illinois governor Frank Lowdon, and California Senator Hiram Johnson, expressed interest in the nomination. The party was split between conservative and progressive wings, and, on the 10th ballot, the delegates selected Warren Harding, a moderate acceptable to both sides of the party.
Democratic Convention – Many Candidates nominated
Outgoing President Wilson declined to endorse a candidate, and the primaries were inconclusive. As the voting started at the convention, four leaders emerged: Former Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo (son-in-law to President Woodrow Wilson), Incumbent Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, and Ohio Governor James M. Cox. Eventually, the convention selected Cox on the 44th ballot. Most people have forgotten James Cox but recognize the 1920 Democratic VP candidate – Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Harding won the 1920 Presidential election by one of the largest landslides in our history.
1924 Democratic Convention – A Melee
The Republicans had already selected President Calvin Coolidge to run for re-election when the Democrats met. This convention holds the record for the longest-running convention (over two weeks) and most ballots (103).
The party was split between supporters and opponents of prohibition and followers and opponents of the Ku Klux Klan, which was popular with Southern Democrats. Over ten candidates were nominated, each requiring a nominating speech and a speech seconding the nomination. Several days were spent The debate over the party too several days. By a narrow margin, they condemned bigotry, but not the KKK.
Senator McAdoo (son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson) and Al Smith (Governor of New York) were the leading candidates, but neither was close to winning the nomination. Over ten other candidates received votes at some point during the process. Neither candidate was willing to give up and direct their delegates to another candidate. Lawyer and politician John Davis from West Virginia finished third in most ballots.
Finally, after 100 ballots, both McAdoo and Smith released their delegates, and they selected John Davis, a compromise candidate.
In the 1924 election, the Democratic nominee, Davis, was crushed by Republican Calvin Coolidge.
1952
Republican Convention – Dwight David Eisenhower Versus Robert Taft
Popular general Eisenhower faced conservative Senator Taft of Ohio (the son of former President William Howard Taft). Each won five presidential primaries before the convention, leaving neither party with enough votes for the nomination. At the convention, minor candidates Earl Warren of California and Harold Stassen of Minnesota released their delegates to Eisenhower, giving him enough votes for the nomination on the first ballot.
Democratic Convention – Several Candidates
Incumbent President Harry S. Truman was unpopular as his term was ending. He declined to campaign for re-election after losing the New Hampshire primary to Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee. Kefavuer went on to win 11 of the 12 remaining primaries. However, most states still chose their delegates at the Democratic Convention via state conventions, which meant that the party bosses - especially the mayors and governors of large Northern and Midwestern states and cities- chose them. Hence, Kefavuer went into the convention with the most delegates but not enough to win the nomination.
Kefavuer was not popular with the party elite, who were looking for another candidate. Adlai Stevenson II, governor of Illinois, was considered a political moderate acceptable to most of the party and was nominated. Kefavuer received the most votes on the first and second ballots, but support gravitated to Stevenson, who won on the third ballot.
Eisenhower defeated Stevenson by a significant margin in the 1952 election and easily won the 1956 re-match.
1976
Republican Convention – Ronald Reagan Versus Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford assumed the Presidency in 1974 following Richard Nixon’s resignation. He sought the Presidency in 1976, opposed by former California governor Ronald Reagan. The two candidates split the delegates selected through primaries, leaving Ford with a narrow lead, but not enough to win the nomination. Both candidates lobbied the few remaining uncommitted delegates – they went for Ford, giving him the nomination on the first ballot by a small margin.
Ford lost a close election to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Reagan went on to win the Presidency in 1980 and re-election in 1984, both by among the largest margins in our history.
1968 Convention and subsequent reforms
1968 Protests
The 1968 Democratic Presidential nominating process was chaotic and controversial. Presidential Lyndon B. Johnson(LBJ) barely defeated Senator Eugene McCarthy in the first Presidential primary of the year - New Hampshire. This led to LBJ withdrawing his name from consideration. Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), the younger brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, then entered the race.
McCarthy and Kennedy split 11 primaries. Vice President Hubert Horatio Humphrey (HHH) did not participate in these primaries. In June, RJK narrowly won the California primary over McCarthy but was assassinated during his victory speech.
Using delegates won through party bosses and party conventions, the party awarded HHH the Presidential nomination, while violent anti-war protests occurred outside the convention center.
Humphrey lost a close election to Richard Nixon in a race that included third-party candidate George Wallace.
Party leaders realized that nominating HHH, who had not entered the primaries, was undemocratic and did not reflect the will of the voters. They created a commission led by Senator George McGovern and Representative Donald Fraser (the ‘McGovern–Fraser Commission’). The commission recommended changes in the nominating process. This commission’s recommendations resulted in most states holding Presidential primaries. It may be coincidental, but George McGovern won the 1972 nomination, the first held under these new rules.
Superdelegates
In 1982, the Democratic Party created ‘superdelegates,’ party officials who were to participate in the Presidential Convention, free to ‘vote their conscience.’ The purpose was to allow party leaders a say in the process. Democratic superdelegates represented about 15% of the convention delegates. In 1984, Walter Mondale needed the superdelegate votes to be nominated as the Democratic Presidential candidate. And in 2016, Hillary Clinton also needed superdelegate votes to clinch the nomination against Bernie Sanders. In response to Bernie Sanders’s and his supporters’ complaints, the Democratic party modified the rules – Superdelegates can only vote if there is a contested convention.
The Republican Party differs from the Democrats – they only have a small number of super delegates.
2024
The Presidential nominees have already been selected before every convention since 1976. With Presidential Biden’s recent withdrawal from the race, the 2024 Democratic Convention could convene without a nominee, a contested convention, although Kamala Harris is the current favorite. For that matter, the Republican convention could also have been contested had the assassin succeeded in killing Donald Trump.