1936: FDR vs. Landon vs. Huey Long

[Bo]

Long is not assasinted. He runs for President as an Independent on a "Share Our Wealth" platform. Everything else stays the same. You pick the VPs. Discuss, with maps.

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

I'm not sure Long would win any states, but he'd win a lot of votes in the South.

I feel like I've done this before.

[Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey]

With Landon's impotent campaigning style (i.e. Landon wouldn't campaign), FDR would still win a massive victory.

[President Mitt]

I think everybody is underestimating Huey Long. Long at the time was massively popular. Rooevelt's New Deal was not offering the relief required by America's poor. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Huey Long won the whole thing in 1936. At the very least, he would have split the Democratic vote and handed it to Landon.

Much of the poor still had not felt relief even after President Roosevelt took office, and they felt that he was not living up to his promises. They were rather attracted to Huey Long's Share Our Wealth program, which would have provided relief to the impoverished at the expense of the rich, who was widely held with contempt. Huey Long's program attracted nearly three million followers, and was most definitely willing to vote for Huey Long for President, which was Long's ultimate goal. 

Think about it, if Long wasn't a valid threat, nobody would have tried to assassinate him, and Roosevelt wouldn't have attempted to dig up dirt on him. If Roosevelt hadn't feared Long and Share Our Wealth, we wouldn't have Social Security for instance, which wasn't Roosevelt's idea. You have to understand the contempt being held at the rich during this time period. Long offered to smite the rich, and help the needy.

[Dancing with Myself]

I think everybody is underestimating Huey Long. Long at the time was massively popular. Rooevelt's New Deal was not offering the relief required by America's poor. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Huey Long won the whole thing in 1936. At the very least, he would have split the Democratic vote and handed it to Landon.

Much of the poor still had not felt relief even after President Roosevelt took office, and they felt that he was not living up to his promises. They were rather attracted to Huey Long's Share Our Wealth program, which would have provided relief to the impoverished at the expense of the rich, who was widely held with contempt. Huey Long's program attracted nearly three million followers, and was most definitely willing to vote for Huey Long for President, which was Long's ultimate goal. 

Think about it, if Long wasn't a valid threat, nobody would have tried to assassinate him, and Roosevelt wouldn't have attempted to dig up dirt on him. If Roosevelt hadn't feared Long and Share Our Wealth, we wouldn't have Social Security for instance, which wasn't Roosevelt's idea. You have to understand the contempt being held at the rich during this time period. Long offered to smite the rich, and help the needy.

Agreed. Roosevelt was afraid for his career in 36 cause it looked like Long was going to challenge him or run as a third party. After Long was killed FDR won in a earthslide thanks to having a lazy opponent.

I think it would have been a battle between Long and Roosevelt with Landon wining the two states he did win. I could actually see Long winning most and the south, and throwing it in the house with the Reps voting for Long. Long might have won had he lived.

[Bo]

FDR-43%
Landon-36%
Long-19%
Other-2%

[Dancing with Myself]

FDR-43%
Landon-36%
Long-19%
Other-2%

I don't think Landon would have done so well

[Bo]

FDR-43%
Landon-36%
Long-19%
Other-2%

I don't think Landon would have done so well

He wouldn't have PV-wise. It's just that Long might have took away enough votes from FDR in several states and give them to Landon.

[JRP1994]

I was about to post this same question, then did a search and found out that someone else had raised the same scenario. So, I revive it. What say you? How would it have turned out?

[MadmanMotley]

I had at one point written a TL where this happened and Landon became president. I could post it if anyone is interested.

[Miles]

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Applied a CPI conversion for the present. It's amazing how left-wing it is compared to our right-wing politicians today. There's not a chance that Bernie Sanders would touch this platform with a 10 foot pole.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[tarheel-leftist85]

Huey, of course.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Long's influence in his home state allows him a win in Louisiana, though some in his party prefer to stay with Roosevelt.  In other Deep South states, and in VA, Long does have a measure of success, gaining 10-20% of the vote, and beating out Landon for 2nd place, but anything more there is prevented by voting restrictions which affect not only blacks but many poor whites as well. Long has more success in less restrictive Southern states such as NC, where he is competitive with Roosevelt though not triumphant.
While Long finds some support in the North (though very little in New England), his greatest impact comes in the Upper Midwest, and some parts of the West. This is thanks to traditions of populism, and the reputation of his running mate Republican Sen. Borah of Idaho, combined with a major drought in the affecting the Plains, intensifying the desperate poverty of the Great Depression.
In the end a plurality of voters stick with Roosevelt, heeding his call to let him finish the work of his New Deal, but Long gives the Democrats a great deal of worry, while also peeling away some traditionally Republican voters.

FDR (D-NY) / Garner (D-MO)      45.4%   492   
Landon (R-KS) / Knox (R-IL)      33.0%     21   
Long (D-LA) / Borah (R-ID)        21.1%     18
others                                        0.5%

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

I read somewhere...I think it was T. Harry Williams' biography that Long intended to run someone else as a third-party candidate in 1936 and throw the election to the Republicans. Then he would run as a Democrat in 1940 against the incumbent Republican, who, he presumed, would botch the recovery.

[Türkisblau]

I read somewhere...I think it was T. Harry Williams' biography that Long intended to run someone else as a third-party candidate in 1936 and throw the election to the Republicans. Then he would run as a Democrat in 1940 against the incumbent Republican, who, he presumed, would botch the recovery.

This. Long was only intending on campaigning for the 1936 nominee and not run, by all accounts.

[Skill and Chance]

Applied a CPI conversion for the present. It's amazing how left-wing it is compared to our right-wing politicians today. There's not a chance that Bernie Sanders would touch this platform with a 10 foot pole.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Well, the first 4 provisions relating to guaranteed incomes with no special circumstances to qualify and personal wealth caps are extreme left relative to modern America (or really any other time than 1932-38), but the rest of the platform looks like Obama 2012 on economics.

[TNF]

Long didn't really intend on running in 1936. So he'd probably back William E. Borah - Burton K. Wheeler in '36 (which would probably get a solid ~25% or so of the vote and a few electoral college votes), wouldn't flip the Presidency to Landon like Long wanted, and force Long to wait until 1940 to attempt to nab the Democratic nomination from Roosevelt.

Long runs as the isolationist progressive against Roosevelt in the run up to the convention that year, but Roosevelt pulls the east and South against him, limiting his appeal to the disgruntled Midwest and plains states. Roosevelt wins re-nomination, Long throws a hissyfit but stays put, biding his time. Unfortunately for him 1944 is a bad year, so he sits that one out too. By the time 1948 rolls around, the country is hurtling toward Cold War with the USSR, which Long, the isolationist, rejects. He becomes something of a Bob Taft within the Democratic Party, railing against the 'Wall Streeters' running the Truman administration and pushing the US toward a permanent war economy, etc.

Probably sits around in the Senate long enough to get tossed out by a segregationist or willingly retires to prevent himself getting tossed out by a segregationist. In the 60s, he might become a kind of cult-figure for the antiwar left, being remembered as the guy who 'stood up to Roosevelt' on domestic and foreign policy.

Or of course, he could lose to Roosevelt in 1940 and take the opposite tack, going full throated segregationist Cold Warrior like other Southern liberals turned reactionaries: Strom Thurmond, Orval Faubus, George Wallace, etc