1936
Franklin D. Roosevelt and the 1936 map
Roosevelt won the greatest Electoral College landslide of the 20th century, carrying 46 of 48 states against Kansas Governor Alf Landon. FDR's New Deal coalition was at its peak, with massive support from labor, ethnic communities, and the poor. The Literary Digest's infamous poll had wrongly predicted a Landon victory, based on a biased sample of telephone and automobile owners (the affluent), leading to the poll's demise and the rise of scientific polling. Only Maine and Vermont voted for Landon.
New Deal defense; Supreme Court battles; economic recovery
Greatest 20th-century EC landslide; only Maine and Vermont voted Republican; Literary Digest poll famously wrong
States · 48 reporting
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David M. Kennedy
Pulitzer-winning history of the Depression and WWII.
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Volume 3 of the LBJ biography.
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