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80th Anniversary of Hoover's Election

Matt Nelson, Iowa City Photographer

By Matt Nelson

Story Created: Nov 6, 2008 at 6:13 PM CST

Story Updated: Nov 7, 2008 at 11:37 AM CST

One of the most significant elections in Iowa history took place 80 years ago.

Voters had a choice between New York Democrat Al Smith, and a Republican born in West Branch.

Herbert Hoover was elected November 6, 1928 in what was then the largest landslide in American political history.

Hoover Library and Museum Director Tim Walch says It was the first campaign that utilized radio and that neither candidate, Hoover, or Smith were particularly gifted at public speaking. It was pretty much a likely expectation that Hoover was going to win election.

Hoover was in California on November 6, 1928, and received word by telephone that he had won the election.

Walch notes, "People had high expectations for this man from Iowa who had been Secretary of Commerce for eight years. Everyone had reason to believe that things were going to go just fine and that the economy would continue to grow."

However, In the depths of the Great Depression Hoover lost a landslide election in 1932 to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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