1928 Democratic National Convention
The 1928 Democratic National Convention was held at Sam Houston Hall in Houston, Texas, June 26-28, 1928. Keynote speaker was Claude G. Bowers. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for president and Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas for vice president.
The convention was the first held by either party in the South since the Civil War. It was also the first to nominate a Roman Catholic for president, Al Smith. The Texas delegation, led by Governor Dan Moody, was vehemently opposed to Smith. Therefore, when Smith was nominated, they rallied against his anti-prohibition sentiment by fighting for a "dry", prohibitionist platform. Ultimately, the convention pledged "honest enforcement of the Constitution".
Smith became the first Democrat since Reconstruction to lose more than one southern state in the general election, due to his "wet" stance, his opposition to the Ku Klux Klan, and his Catholicism.Candidates for the nomination before and during the convention
- William A. Ayres, U.S. representative from Kansas
- Theodore G. Bilbo, U.S. senator from Mississippi
- A. Victor Donahey, Governor of Ohio
- Walter F. George, U.S. senator from Georgia
- Pat Harrison, U.S. senator from Mississippi
- James T. Heflin, U.S. senator from Alabama
- Gilbert M. Hitchcock, former U.S. senator from Nebraska
- Cordell Hull, U.S. representative from Tennessee
- Jesse H. Jones, businessman from Texas
- William G. McAdoo, former Treasury Secretary from California
- Edwin T. Meredith, former Agriculture Secretary from Indiana
- Atlee Pomerene, former U.S. senator from Ohio
- Henry T. Rainey, U.S. representative from Illinois
- James A. Reed, U.S. senator from Missouri
- Al Smith, Governor of New York
- Thomas J. Walsh, U.S. senator from Montana
- Richard C. Watts, Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court
- Evans Woollen, football coach from Indiana
Joseph T. Robinson was chosen as the vice presidential nominee. Among the candidates for nomination were:
- Joseph T. Robinson, Senate Minority Leader from Arkansas
- Henry T. Allen, retired U.S. Army major general from Kentucky
- Alben W. Barkley, U.S. senator from Kentucky
- Lewis Stevenson, son of former Vice President Adlai Stevenson I from Illinois
- George L. Berry, Newspaper owner and publisher from Tennessee
- Gilbert Hitchcock, former Senator from Nebraska
- Joseph Reed, Senator from Missouri
- Atlee Pomerene former Senator from Ohio
- Evans Woollen, Bank founder, lawyer - Indiana
- Cordell Hull, Congressman from Tennessee
- Duncan U. Fletcher, U.S. senator from Florida
- Daniel Moody, Governor of Texas
- Nellie Davis Tayloe Ross, former Governor of Wyoming
- John H. Taylor
- Joseph P. Tumulty, delegate and former personal secretary to the president from New Jersey
