A former Governor of New York who had easily carried the state four years earlier, Franklin Roosevelt won New York State in 1936 by an even more decisive margin. Roosevelt took 58.85% of the vote versus Alf Landon's 38.97%, a margin of 19.88%. Despite being Roosevelt's home state, in the context of the 1936 nationwide Democratic landslide, New York weighed in for this election as 4% more Republican than the national average,[2] although FDR won the state by nearly 20 points.
Roosevelt won his home state by means of a dominance of the massively populated New York City area, performing even more strongly than he had in 1932. Roosevelt took over 70% of the vote in the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx, and took over 60% of the vote in Queens and Staten Island. For the era, this was an historically overwhelming victory for a Democratic presidential candidate in the five boroughs of New York City, and enough to easily secure a statewide win for Roosevelt. The emergence of the New Deal Coalition was at its peak in 1936,[3] and made American cities with their powerful political machines core bases of support for the Democratic Party.[4] The Great Depression had accelerated the process of urbanization of the Democratic Party which had begun with the election of 1928. Roosevelt's landslide win in New York City was a fruit born by this process, and over the whole nation, he achieved majorities in the largest cities totaling twice what Harding had achieved in 1920.[5] FDR's 1936 victory in New York State would also be the strongest statewide Democratic performance ever in terms of both margin and vote share until 1964.[2]
Results
1936 United States presidential election in New York
In upstate New York, Roosevelt's support was mostly concentrated in the cities. Roosevelt again carried Albany County, home to the state capital of Albany, which since 1928 had become a Democratic stronghold of a city. Nearby Schenectady and Montgomery counties went Democratic as well. Montgomery County had not voted Democratic since 1876. 1936 also saw FDR flip Erie County into the Democratic column, home to the city of Buffalo in western New York, which up to that point was a Republican county that had even held for Herbert Hoover in 1932. Finally flipping in 1936, Buffalo has largely remained a loyal Democratic bastion ever since. Monroe County, home to the city of Rochester, also swung from voting for Hoover in 1932 to Roosevelt in 1936. Roosevelt's other wins in the state were pluralities in Rockland County and Sullivan County.
However, much of rural upstate New York remained one of the most loyally Republican regions in the nation throughout the FDR era, which many locals attributed to the fact that New Dealpublic works had barely affected these regions.[7] Going against the trend of both the state and the nation, FDR lost Franklin County to Landon in northern New York, a county which FDR had won in 1932 and which was even won by Al Smith in 1928, leaving Clinton County as the sole Democratic win in the North Country region of the state in 1936. Roosevelt also lost Rensselaer County to Landon in the Capital District, despite Roosevelt having won Rensselaer in 1932 and Smith winning there in 1928.
The rural Midwest, rural upstate New York and Unionist parts of Appalachia have been the consistent bastions of the Republican Party since the Civil War. 1936 was the third and final election in a row in which Democrats had won all five boroughs of New York City. This was the last election in which Democrats won the boroughs of Queens until 1960, and Staten Island or simultaneously carried all five boroughs of New York City until 1964.
↑Davin, Eric Leif; Crucible of Freedom: Workers' Democracy in the Industrial Heartland, 1914–1960, p. 268 ISBN0739122398
↑Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives (1979), p. 114
↑Heale, Michael; The United States in the Long Twentieth Century: Politics and Society since 1900, p. 77 ISBN1472511565
↑New York, ‘Vote, New York State, By Counties, November 3, 1936 For Highest Elector for President and Vice President,’ The New York Red Book 1937 (Albany, 1937)
↑Sheppard, Si; The buying of the presidency?: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the New Deal, and the election of 1936 pp. 207, 216-217 ISBN1440831068
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