S8 Ep1119: The Selection of Alf Landon and the Republican Field Guest: David Pietrusza Book Title: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal The Republican Party in 1936 struggled to find a viable candidate to face Roosevelt'
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 12 July 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
The Selection of Alf Landon and the Republican Field Guest: David Pietrusza Book Title: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR's 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal The Republican Party in 1936 struggled to find a viable candidate to face Roosevelt's juggernaut. They rejected a return to Herbert Hoover, whose 1928 style was deemed too slow and associated with the initial collapse. Other potential nominees included William Borah, the "Lion of Idaho," a progressive maverick and isolationist whom the Republican Old Guard suspected of being a secret Roosevelt shill. Frank Knox, a former Rough Rider and newspaper man, was also considered, though he was seen as a political amateur. Arthur Vandenberg of Michigan was a more mainstream choice, credited with pushing the FDIC to stabilize banks, but he lacked national appeal. Ultimately, the party settled on Alf Landon, the Governor of Kansas, often called the "Kansas Coolidge." Landon was an unremarkable millionaire who had balanced the budget in Kansas, making him a "rock star" by depressed Republican standards. His path to the nomination was paved by Hearst's endorsement and the fact that he was "none of the above" in a limited talent pool. However, Landon was a terrible radio performer in an era dominated by charismatic speakers. Father Coughlin even advised the Republican chairman to get Landon off the campaign trail, suggesting they "say that he broke a leg" to explain his absence. This lack of charisma, combined with Landon's status as a "progressive Republican" who didn't plan to dismantle the New Deal, left him with a weak and uncompelling message. (6)
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| 0:34.9 | I'm John Dutch with David Petrucia, Roosevelt Sweeps Nation, and we go to the nominees for the Republican Party in 1936 to face the president running for re-election. |
| 0:46.1 | The president weighed down by all these opponents, and we need a Republican opponent because that will be the major party. |
| 0:53.1 | And the first Republican opponent in the |
| 0:55.0 | president's mind is, I want to run against Hoover. Does the Republican Party want to run Hoover, David? |
| 1:00.9 | Well, you might not want to re-litigate 1929 and 1932 again. So while there's a little bit of |
| 1:09.9 | nostalgia for him, and he gives a whiz-bang talk at the |
| 1:14.4 | Republican National Convention, no. The answer is absolutely not. We don't want to go there again. |
| 1:22.5 | And Hoover reluctantly backs away. I say reluctantly because he's making better speeches now. You note that |
| 1:30.0 | he's not stuck the way he was in 28, very hard, very difficult and what you say, slow-paced |
| 1:37.8 | presentation. He's making much furrier remarks, but we need to go to the other choice, at least |
| 1:43.3 | early in the year. |
| 1:45.0 | William Borah, known as the Lion of Idaho, another character that you can't make up, David. |
| 1:50.5 | So much of this strikes me all these decades later as characters out of a novel, not out of history. |
| 1:56.9 | What do we need to know about Bora and did Roosevelt want to run against Bora? |
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