1956 Democratic National Convention

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1956 Democratic National Convention

1956 presidential election
Nominees Stevenson and Kefauver
Convention
Date(s)	August 13–17, 1956
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	International Amphitheatre
Keynote speaker	Gov. Frank G. Clement of Tennessee
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
Vice presidential nominee	Estes Kefauver of Tennessee
‹ 1952  ·  1960 ›

Chicago skyline on the night of August 11, 1956 (two days before the opening session of the convention)

Senator John F. Kennedy nominates Stevenson as the Democratic candidate for president.

John Daly and Quincy Howe providing ABC's coverage of the convention

Former President Truman (left) greets Eleanor Roosevelt (right) at the convention as Adlai Stevenson (center) looks on

The 1956 Democratic National Convention nominated former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for president and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee for vice president. It was held in the International Amphitheatre on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois August 13–August 17, 1956. Unsuccessful candidates for the presidential nomination included Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, and Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri.

As the unsuccessful 1952 Democratic Party presidential nominee, Stevenson had the highest stature of the active candidates and was easily renominated on the first ballot. Former President Harry S. Truman, whose support for Stevenson in '52 helped secure him the nomination, was opposed to his renomination in 1956, instead favoring Harriman. It did no good, as Truman was no longer a sitting President, and Stevenson was nominated on the first ballot.

After Stevenson decided not to reselect his 1952 running mate John Sparkman, the convention was marked by a "free vote" for the vice presidential nomination in which the winner, Kefauver, defeated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The vice presidential nomination vote, which required three separate ballots, was (as of 2020) the last multi-balloted contest held at a quadrennial political convention of any major U.S. political party for the presidency or vice presidency.

The Democratic convention preceded the 1956 Republican convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California. At the GOP gathering, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon were nominated for reelection.

Scheduling of convention[]

The 1956 Democratic convention was held before that year's Republican National Convention. This was unusual, as since 1864, in every election but 1888, Democrats had held their convention second.^[1] It has become an informal tradition that the party holding the White House (which, accordingly, in 1956 had been the Republican Party) hosts their convention second, but it is unclear when this tradition began (Democrats had held the White House and held their conventions second between 1936 and 1952, but it is unclear whether they scheduled their conventions second in these years because of their White House incumbency, or whether they scheduled them second because it was traditional that Democratic National Conventions had been held after the Republican National Convention).^[1]

This was only the second convention to be televised live coast-to-coast. Television had, by 1956, become the dominant medium of popular news coverage. To adjust to the medium of television, the convention was condensed in length compared to previous years, with daytime sessions being largely eliminated and the amount of welcoming speeches and parliamentary organization speeches being decreased (such as seconding speeches for vice-presidential candidates, which were eliminated). Sessions were also scheduled in order to maximize exposure to prime-time audience.^[2]

The 1956 Democratic Platform[]

With regard to the growing Civil Rights Movement, the platform called for voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and the desegregation of public schools. Relative to the Republicans, the Democrats favored greater reliance on the United Nations, multilateral disarmament, more spending for programs relating to social welfare and agriculture, "a full and integrated program of development, protection, management and conservation of natural resources," and the use of peaceful atomic energy.

Presidential nomination[]

Candidates:

• 

  Former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois

• 

  Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York

• 

  Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas

• 

  Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri

• 

  Governor Happy Chandler of Kentucky

• 

  Former Governor John S. Battle of Virginia

The roll call, as reported in Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records, pp. 294–298:

Vice Presidential nomination[]

The highlight of the 1956 Democratic Convention came when Stevenson, in an effort to create excitement for the ticket, made the surprise announcement that the convention's delegates would choose his running mate. This set off a desperate scramble among several candidates to win the nomination. A good deal of the excitement of the vice-presidential race came from the fact that the candidates had only one hectic day to campaign among the delegates before the voting began. The two leading contenders were Senator Kefauver, who retained the support of his primary delegates, and John F. Kennedy, who, as a first term Senator from Massachusetts, was relatively unknown at that point. Kennedy surprised the experts by surging into the lead on the second ballot; at one point he was only 15 votes shy of winning. However, a number of states then left their "favorite son" candidates and switched to Kefauver, giving him the victory. Kennedy then gave a gracious concession speech. The narrow defeat raised his profile and helped Kennedy's long-term presidential chances; by losing to Kefauver he avoided any blame for Stevenson's expected loss to Eisenhower in November. As of 2020, this was the last time any presidential or vice presidential nomination of either the Democratic or Republican parties, went past the first ballot.

Candidates

• 

  Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee

• 

  Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts

• 

  Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota

• 

  Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr. of New York City

• 

  Senator Albert Gore, Sr. of Tennessee

• 

  Senator Clinton Presba Anderson of New Mexico

• 

  Governor Frank G. Clement of Tennessee

• 

  Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida

• 

  Governor Luther H. Hodges of North Carolina

The vote totals in the vice presidential balloting are recorded in the following table, which also comes from Bain & Parris.

Election outcome[]

On November 6, Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver lost the election to President Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon in a landslide.

See also[]

• 1956 Republican National Convention
• 1956 United States presidential election
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• 1956 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• List of Democratic National Conventions
• United States presidential nominating convention

References[]

External links[]

• Democratic Party Platform of 1956 at The American Presidency Project
• Stevenson Nomination Acceptance Speech for President at DNC (transcript) at The American Presidency Project
• Video of Stevenson nomination acceptance speech for President at DNC (via YouTube)
• Audio of Stevenson nomination acceptance speech for President at DNC^{[permanent dead link]}
• Video of Kefauver nomination acceptance speech for Vice President at DNC (via YouTube)