Election of 1928

President Coolidge announced in August 1927 that he did not "choose to run" for reelection. In February 1928, Hoover became a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. The party’s national convention nominated him on the first ballot, and chose Senator Charles Curtis of Kansas for Vice President. The Democrats nominated Governor Alfred E. Smith of New York for President and Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas for Vice President.

In the election compaign, Hoover spoke hopefully about increasing prosperity. He observed, "The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage." Prohibition became a major issue of the compaign. Smith wanted to repeal Amendment 18 of the Constitution, which prohibited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Hoover called Prohibition an "experiment noble in motive." Millions of Americans felt that the Republicans would keep the nation prosperous. In addition, many voters opposed Smith because he was a Roman Catholic.

A native of Iowa, Hoover depicted himself as a simple farmboy who, through hard work and pluck, had grown up to be wealthy and famous. During the campaign he told people tales on an normal boyhood spent in rural America, participating in activities like swimming holes, hunting and fishing,. His childhood, however, was more complicated than that. Orphaned as a boy, Hoover was shuttled back and forth between a variety of relatives until he went to Sanford University. He graduated with a degree in mining in 1893, and after laboring in the mines during the depression that year, he go an engineering job with an international firm. Brilliant and talented, he was a millionaire twelve years later. The very portrait of the self-made man, Hoover represented a safe, familiar world.

Smith offered a vivid contrast. The son of immigrants, he as an Irish Catholic from Hell’s Kitchen New York City who had started public life with nothing and climbed the political ladder as a normal politician. Both Smith and Hoover represented the future, not so much in terms of science, technology, and organization, but in terms of cultural pluralism and urbanization. The future of America was in the cities, and the cities were full of new ethnic groups struggling for acceptance and the good life.

At the end of the election, Hoover carried 40 of the 48 states and received 444 electoral votes to only 87 for Smith. After the election, President-elect Hoover made a good-will-tour of Latin America. His trip helped lay the foundation for the "Good Neighbor Policy" of the Franklin D. Roosevelt era.