1956 Democratic National 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]

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.

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:

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.

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

• 1956 Republican National Convention
• 1956 United States presidential election
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• Democratic Party presidential primaries, 1956
• List of Democratic National Conventions
• U.S. presidential nomination convention

• 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
• Video of Kefauver nomination acceptance speech for Vice President at DNC (via YouTube)