#1936 election

[newyorkthegoldenage]

New Yorkers line up to vote in the presidential election, November 2, 1936.

Photo: General Photographic Agency/Getty Images/U.S. News & World Report

[deadpresidents]

Would I be correct in thinking that Jimmy Carter will soon be beating Alf Landon as the longest-lived major party presidential candidate? I know that there's also Strom Thurmond, but he was just a breakaway faction running in a few states.

Yes, I think Carter will pass Alf Landon on Election Day, actually.

And Strom Thurmond was the candidate of a breakaway faction, but he actually won more Electoral votes as the States' Rights/Dixiecrat nominee in 1948 (39) than Alf Landon did as the Republican nominee in 1936 (8). Thurmond also won twice as many states as Landon did (4-2).

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Jubilant crowds in Times Square watching the returns on the "Zipper" on election night, November 3, 1936. Mounted police augmented regular patrolmen on duty to keep traffic lanes open during the all-night celebration.

Photo: Associated Press

[deadpresidents]

Which Landon would make a better President: Alf or Michael?

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for almost certainly being the first person to ever reference Michael Landon on Tumblr. I'm guessing that two or three generations of my readers had to do a Wikipedia search to figure out who that was.

Anyway, I think the more pertinent question is which Alf would make a better President? Landon or...well...Alf?

I think we all know the correct answer to that question. However, one potential issue might be that the news about President Biden's dog biting Secret Service agents would pale in comparison to the scandal of President Alf eating scores of cats while in office.

And, someone may need to double-check this fact, but I'm pretty sure that Alf has had more Electoral votes cast on his behalf over the years than Alf Landon actually received (8 total Electoral votes) in his landslide defeat to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936:

[deadpresidents]

Carter has passed Garner! He now holds ALL the records for anyone who has ever been President or VP! Only Alf Landon's still stands and he was never President!

Yes, you are correct! Jimmy Carter has now passed John Nance Garner on the list of longest-living Presidents or Vice Presidents (here was that list at the beginning of September). And we are 10 days away from President Carter becoming the first President or Vice President to ever celebrate their 99th birthday. Not bad for a guy who has been in hospice care since February.

And, yes, Alf Landon is the longest-living major party nominee for President or Vice President. Landon was the 1936 Republican Presidential nominee and lost the general election to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Landon was 100 years, 33 days old when he died in 1987. Think about that for a second: Alf Landon was the Republican Presidential nominee when FDR ran for his second term as President, and Landon died when Ronald Reagan had a little over a year left in his Presidency!

BUT, it's worth nothing that while Alf Landon is undoubtedly the longest-living Presidential or Vice Presidential nominee by a major party, he is NOT the longest-living person to ever win Electoral votes as President or Vice President.

In 1948, many Southern Democrats opposed to support for civil rights in the party's platform at the Democratic National Convention bolted from the party and formed the States' Rights or "Dixiecrat" party to run against incumbent Democratic President Harry S. Truman and Republican nominee Thomas Dewey. The Dixiecrats nominated South Carolina Governor (and future longtime Senator) Strom Thurmond as their Presidential nominee. Despite not being a major party nominee, Thurmond and the Dixiecrats, relying on voters in former Confederate strongholds in the South, performed better in the general election than just about any third-party Presidential candidate of the 20th Century.

Thurmond and the Dixiecrats won 4 states and 39 Electoral votes in 1948. In 1936, Republican nominee Alf Landon won two states and just 8 Electoral votes. So Thurmond's racist, third-party challenge performed far better than the GOP nominee had done twelve years earlier.

So, unfortunately, while we're talking about longest-living President or Vice Presidential nominees, we have to throw Strom Thurmond in the conversation considering the fact that he won far more Electoral votes in 1948 than Alf Landon did in 1936. And Thurmond lived longer, as well. Thurmond was 100 years, 203 days old when he died in 2003 -- he lived 170 days longer than Alf Landon did.

Thurmond is also almost certainly the oldest person to ever be one of the top officials in the Presidential line of succession. As I mentioned, Thurmond eventually served in the U.S. Senate from South Carolina -- a seat that he held from 1954-2003 (except for a period of about 7 months in 1956) -- where he eventually became the first (and only, so far) person to serve in Congress after their 100th birthday. Due to his lengthy tenure in office, Thurmond was president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate for several years when his party was in control of the Senate.

As president pro tem, Thurmond was third in the Presidential line of succession, behind the Vice President and Speaker of the House. This meant that, Thurmond was third in the line of succession well after turning 98 years old. In June 2001, Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords announced that he would begin caucusing with the Democrats in the Senate, which gave the Democrats a narrow majority and control in the Senate, However, if Jeffords had not made that decision when he did, Strom Thurmond would have been president pro tempore on September 11, 2001. That means a nearly 99-year-old man would have been third in the Presidential succession at the time of the 9/11 attacks.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

A 1936 campaign poster for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Lehman (who was running for governor) put out by the American Labor Party. It was created by William Sanger.

The ALP was founded mainly as a vehicle to help ensure Roosevelt's victory in New York. It was funded mostly by the needle trades and lasted until 1956, when it was elbowed off the stage by the Liberal Party.

Photo: Google Arts & Culture

[deadpresidents]

So did Bob Dole live longer than any other big party presidential nominee?

No, Bob Dole (who was 98 years old when he died) was just short of being the longest-living major party Presidential nominee in American history.

Coincidentally, the only major party Presidential nominee who lived longer than Dole was the only other Presidential nominee from Kansas! Alf Landon, who was the 1936 Republican nominee for President -- and who was on the wrong end of one of the biggest electoral landslides in American history that year when FDR won a second term -- was 100 years old when he died in 1987. Landon is still the only major party nominee for President or Vice President to become a centenarian.[*]

Dole is the second longest-living major party nominee for President, but Jimmy Carter, who turned 97 years old on October 1st, still seems to be going strong, so he has a chance to break all the longevity records for Presidential candidates. Carter has already broken pretty much all the longevity records for people who actually served as President.

Incidentally, Bob Dole is also the second longest-living major party nominee for Vice President. Dole, of course, was chosen by President Ford to replace Vice President Rockefeller on the Republican ticket in 1976. John Nance Garner, who was FDR's 1st and 2nd term Vice President (Democratic nominee for VP in 1932 and 1936), was just over two weeks short of his 99th birthday when he died in 1967. Garner was 98 years, 350 days old when he died while Dole was 98 years, 136 days old at the time of his death. "Cactus Jack" Garner is not only the longest-lived person to have actually served as President or Vice President, but he's also the longest-lived Speaker of the House of Representatives in history.

([*]-There are probably some who would argue that Strom Thurmond was the longest-lived major party Presidential nominee, but I don't consider him a "major party" nominee. Thurmond was nominated for President in 1948 by a splinter group of racists...oops, I mean "Southern Democrats" and ran as the States' Rights or Dixiecrat nominee. Thurmond did win four states and received 39 Electoral votes in 1948, but again, the Dixiecrats were a splinter group, not a major national party. Thurmond was 100 years, 203 days when he died in 2003 (Landon was 100 years, 33 days when he died) and is undoubtedly the longest-lived person to ever receive Electoral votes for President or Vice President. He also is the only person to serve in Congress after their 100th birthday. If you think it's crazy that a 100-year-old man was an incumbent United States Senator, here's something crazier: in 2001 -- just a few months before 9/11 triggered American continuity of government operations in serious, legitimate, real-world ways -- Strom Thurmond was the president pro tempore of the Senate. What did that mean? That meant that a 98-year-old man was third in the line of Presidential succession.)

[deadpresidents]

I know Jimmy Carter is the oldest ever president but has there been a potus nominee from one of the major parties who lived longer than carter?

Alf Landon, the 1936 Republican Presidential nominee who was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in one of the biggest landslides (in both the popular vote and Electoral College) in American history, was the longest-lived major party Presidential nominee. Landon, who was the Governor of Kansas when he lost to FDR, was 100 years old when he died in 1987. Just to put that in perspective, Landon was Roosevelt's opponent in FDR's bid for re-election to his second term and he died towards the end of Ronald Reagan's second term.

Interestingly, the only other major party Presidential nominee from Kansas, Bob Dole, who lost the 1996 election to Bill Clinton, is closing in on Alf Landon's longevity record. Dole, a longtime Senator from Kansas and a war hero who was so grievously wounded fighting Nazis in Italy's Apennines that he wasn't expected to survive, will turn 98 years old next month (July 22nd).