Every four years, delegates from state political parties meet to nominate their party candidate for President of the United States. Conventions replaced the congressional caucus, in which the senators and representatives would nominate a candidate, which was discredited after the election of 1824.
The Anti-Masons held the first national convention in September 1830 to organize themselves as a political party. They aimed to stop what they believed was a plot by the Masonic order (a fraternal group) to seize political power. They decided to hold a Presidential nominating convention on September 26, 1831, and nominated William Wirt of Maryland, who then confessed that he had once been a member of the Masons. The convention stood by its nomination. The second convention was held by the National Republican party on December 12, 1831; it nominated Henry Clay.
The Democratic party held its first convention at the saloon in the Baltimore Athenaeum in May 1832. It accepted President Andrew Jackson's request that it nominate Martin Van Buren for Vice President. Since Jackson was already President, the convention did not actually nominate him but passed a resolution that concurred in the “nominations” he had received “in various parts of the Union” by Democratic state parties. The Democrats also passed a rule requiring nominees to win the votes of two-thirds of the delegates—a rule that was not discarded in favor of a simple majority vote until 1936. The two-thirds rule gave the South a “veto” over Democratic nominees and led to nominations of several Northern Democrats with Southern sympathies, such as James Buchanan, just prior to the Civil War. It also contributed to convention deadlocks; the 1924 Democratic convention endured 103 rounds of balloting.
From the 1830s through the 1960s state delegations were chosen and controlled by state party leaders. “Less than one hundred men in any convention really dictate what occurs,” explained Bronx, New York, Democratic party boss Ed Flynn in 1948. The unit rule required all delegates in a state to vote the way the majority of the delegates wished, ensuring boss control of a unified state delegation. “What the party wants,” British commentator Lord Bryce observed, “is not a good President but a good candidate,” one who would distribute the spoils of victory, appointments and government contracts, to the bosses and their party followers. Although major-party candidates did not appear at their party's convention until Franklin Roosevelt flew to Chicago to claim his nomination in 1932, their managers bargained with the bosses who controlled state delegations over future Presidential appointments and other political favors.
“I authorize no bargains and will be bound by none,” Abraham Lincoln telegraphed his managers in 1860. “Damn Lincoln,” his zealous managers responded. They won Indiana's support for Lincoln by offering Caleb Smith the post of secretary of the interior; took Pennsylvania by giving Simon Cameron the War Department; and made New York's Salmon Chase secretary of the Treasury to seal their victory. Lincoln fretted over the public reaction to these deals: “What will they think of their honest Abe when he appoints Simon Cameron?” Similarly, Woodrow Wilson publicly rejected deal making to win the 1912 Democratic nomination. Yet his campaign managers dealt away cabinet positions and the Vice Presidency to gain Wilson his victory on the 46th ballot, a strategy also used by Franklin Roosevelt in his 1932 nominating battle.
In 1968 the boss-dominated convention system lost its legitimacy. Although voters in Democratic party primaries overwhelmingly chose antiwar contenders Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy, the bosses at the Chicago convention chose Vice President Hubert Humphrey to be the party's Presidential nominee—even though Humphrey had not entered the primaries. After the Democratic election defeat, a party reform commission recommended changes in party rules that would take control of the selection of convention delegates away from state parties and give it to the party voters. The Republicans soon followed suit.
Since the 1970s the 4,288 Democratic and 2,209 Republican delegates have been selected by the party voters in primaries or open caucuses. In the Democratic party, a candidate receives a share of convention delegates proportional to the percentage of votes he or she has won in the primary. The Republican party uses a winner-take-all procedure in which the candidate with the most votes wins an entire state delegation. In either event, the candidates, not the party bosses, control the state delegations once the voters have given them their specified share through the primary voting. The candidate for President who wins the majority of the delegates dominates the convention.
“The rise of the primaries has made it inevitable that the nomination is settled before the convention begins,” noted New York senator Daniel Moynihan, adding, “The convention does not decide and it does not debate.” Nevertheless, delegates decide on the content of the party platform and determine changes in party rules for the next nominating convention.
Delegates from both parties are generally better educated and more affluent than the rank-and-file members of the parties. Most Republican delegates call themselves conservatives, while Democratic delegates are almost evenly split between liberals and moderates. Democratic delegates usually take positions more liberal than the party rank-and-file members or all voters, whereas Republicans are more conservative, especially on issues such as abortion, prayer in the schools, gun control, and gay rights.
Democratic party rules require that half the delegates be women; the Republicans do not have such a rule, but more than two-fifths of their delegates in 1992 were women. Since the 1970s the Democrats have had more Catholic, Jewish, and African-American representation at their convention than the Republicans.
Convention delegates are experienced in elective politics: more than two-thirds at most conventions have held public or party office, and more than half have attended previous conventions. Democratic rules provide for a category of superdelegates: most Democratic members of the House and Senate are added automatically to their state delegation. They may vote for whomever they wish, though they invariably vote according to the preferences of the majority of the delegates at the convention, adding to the front-runner's advantage.
Modern conventions usually last four days, with most of the proceedings organized by the contender who has won the primaries. The first evening's proceedings are devoted to speeches and films introducing the candidate and party to television viewers and to “housekeeping” business—accepting the credentials of the delegates, dealing with challenges to delegates, and adopting convention rules. The second day is devoted to discussion of the party platform, which is adopted that evening. Platforms do not bind candidates, but once in office most Presidents implement the large majority of platform pledges.
The third evening is devoted to nominating speeches for the Presidential candidate, followed by the vote for the candidate. The victorious candidate then addresses the convention and a nationwide television audience either that evening or the following evening. On the fourth evening the Vice President is nominated and makes an acceptance speech.
Prime-time convention coverage in 1968 by the three networks consisted of 90 hours; by 1992 it was down to less than 30. In 1984 the networks dropped gavel-to-gavel coverage in the evening and by 1992 their prime-time coverage averaged 1 to 2 hours per day. The networks reduced coverage because viewership had diminished.
If the country knows who will be nominated before the first ballot is even cast, what then is the point of holding a convention? “Our activists and leaders still need to meet with each other,” Georgia Republican representative Newt Gingrich points out, to confer about “their beliefs and about the future.” The public can watch television summaries of the proceedings on the networks or gavel-to-gavel coverage on C-SPAN. Conventions provide an opportunity for newspapers and magazines to comment on the direction being taken by the candidate and party.
Television coverage of the nominating and acceptance speeches is an important part of the campaign: the acceptance speech can win the confidence of the nation or destroy the campaign even before it starts. Barry Goldwater self-destructed at the Republican convention in 1964 when he told his conservative supporters that “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” Walter Mondale's candor at the Democratic convention held in 1984—“Taxes will go up, and anyone who says they won't is not telling the truth”—provided the Republicans with campaign ammunition.
Candidates who avoid these traps usually benefit from a “convention bounce,” rising in the polls after favorable television coverage. According to New York Times CBS polls, in 1992 Bill Clinton jumped an incredible 24 points, taking a 56–to–31 percent lead over George Bush. Just after the Republican convention, Bush bounced back, cutting Clinton's lead substantially.
A party convention sets the stage not only for the general election but also for the next nomination. It gives party leaders across the nation a chance to see potential candidates in action: holding receptions, giving interviews, making speeches, and participating in platform fights. The news media may even poll delegates about their choices for the next election, establishing the field of contenders, though this technique must be taken with a grain of salt.
See also Caucuses, congressional; Humphrey, Hubert H.; Jackson, Andrew; Lincoln, Abraham; Mondale, Walter F.; Roosevelt, Franklin D.; Van Buren, Martin; Wilson, Woodrow
Sources
- James Ceasar, Presidential Selection (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979).
- James S. Chase, Emergence of the Presidential Nominating Convention, 1789–1832 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973).
- James Davis, National Conventions in an Age of Party Reform (West-port, Conn.: Greenwood, 1983)
