Democrats Nominate Al Smith for President in 1920 (an *Onion*-inspired post!)

"1920: Alfred E. Smith becomes the first Catholic to receive the Democratic nomination for president, representing Democrats’ growing tolerance of the Devil." The Onion's Timeline Of The Democratic Party https://www.theonion.com/timeline-of-the-democratic-party-1826641163

What if the Democrats actually nominate Al Smith for President in 1920? Yes, it seems early for a Catholic, but Smith did get 103 votes on the first ballot, behind only McAdoo (266), Palmer (256) and Cox (134). (He was ahead of Governor Edward I. Edwards of New Jersey, Vice President Thomas R. Marshall, Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma, and future presidential nominee John W. Davis, among others.) Smith got 98 votes as late as the sixth ballot, but then his supporters seem to have switched en masse to Cox.

1920-democratic-convention.jpg



Maybe Smith was more of a favorite son in 1920 than a serious contender, but in a multiballot deadlocked convention, theoretically anything can happen.

Two things we know about Smith if nominated. First, he will lose overwhelmingly (though probably not worse than Cox: he will lose Kentucky which Cox barely won, and probably some other southern states, but OTOH will do much better than Cox with Catholic voters). Second, FDR will not be his running mate (a ticket of two New Yorkers won't do).

In fact, it is conceivable that with Smith running for preisdent, FDR could run for governor--and even win narrowly as he did in 1928 in OTL! In OTL, Smith actually did remarkably well in the 1920 governorship race. He finished only 2.58 points behind Republican Nathan Miller (46.58-44.0). https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=95274 That at a time whn Harding-Coolidge was burying Cox-FDR in the state, 64.56-26.95% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_New_York,_1920 (Harding not only carried every county in the state, he got *majorites* not just pluralities in every county, including all five boroughs of New York City.) If Smith does reasonanly well in New York as a presidential candidate (as in 1928 he will not carry the state but will do much better there than his national average), FDR could actually get elected govenor by outpolling Smith in Protestant areas Upstate...

In any event, whether FDR runs (sucessfully or unsuccessfully) for governor or not, I have the feeling that his polio (or whatever it was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D._Roosevelt's_paralytic_illness) will be butterflied away. If FDR doesn't run (or loses) Smith presumably gets the governorship back in 1922, but his chances of ever getting the Democratic presidential nomination again in the future are slim at best.
 
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