In 1932, he was elected the
32nd Vice President of the United States, serving from 1933 to 1941. A conservative Southerner, Garner opposed the sit-down strikes of the labor unions and the
New Deal's
deficit spending. He broke with President
Franklin D. Roosevelt in early 1937 over the issue of enlarging the Supreme Court, and helped defeat it on the grounds that it centralized too much power in the President's hands.
Garner was popular with his fellow House members in both parties. He held what he called his "board of education" during the era of
Prohibition, a gathering spot for lawmakers to drink alcohol, or as Garner called it, "strike a blow for liberty."
During Roosevelt's second term, Garner's previously warm relationship with the President quickly soured, as Garner disagreed sharply with him on a wide range of important issues. Garner supported federal intervention to break up the
Flint Sit-Down Strike, supported a balanced federal budget, opposed the
Judiciary Reorganization Bill of 1937 to "pack" the Supreme Court with additional judges, and opposed executive interference with the internal business of the Congress.
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During 1938 and 1939, numerous Democratic party leaders urged Garner to
run for President in 1940. Garner identified as the champion of the traditional Democratic Party establishment, which often clashed with supporters of Roosevelt's
New Deal. The
Gallup Poll showed that Garner was the favorite among Democratic voters, based on the assumption that Roosevelt would defer to the longstanding two-term tradition and not run for a third term.
Time magazine characterized him on April 15, 1940:
Cactus Jack is 71, sound in wind & limb, a hickory conservative who does not represent the
Old South of magnolias, hoopskirts, pillared verandas, but the New South: moneymaking, industrial, hardboiled, still expanding too rapidly to brood over social problems. He stands for oil derricks, sheriffs who use airplanes, prairie skyscrapers, mechanized farms, $100 Stetson hats. Conservative John Garner appeals to many a conservative voter.
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Some other Democrats did not find him appealing. In Congressional testimony, union leader
John L. Lewis described him as "a labor-baiting, poker-playing, whiskey-drinking, evil old man".
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