Editing Herbert Hoover (section)

===Presidential election of 1928===
{{Main|1928 United States presidential election}}

Hoover quietly gathered support for a future presidential bid throughout the 1920s, but he carefully avoided alienating Coolidge, who possibly could have run for another term in the [[1928 United States presidential election|1928 presidential election]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=322–323}} Along with the rest of the nation, he was surprised when Coolidge [[I do not choose to run|announced in August 1927]] that he would not seek another term. With the impending retirement of Coolidge, Hoover immediately emerged as the front-runner for the 1928 Republican nomination, and he quickly put together a strong campaign team led by [[Hubert Work]], [[Will H. Hays]], and [[Reed Smoot]].{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=335–338}} Coolidge was unwilling to anoint Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that, "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice—all of it bad".{{sfn|Ferrell|1957|p=195}} Despite his lukewarm feelings towards Hoover, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the popular Commerce Secretary's candidacy.{{sfnm|McCoy|1967|1pp=390–391|Wilson|1975|2pp=122–123}}

One public figure who endorsed Hoover for the Republican presidential candidacy was [[William Randolph Hearst]], who argued that “The present situation demands conservatism, and Secretary Hoover’s conservatism is of the constructive and not the reactionary type.”<ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GCNPAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA18&dq=Hearst+The+present+situation+demands+conservatism,+and+Secretary+Hoover%E2%80%99s+conservatism+is+of+the+constructive+and+not+the+reactionary+type&article_id=7187,2028328&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjrlcecnqOMAxVYUkEAHYW7G-gQ6AF6BAgFEAM#v=onepage&q=Hearst%20The%20present%20situation%20demands%20conservatism%2C%20and%20Secretary%20Hoover%E2%80%99s%20conservatism%20is%20of%20the%20constructive%20and%20not%20the%20reactionary%20type&f=falseSt. Petersburg Times 10 Jun 1928]</ref> 

Many wary Republican leaders cast about for an alternative candidate, such as Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon or former secretary of state [[Charles Evans Hughes]].<ref name="rusnak">{{cite journal|last1=Rusnak|first1=Robert J.|title=Andrew W. Mellon: Reluctant Kingmaker|journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly|date=Spring 1983|volume=13|issue=2|pages=269–278|jstor=27547924}}</ref> However, Hughes and Mellon declined to run, and other potential contenders like [[Frank Orren Lowden]] and Vice President [[Charles G. Dawes]] failed to garner widespread support.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=338–339}} Hoover won the presidential nomination on the first ballot of the [[1928 Republican National Convention]]. Convention delegates considered re-nominating Vice President Charles Dawes to be Hoover's [[running mate]], but Coolidge, who hated Dawes, remarked that this would be "a personal affront" to him. The convention instead selected Senator [[Charles Curtis]] of Kansas.<ref>{{Citation | last1 = Mencken | first1 = Henry Louis | last2= Nathan | first2= George Jean | title = The American Mercury | year = 1929 | page = 404 }}</ref> Hoover accepted the nomination at [[Stanford Stadium]], telling a huge crowd that he would continue the policies of the Harding and Coolidge administrations.{{sfn|Leuchtenburg 2009|pp=71–72}} The Democrats nominated New York governor [[Al Smith]], who became the first [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholic]] major party nominee for president.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=344–345, 350}}

[[File:ElectoralCollege1928.svg|right|thumb|upright=1.25|1928 electoral vote results]]

Hoover submitted his resignation as Commerce Secretary on July 7, but Coolidge kept him on until August 21 to wind up pending business.<ref>{{cite news |title=Coolidge Defers Action on Hoover; President's Wishes as to Date of Resignation's Acceptance Are Not Revealed. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1928/07/08/archives/coolidge-defers-action-on-hoover-presidents-wishes-as-to-date-of.html |access-date=July 24, 2024 |work=The New York Times |date=July 8, 1928 |page=2 col. 2}}</ref>{{sfn|Clements|2010|pp=413–414}} Hoover centered his campaign around the Republican record of peace and prosperity, as well as his own reputation as a successful engineer and public official. Averse to giving political speeches, Hoover largely stayed out of the fray and left the campaigning to Curtis and other Republicans.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=343–346}} Smith was more charismatic and gregarious than Hoover, but his campaign was damaged by [[anti-Catholicism in the United States|anti-Catholicism]] and his overt opposition to Prohibition. Hoover had never been a strong proponent of Prohibition, but he accepted the Republican Party's plank in favor of it and issued an ambivalent statement calling Prohibition "a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose".{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=349–351}} In the South, Hoover and the national party pursued a "[[Lily-white movement|lily-white]]" strategy, removing black Republicans from leadership positions in an attempt to curry favor with white Southerners.{{sfn|Garcia 1980|pp=462–463}}

Hoover maintained polling leads throughout the 1928 campaign, and he decisively defeated Smith on election day, taking 58 percent of the popular vote and 444 of the 531 electoral votes.{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=355, 360}} Historians agree that Hoover's national reputation and the booming economy, combined with deep splits in the Democratic Party over religion and Prohibition, guaranteed his landslide victory.<ref>Elesha Coffman, 'The "Religious Issue" in Presidential Politics', ''American Catholic Studies'', (Winter 2008) 119#4 pp 1–20</ref> Hoover's appeal to Southern white voters succeeded in cracking the "[[Solid South]]", and he won five Southern states.{{sfn|Garcia 1980}} Hoover's victory was positively received by newspapers; one wrote that Hoover would "drive so forcefully at the tasks now before the nation that the end of his eight years as president will find us looking back on an era of prodigious achievement".{{sfn|Whyte 2017|pp=369–370}}

Hoover's detractors wondered why he did not do anything to [[United States congressional apportionment|reapportion congress]] after the [[1920 United States census]] which saw an increase in urban and immigrant populations. The 1920 census was the first and only decennial census where the results were not used to reapportion Congress, which ultimately influenced the 1928 Electoral College and impacted the presidential election.<ref name=slayton>{{cite book |last=Slayton |first=Robert A. |date=June 2, 2002 |title=Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith |url=https://archive.org/details/empirestatesmanr00robe/page/13 |location=New York |publisher=Simon and Schuster |page=[https://archive.org/details/empirestatesmanr00robe/page/13 13] |isbn=978-0-684-86302-3 }}</ref><ref name=finan>{{cite book |last=Finan |first=Christomer M. |date=June 2, 2002 |title=Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior |url=https://archive.org/details/alfredesmithhapp00fina |publisher=Hill and Wang |isbn=0-8090-3033-0 }}</ref>