Editing Al Smith (section)

====Voter realignment====
[[File:Al Smith - Bain News Service.jpg|thumb|right|Al Smith giving a speech]]

Some political scientists believe that the 1928 election started a voter realignment that helped develop Roosevelt's [[New Deal coalition]].<ref>Degler (1964)</ref> One political scientist said, "...not until 1928, with the nomination of Al Smith, a northeastern reformer, did Democrats make gains among the urban, blue-collar and Catholic voters who were later to become core components of the New Deal coalition and break the pattern of minimal class polarization that had characterized the [[Fourth Party System]]."<ref>Lawrence (1996) p 34.</ref> However, historian [[Allan Lichtman]]'s quantitative analysis suggests that the 1928 results were based largely on religion and are not a useful barometer of the voting patterns of the New Deal era.<ref>Lichtman (1976)</ref>

Lichtman notes that the sole defining issue of the election was anti-Catholicism, which radically realigned states' voting patterns. States that had never voted Republican after Reconstruction such as Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia voted for Hoover, while Smith carried Massachusetts and Rhode Island—states that had never voted Democratic before save for 1912. Lichtman further proves this by pointing out that Smith and Hoover had very similar political views save for religion and Prohibition, and yet the 1928 election had a turnout of 57%, despite previous 1920s American elections having their turnouts below 50%.<ref name="farris" />

Christopher M. Finan (2003) says Smith is an underestimated symbol of the changing nature of American politics in the first half of the last century. He represented the rising ambitions of urban, industrial America at a time when the hegemony of rural, agrarian America was in decline, although many states had legislatures and congressional delegations biased toward rural areas because of lack of redistricting after censuses. Smith was connected to the hopes and aspirations of immigrants, especially Catholics and Jews from eastern and southern Europe. Smith was a devout Catholic, but his struggles against religious bigotry were often misinterpreted when he fought the religiously inspired Protestant morality imposed by prohibitionists.

The 1928 election initiated a complete voter realignment of African-Americans, who overwhelmingly supported the Republican Party prior to 1928.<ref>{{cite book|last=Topping|first=Simon|title= Lincoln's Lost Legacy: The Republican Party and the African American Vote, 1928–1952|pages=11, 14–16|publisher=[[University Press of Florida]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0813032283}}</ref> Hoover sought "Southern Strategy" for the election, and sided with the segregationist [[lily-white movement|lily-white]] Republicans at the expense of the pro-civil rights [[black-and-tan faction|black and tans]].<ref name="dell">{{cite journal |last=O'Dell |first=Samuel |year=1987 |title=Blacks, the Democratic Party, and the Presidential Election of 1928: A Mild Rejoinder |publisher=Clark Atlanta University |doi=10.2307/274997 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/274997 |journal=Phylon |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=1–11|jstor=274997 }}</ref> Prominent African Americans were removed from positions of leadership in the Republican Party and replaced with lily-white Republicans in order to appeal to the segregationist South, and Hoover's spokesmen in the South spoke of his commitment to white supremacy.<ref name="mccarthy">{{cite journal |last=McCarthy |first=G. Michael |year=1978 |title=Smith vs. Hoover: The Politics of Race in West Tennessee|publisher=Clark Atlanta University |doi=10.2307/274510 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/274510 |journal=Phylon |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=154–168|jstor=274510 }}</ref> Allan Lichtman wrote that Hoover "sought a permanent reorganization of southern Republicanism under the leadership of white racists."<ref name="dell"/> This action was taken to exploit the unpopularity of Smith in the South, as Hoover and his cabinet were "convinced that white Southern votes were more essential to a Hoover win than black ones".<ref name="mccarthy"/> Hoover assured Southern voters that he "had no intention of appointing colored men" and pledged that he had "no intention—party platform notwithstanding—of foisting off an anti-lynch law on the white South";<ref name="mccarthy"/> at the same time, Hoover heavily emphasized "his rural-Protestant roots" and appealed to the white voters' anti-urban and [[anti-Catholicism|anti-Catholic]] sentiments, while also portraying Smith as a pro-civil rights candidate.<ref name="mccarthy"/> According to ''[[Phylon]]'', apart from the Catholics' perceived allegiance to the Pope over the United States, American anti-Catholicism was also racially motivated, as Southern Protestants "strongly opposed the church's liberal policies—particularly its uncompromising position against social and political segregation."<ref name="mccarthy"/>

Al Smith was supportive of racial equality and appointed African Americans to the New York City school system and civil service commission.<ref name="mccarthy"/> Major black newspapers throughout the United States such as ''[[The Chicago Defender]]'', ''[[Baltimore Afro-American]]'' and ''[[New Journal and Guide|Norfolk Journal and Guide]]'' endorsed Smith for president,<ref name="dell"/> and prominent members of the [[NAACP]] supported Smith, with [[Walter White (NAACP)|Walter Francis White]] writing that "Governor Smith is by far the best man available for the Presidency" and arguing that Smith's "nomination and election would be the greatest blow at bigotry that has ever been struck."<ref name="dell"/> Smith attracted the attention of disheartened African-American voters, as he was unpopular in the South, faced prejudice as a Roman Catholic, and had a reputation of a "spokesman for ethnic minorities in Northern cities".<ref name="dell"/> As such, Smith's candidacy, coupled with Hoover's Southern concession, initiated abandonment of loyalty to the Republicans and embrace of the Democratic Party by African-American voters. Samuel O'Dell wrote in ''[[Phylon]]'' that 1928 black voters "bolted to the Democratic party in unprecedented numbers."<ref name="dell"/>

Smith was also known as an economic progressive, and championed progressive reforms such as a shorter workweek, [[workers' compensation]] laws, as well as health and workplace safety reforms. Many of his reforms later inspired the New Deal, even though Smith himself came to oppose the New Deal legislation.<ref name="Alter 2006 34">{{cite book |title=The defining moment: FDR's hundred days and the triumph of hope |year=2006 |publisher=Simon & Schuster, Inc. |page=34 |isbn=978-0-7432-4600-2 |first=Jonathan |last=Alter |author-link=Jonathan Alter}}</ref> A hallmark of Smith's progressivism was his support for and extensive ties to New York labor unions; Smith believed that workers need to be protected from economic exploitation, and became known for legislation that expanded the power of labor unions, enhanced safety regulations, and provided essential services such as healthcare and education to impoverished neighbourhoods and working-class communities.<ref name="far226"/> However, Smith said little about his economic progressivism on the 1928 campaign trail, as the public was largely supportive of the conservative economic vision that the incumbent Republican administration pursued, crediting it with the economic prosperity at the time.<ref>{{cite book |title=Everybody Ought to Be Rich: The Life and Times of John J. Raskob, Capitalist |first=David |last=Farber |author-link=David Farber (historian) |year=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973457-3 |page=252}}</ref>