Editing New Deal coalition (section)

==Components in 1930s==
===Third Parties===
Roosevelt wanted a coalition that was broader than just the Democratic Party. He admired old Progressives now in the GOP, such as [[George W. Norris]] of Nebraska and Senator [[Robert M. La Follette Jr.]] of Wisconsin.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Richard|last1=Lowitt|chapter=Roosevelt and Progressive Republicans: Friends and Foes|title=Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress|publisher=Routledge|year=2019|pages=7–13}}</ref> He disliked the conservatism of Wisconsin Democrats and preferred to work with the Progressive Party there.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Paul|last1=Glad|title=History of Wisconsin: Volume V: War, a New Era, and Depression, 1914–1940|year=1990|pages=404, 443}}</ref> The Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota made an informal alliance with FDR and supported him in 1936; the Minnesota Democrats were a weak third party.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=James S. |editor-last1=Olson|title=Historical Dictionary of the New Deal|year=1985|pages=164–165}}</ref> The White House supported the Farmer-Labor Party (FLP) in Minnesota. Roosevelt had an informal deal with Governor [[Floyd B. Olson]] whereby the FLP would get some of the patronage, and in turn the FLP would work to block a third-party ticket against Roosevelt in 1936.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Clifford Edward|editor-last1=Clark|title=Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and its People since 1900|year=1989|pages=375–379}}</ref> The radical third parties declined rapidly after 1936 and no longer played a part in the New Deal coalition.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Hugh T. |last1=Lovin|title=The Fall of Farmer-Labor Parties, 1936–1938|journal=Pacific Northwest Quarterly|year=1971|pages=16–26|jstor=40488875}}</ref>

===Pressure from the Left===
As the economy began to improve in 1933–34, people loudly demanded faster action and pushed the New Dealers to the left. Labor strikes grew to large scale, especially in California and Minnesota. Textile workers launched the largest strike in national history [[Textile workers' strike (1934)|in 1934]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=William E. |last1=Leuchtenburg|title=Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940|year=1963|pages=95–118}}</ref> Senator [[Huey Long]] in Louisiana and radio priest [[Charles Coughlin]], had both been active Roosevelt supporters in 1932. They now broke away and set up national appeals to millions of supporters, with talk of a third party to the left of Roosevelt in 1936. Long was assassinated but his followers did set up the [[Union Party (United States)|Union Party]] that polled 2% of the vote in the [[1936 United States presidential election]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Alan|last1=Brinkley|title=Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression|year=1983}}{{page needed|date=May 2025}}</ref> In California, [[Upton Sinclair]], a famous novelist and socialist won the Democratic nomination for governor, on a left-wing ticket in 1934. His [[End Poverty in California|EPIC]] program promised to end poverty and unemployment by a setting up state-owned factories to hire the unemployed, and by increasing pensions for the elderly. Critics said it would flood the state with unemployed from everywhere else. Sinclair had a pension plan of his own and refused to endorse the [[Townsend Plan]] which had a strong following. The Republican candidate endorsed the Townsend Plan and won the movement's support. Sinclair was narrowly defeated by a combination of defections of prominent Democrats—including Roosevelt—as well as a massive smear campaign using Hollywood techniques and a blackout whereby all the state's newspapers opposed him and refused to cover his ideas. The Republican leadership realized the California electorate was moving left so it went along. Its 1934 platform endorsed not just the Townsend Plan but also the 30 hour work week, unemployment relief, and collective bargaining for all workers. The GOP wanted to win votes but in the process it legitimized a social welfare state as a bipartisan ideal.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Donald T. |last1=Crichlow|title=In Defense of Populism: Protest and American Democracy|year=2020|page=56}}</ref> Consequently, the California experience helped push New Deal towards social welfare legislation, especially the WPA and Social Security. Sinclair's campaign gave aspiring Democratic leaders a boost, most notably [[Culbert Olson]], who was elected governor in 1938.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Donald L. |last1=Singer|title=Upton Sinclair and the California Gubernatorial Campaign of 1934|journal=Southern California Quarterly|volume=56|number=4|year=1974|pages=375–406|jstor=41171421}}</ref> Needing an alternative to the New Deal's Social Security system, many Republicans around the country endorsed the Townsend Plan.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Charles|last1=McKinley|first2=Robert W. |last2=Frase|title=Launching Social Security: A Capture-and-Record Account, 1935–1937|year=1970|pages=11}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Gerald|editor-last1=Nash|display-editors=etal|title=Social Security: The First Half Century|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|year=1988|pages=259–260}}</ref>

=== Class ethnicity, and religion ===
In the northern states, class and ethnicity proved decisive factors in the New Deal coalition as shown by polling data in presidential and congressional elections from 1936 through 1968. Over the period, blue-collar workers averaged 63% Democratic voters. White collar workers, representing the middle class, averaged 43% Democratic.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} By religious affiliation over the period, while northern White Protestants averaged 58% Republican, White Catholics were 68% Democrats. Social class and religious affiliation had separate effects that could intersect, so that Catholic blue-collar workers were 76% Democratic, while Protestant blue-collar workers were only 52% Democratic.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}} Throughout the period, better educated higher income middle-class voters tended to lean more towards Republicans, so that average Northern Protestant white collar voters were 69% Republican, while a Catholic counterpart was only 41% Republican. A dichotomy formed in the north between Catholic blue-collar workers forming the core of the Democratic Party, while Protestant businessmen, professionals, and clerical workers fell in with the GOP.<ref>{{cite book|editor-first1=Seymour Martin|editor-last1=Lipset|title=Party Coalitions in the 1980s|year=1981|pages=79}}</ref> A Gallup poll of listees in ''Who's Who'' in early 1936 showed that only 31% planned to vote for Roosevelt.<ref>{{cite book|first1=John M. |last1=Allswang|title=The New Deal and American Politics: A Study in Political Change|year=1978|pages=57}}</ref> Nationwide, Roosevelt won 36% of the votes of business and professional voters in 1940, 48% of lower-level white-collar workers, 66% of blue-collar workers, and 54% of farmers.<ref>According to Gallup polls reported in George Gallup, ''The Political Almanac 1952'' (1952) p. 36.</ref>
Among various demographics, ethnicity was the strongest reliable identifier for Democrats that held together the New Deal coalition, listed below is the distribution of party identification in 1944 among the northern electorate:
{| class="wikitable"
! Party identification<br> in Northern cities, 1944!!Democratic !! Independent !!Republican 
|-
| All ||  32% ||   32%|| 36%
|-
| Irish || 52% ||  27% || 21%
|-
| Black || 46% || 20% || 34%
|-
| Jewish || 54% || 35% || 11%
|-
| Italian|| 52%|| 21% || 27% 
|-
| ''Source'':<ref>Leo Srole, and Robert T. Bower, ''Voting Behavior of American Ethnic Groups, 1936–1944'' (Bureau of Applied Social Research, Columbia University, 1948)</ref>
|}

Roosevelt was successful in attracting further support from Italian, Black, and Jewish voters between 1936 to 1940. 
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Vote Shifting from 1936
!Roosevelt in 1936
!Wilkie in 1936
!Undecided; non-voters in 1936
|-
|Italian for Landon in 1940
|2.8%
|91.6%
|5.6%
|-
|Italian for Roosevelt in 1940
|64.4%
|23.9%
|11.7%
|-
|Jewish for Landon in 1940
|8.7%
|91.2%
|0.1%
|-
|Jewish for Roosevelt in 1940
|88.2%
|7.7%
|4.1%
|-
|Black for Landon in 1940
|17.1%
|73.2%
|9.7%
|-
|Black for Roosevelt in 1940
|72.6%
|17.8%
|9.6%
|-
|Source:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Strunk |first=Mildred |title=Public Opinion: 1935-1946 |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1951 |editor-last=Cantril |editor-first=Hadley |pages=619}}</ref>
|
|
|
|}

The coalition was strongest among Jews and Catholics and weakest among White Protestants. 
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! 1940 votes by religious denomination!!% for FDR 
|-
| All ||  55% 
|-
| Jewish || 87% 
|-
| Catholic|| 73% 
|-
| None given|| 51% 
|-
| Protestant|| 45%
|-
| Source: Gallup Poll #294, #335.<ref>AIPO (Gallup) Poll #294 (1943), #335 (1944){{cite book|editor-last1=Cantril|editor-last2=Strunk|title=Public Opinion, 1935–1946|year=1951|page=591}}</ref>
|}

===Labor unions===
{{Further|Labor history of the United States#Organized labor, 1929–1955}}
The New Dealers made a major, successful effort to build up labor unions, especially through the [[National Labor Relations Act of 1935]]. In addition, Democratic-led state governments were much more favorable to unions than the pro-business Republicans had been. In 1940 FDR won 64% of non-union manual workers, 71% of AFL members, and 79% of CIO members. Union membership grew rapidly during World War II. In 1944 FDR won 56% of non-union manual workers, 69% of AFL members, and 79% of CIO members. Truman in 1948 had similar results.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=Gallup|title=The Political Almanac 1952|year=1952|page=37}}</ref>
The more militant industrial unions, led by [[John L. Lewis]] formed the [[Congress of Industrial Organizations]] (CIO), and split off from the more traditional [[American Federation of Labor]] in 1938. Both federations added members rapidly, but they feuded bitterly. Both supported Roosevelt and the New Deal Coalition. The nationwide wave of labor strikes in 1937–38 alienated many voters, and the split weakened the New Deal coalition. The most controversial labor leader was [[John L. Lewis]], head of the coal miners; he headed the CIO 1938–1941. Lewis was an isolationist and broke with Roosevelt and endorsed his Republican opponent in the 1940 election, a position demanded by the pro-Soviet far left element in the CIO.<ref>Robert H. Zieger, ''The CIO, 1935–1955'' (Univ of North Carolina Press, 1997) pp. 108–110.</ref> Nevertheless, CIO members voted for Roosevelt and Lewis was forced to leave the CIO, taking his [[United Mine Workers of America]] union along.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=C. K. |last1=McFarland|title=Coalition of convenience: Lewis and Roosevelt, 1933–1940|journal=Labor History|volume=13|number=3|year=1972|pages=400–414}}</ref> Additionally, the coattails of labor candidates and the get-out-the-vote campaigns that were organized by labor unions were a reason for Truman moving ahead in the election of 1948 in many urban-industrial areas. This achievement was done despite Truman’s weaker showing, dragging behind the Democratic party’s congressional ticket by 4%.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Donaldson |first=Gary A. |title=Truman Defeats Dewey |date=2015 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-4923-3 |location=Lexington |pages=204}}</ref>

===City politics and machines===

City Democratic machines had a new role to play. Traditionally the goal of winning power in the city was facilitated by keeping the vote low and under close watch. As part of the national New Deal coalition, the machines had to carry the state's electoral vote. That required turning out the largest possible majorities. They did this by converting some Republicans, mobilizing large numbers who had never voted before. Milton Rakove states: "Holding the South and delivering thumping majorities in the big cities of the North insured national hegemony for the Democratic party."<ref>{{cite book|first1=Milton L. |last1=Rakove|title=Don't Make No Waves... Don't Back No Losers: An Insiders' Analysis of the Daley Machine|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1976|pages=155–156}}</ref> The new majorities did not matter in the great 1936 landslide, but they were decisive in 1940. A third of the electorate lived in the 106 cities with a population of 100,000 or more. They were 61% for FDR. The South had a sixth of the electorate and FDR won 73%. The remaining half of the electorate—the non-metropolitan North—voted 53% for the Republican Wendell Willkie.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Richard|last1=Jensen|title=The cities reelect Roosevelt: Ethnicity, religion, and class in 1940|journal=Ethnicity. An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Study of Ethnic Relations|volume=8|number=2|year=1981|pages=189–195}}</ref> The largest possible landslide was needed, and the city machines came through in 1940, 1944, and 1948.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=Samuel J. |last1=Eldersveld|title=The Influence of Metropolitan Party Pluralities in Presidential Elections Since 1920: A Study of Twelve Key Cities|journal=American Political Science Review|volume=43|number=6|year=1949|pages=1189–1206}}</ref> In the 1920s strong big city Republican machines were common. During the Great Depression their support plunged, and they were displaced by Democratic machines in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Across the urban North blacks deserted the GOP and were welcomed into the Democratic machine.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Harvard|last1=Sitkoff|title=A New Deal for Blacks|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1978|pages=88–89}}</ref>

Ethnics and Catholics were concentrated in large cities, which gave them a more Democratic hue. The 103 largest cities with a population of 100,000 or more in 1950 were Democratic strongholds, typically with former machines that had faded away during and after World War II.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Steven P. |last1=Erie|title=Rainbow's end: Irish-Americans and the dilemmas of urban machine politics, 1840–1985|publisher=Univeristy of California Press|year=1990|pages=140–142}}</ref> The largest cities averaged 66% for FDR in 1932 and 1936, compared to 58% of the rest of the country. The cities dropped 5 points to 61% for FDR in 1940 and 1944, while the rest dropped 7 points to 51%.<ref>George Gallup, ''The Political Almanac; 1952'' (1952) pp 32, 65,</ref>