Editing New Deal coalition (section)

===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>