Union Party (United States)
Union Party | |
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Leaders | Far-right |
The Union Party was a short-lived political party in the United States, formed in 1936 by a coalition of radio priest Father Charles Coughlin, old-age pension advocate Francis Townsend, and Gerald L. K. Smith, who had taken control of Huey Long's Share Our Wealth (SOW) movement after Long's assassination in 1935. Each of those people hoped to channel their wide followings into support for the Union Party, which proposed a populist alternative to the New Deal reforms of Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
The party nominated a ticket consisting of Republican Congressman William Lemke and labor attorney Thomas C. O'Brien in the 1936 presidential election. Running against Republican nominee Alf Landon, Roosevelt won a second term with over 60% of the popular vote, while Lemke won just under 2% of the popular vote. The Union Party collapsed after the 1936 elections. Lemke served as a Republican Congressman until his death in 1950, while Coughlin and Townsend receded from national politics. Smith later founded the Christian Nationalist Crusade and became a prominent proponent of Holocaust denial.
Background
Many observers at the time felt that there was a place for a party more radical than Roosevelt and the
Newton Jenkins's campaign in the 1935 Chicago mayoral election acted as an informal test-run for the fledgling movement behind the Union Party.[1][2]
Rumored political aspirations of Huey Long
Although many people expected Huey Long, the colorful Democratic senator from Louisiana, to run as a third-party candidate with his "Share Our Wealth" program as his platform, his bid was cut short when he was assassinated in September 1935.
Prior to Long's death, leading contenders for the role of the sacrificial 1936 candidate included
Problems and controversies
The Union Party suffered from a multiplicity of problems almost from the moment of its inception. A primary one was that each of the party's three principal leaders seemingly saw himself, not its
The Union Party attracted modest support from populists on both sides of the political spectrum who were unhappy with Roosevelt and from the remnants of earlier third parties such as the
1936 presidential nominee
The vice-presidential nominee was Thomas C. O'Brien, a labor lawyer from Boston.
Year | Presidential nominee | Vice-Presidential nominee | Votes | Percent |
---|---|---|---|---|
1936 | William Lemke |
Thomas C. O'Brien |
892,378 | 1.95% |
Other notable candidates
Demise
The Union Party was disbanded shortly after the 1936 elections. Presidential nominee Lemke continued to serve in Congress as a Republican, and died in office while serving an eighth term. Father Coughlin announced his retirement from the airwaves immediately after the disappointing returns of the 1936 election, but returned to the air within a couple of months; upon U.S. entry into
Other namesakes
In the
In the
References
- ^ "THIRD PARTY TRIES WINGS IN CHICAGO; Newton Jenkins Is Entered for Mayor Under Symbol of the American Buffalo". New York Times. 27 January 1935. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ [souciant.com/2017/01/nazi-spies-and-american-patriots/ Nazi Spies and American “Patriots” By John L. Spivak]
- ISBN 0801485584.
- ^ Pollitt, Katha, "Down for the Count", The Nation (December 16, 2000)
Events Quarterly https://web.archive.org/web/20061112171139/http://www.eventsquarterly.com/7ed/15.html
Further reading
- Bennett, David Harry. Demagogues in the Depression;: American radicals and the Union Party, 1932-1936. 341 pages. Rutgers University Press. 1969. ISBN 0-8135-0590-9.
- Brinkley, Alan. Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression. 384 pages. Vintage. 1983. ISBN 0-394-71628-0.
- Tull, C.J. Father Coughlin and the New Deal. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-0043-7.
- Williams, T. Harry. Huey Long. 944 pages. Vintage. 1981. ISBN 0-394-74790-9.