Gallant Leader Roosevelt

Black text curled around a black and white lithograph of a man, all over a cream background

This button was for the 1936 re-election campaign of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt ran against Governor Alf Landon, a Republican from Kansas. Landon's running mate was Frank Knox, who later served as FDR's secretary of the navy. Though the Great Depression still gripped the country, Roosevelt's New Deal programs such as unemployment benefits, Social Security and works programs were popular. Landon spoke against FDR's New Deal as hostile to business, but he made comparatively few campaign appearances. Roosevelt and Vice President John Nance Garner carried 46 of the 48 available states and won 523 votes to 8, the most lopsided election in U.S. history.

Roosevelt won a third term (with Henry Wallace as VP) in 1940 and a fourth (with Harry S Truman as VP) in 1944, presiding over the United States for most of World War II. Truman succeeded to the presidency after Roosevelt's death in April 1945.