Smith and Robinson

Red white and blue striped background with white and blue text

The Democratic nominee for U.S. president in 1928, Al Smith was the Governor of New York and also the first Catholic nominated on a major-party ticket. His running mate in the 1928 election was Senator Joseph Robinson of Arkansas. As an anti-Prohibition candidate, Smith got support from those opposed to the measure, which was enacted in 1920. Yet many also feared that as a Catholic, Smith's policies would be unduly influenced by the Pope. Due to those fears, Smith's association with the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine and the continuing economic prosperity of the 1920s until that point, Smith lost the 1928 election to Republican Herbert Hoover in a landslide, 444 electoral votes to 87. A progressive, Smith served as Governor of New York from 1919-1920 and 1923-1928.