United States Presidential Election of 1928

Herbert Hoover defeated Al Smith 444 to 87 in a flood of religious polarization.

Overview

Hoover, commerce secretary and prosperity's engineer, crushed New York Governor Al Smith, the first Catholic nominated by a major party, 444 to 87, winning 58.2 percent. Smith's religion and anti-Prohibition stand inflamed the South, where Hoover cracked the Solid South for the first time ever, winning Texas, Florida, and more. Smith's 15 million votes in defeat, concentrated in cities, mapped the urban Catholic and immigrant electorate that would become the heart of FDR's New Deal majority in 1932.