Front Porch Campaign

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James A. Garfield National Historic Site (2009); It was from this porch that James A. Garfield mainly campaigned for the 1880 presidential election in the United States .

A Front Porch Campaign is a term from American politics and describes an election campaign that is carried out from home, literally from the veranda .

Origin and heyday of the Front Porch Campaign

James A. Garfield's campaign during the presidential election in the United States in 1880 is considered to be the first of its kind . Garfield stayed mostly in his private home in Mentor , where he had previously spent little time due to his work as a congressman , received delegations on the porch and gave speeches from there. This form of campaigning came about because in the Gilded Age it was not considered appropriate for a presidential candidate to advertise. Running mate Chester A. Arthur and Roscoe Conkling led the nationwide election campaign at relevant events for Garfield . The Republicans are credited with inventing the Front Porch Campaign as a means of campaigning .

The Front Porch Campaign Garfield proved so successful that of Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland in the presidential election in 1888 and of William McKinley in 1896 was copied. Harrison opted for this form of election campaigning because his private home was in Indianapolis, what was then a swing state . His Front Porch Campaign turned out to be groundbreaking, because in the last six weeks of the election campaign he gave up to 90 speeches to a total of 300,000 people from the veranda. McKinley imitated Harrison's tactics in the 1896 presidential election, although he was pressured from within the party, like his rival William Jennings Bryan , who was considered an exceptionally gifted speaker, to tour the country on an election campaign tour. Mark Hanna , chairman of the Republican National Committee and McKinley's largest funder, was primarily responsible for the Front Porch Campaign , grouping visitor groups, and negotiating discounts on rail trips to McKinley's home in Canton , Ohio . McKinley made more than 300 speeches from the porch that were published in newspapers nationwide, speaking to a total of 750,000 people. With this election campaign, the term Front Porch Campaign entered common usage. From 1904 the high phase of this campaign was over. Although the population had become more mobile thanks to new means of transport, the willingness to travel long distances for political reasons had declined. This was also due to the fact that the political disputes were increasingly conducted in newspapers and less on the streets. The voters now expected the candidates to seek their proximity on election campaign tours.

Rose Garden Campaign

Even Warren G. Harding led in the presidential election in 1920 , the first weeks of his campaign until into August of the domestic veranda. The election campaigns of some incumbent American presidents of the 20th century, which are therefore also known as the Rose Garden Campaigns based on the White House Rose Garden , showed great similarities to a Front Porch Campaign . These include Franklin D. Roosevelt's re-election campaigns in 1936 , 1940 and 1944 , which were due to his impaired health. The successful re-election of Richard Nixon and later Ronald Reagan in 1984 are also considered Rose Garden Campaigns, as well as the failed re-election of Jimmy Carter in 1980.

literature

  • William D. Harpine: From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign. 2nd Edition. Texas A&M University Press, College Station (TX) 2006, ISBN 1-58544-450-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jody C. Baumgartner: Modern Presidential Electioneering: An Organizational and Comparative Approach . Praeger, Westport (CT), ISBN 0-275-96760-3 , p. 18.
  2. ^ A b Daniel T. Kirsch: presidential election 1880 . In Larry Sabato, Howard R. Ernst (Eds.): Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections . Infobase Publishing, New York City 2007, ISBN 0-8160-5875-X , p. 327
  3. ↑ William D. harpins: From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign. 2006, p. 41.
  4. ^ A b Gil Troy: See How They Ran . Macmillan, New York City 1991, ISBN 0-02-933035-1 , p. 27
  5. ^ A b Robert North Roberts, Scott John Hammond, Valerie A. Sulfaro: Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues, and Platforms: The Complete Encyclopedia (Volume 1). ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-38092-1 , p. 174
  6. ^ Daniel Klinghard: The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880-1896 . Cambridge University Press, New York City 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-19281-1 , p. 216
  7. ^ A b c Robert North Roberts, Scott John Hammond, Valerie A. Sulfaro: Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues, and Platforms: The Complete Encyclopedia (Volume 1). ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara (CA) 2012, ISBN 978-0-313-38092-1 , p. 175
  8. ^ Daniel Klinghard: The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880-1896 . Cambridge University Press, New York City 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-19281-1 , p. 228
  9. ↑ John W. Dean : Warren G. Harding. (= The American Presidents Series . 29). Times Books, New York City 2004, ISBN 0-8050-6956-9 , pp. 69-72.