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1956 Democratic National Convention
1956 presidential election;
	Nominees ; Stevenson and Kefauver
Convention
Date(s)	August 13–17, 1956
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	International Amphitheatre
Keynote speaker	Gov. Frank G. Clement of Tennessee
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Adlai Stevenson of Illinois
Vice-presidential nominee	Estes Kefauver of ; Tennessee
	‹ 1952 · 1960 ›

The 1956 Democratic National Convention nominated former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for president and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee for vice president. It was held in the International Amphitheatre on the South Side of Chicago from August 13 to August 17, 1956. Unsuccessful candidates for the presidential nomination included Governor W. Averell Harriman of New York, Senator Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, and Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri.

The convention was marked by a "free vote" for the vice presidential nomination in which the winner, Kefauver, defeated Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. As of 2024^[update], this was the last time any presidential or vice presidential nomination of either the Democratic or Republican parties, went past the first ballot.

Run up to the Convention

As the unsuccessful 1952 Democratic Party presidential nominee, Stevenson had the highest stature of the active candidates. Despite a number of primary wins by Kefauver, Stevenson managed to pull back and win California and come into the convention with momentum. However Stevenson was widely seen as having between 400 and 600 of the 687^1/2 delegates he needed to secure the nomination.^[1]

Scheduling and logistics of convention

The 1956 Democratic convention was held before that year's Republican National Convention. This was unusual, as since 1864, in every election but 1888, Democrats had held their convention second. It has become an informal tradition that the party holding the White House (which, accordingly, in 1956 had been the Republican Party) hosts their convention second, but it is unclear when this tradition began. Democrats had held the White House and held their conventions second between 1936 and 1952, but it is unclear whether they scheduled their conventions second in these years because of their White House incumbency, or whether they scheduled them second because it was traditional that Democratic National Conventions had been held after the Republican National Convention.^[2]

This was the second election in which conventions were televised live coast-to-coast. Television had, by 1956, become the dominant medium of popular news coverage. To adjust to the medium of television, the convention was condensed in length compared to previous years, with daytime sessions being largely eliminated and the amount of welcoming speeches and parliamentary organization speeches being decreased (such as seconding speeches for vice-presidential candidates, which were eliminated). Sessions were also scheduled in order to maximize exposure to prime-time audience.^[3]

The 1956 Democratic Platform

With regard to the growing Civil Rights Movement, the platform called for voting rights, equal employment opportunities, and the desegregation of public schools. Relative to the Republicans, the Democrats favored greater reliance on the United Nations, multilateral disarmament, more spending for programs relating to social welfare and agriculture, "a full and integrated program of development, protection, management and conservation of natural resources," and the use of peaceful atomic energy.

Presidential nomination

Former President Harry S. Truman, whose support for Stevenson in 1952 helped secure him the nomination, in a surprise move decided to oppose to his renomination in 1956, instead favoring Harriman. This was seen as opening up the Presidential nomination, with a number of candidates coming forward.

As well as Stevenson's 400 to 600 of the required 687^1/2 delegates^[1] there were 202 pledged to Kefauver due to his primary wins and New York's delegation pledged to Harriman. There were also eight states with favorite son nominees which meant that the state was free to switch.^[1]

One of these favorite sons was Lyndon Johnson from Texas, at the time the Senate Majority Leader who had the support of prominent southern legislative leaders Senator Richard Russell and fellow Texan Sam Rayburn, the House Speaker.^[4] Although at first Johnson was not running more than a token campaign, he believed that Truman's announcement had opened the nomination up.^[4]

Despite all the maneuvering Stevenson won convincingly on the first ballot with 905^1/2 delegates over Harriman's 210, with Johnson only winning the 80 votes of the Texas and Mississippi delegations.^[5]

Presidential candidates

Former Governor
Adlai Stevenson
of Illinois
Governor
W. Averell Harriman
of New York
Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson
of Texas
Senator
Stuart Symington
of Missouri
Governor
Happy Chandler
of Kentucky
Representative
James C. Davis
of Georgia
Former Governor
John S. Battle
of Virginia
Governor
George Timmerman
of South Carolina

The roll call, as reported in Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records, pp. 294–298:

Presidential Balloting
Candidate	1st
Stevenson	905.5
Harriman	210
Johnson	80
Symington	45.5
Chandler	36.5
Davis	33
Battle	32.5
Timmerman	23.5
Lausche	5.5

Presidential Balloting / 4th Day of Convention (August 16, 1956)

1st Presidential Ballot

Vice presidential nomination

The highlight of the 1956 Democratic Convention came when Stevenson, in an effort to create excitement for the ticket, made the surprise announcement that the convention's delegates would choose his running mate.

Stevenson decided not to reselect his 1952 running mate John Sparkman. This set off a desperate scramble among several candidates to win the nomination. A good deal of the excitement of the vice-presidential race came from the fact that the candidates had only one hectic day to campaign among the delegates before the voting began. The two leading contenders were Senator Kefauver, who retained the support of his primary delegates, and John F. Kennedy, who, as a first term Senator from Massachusetts, was relatively unknown at that point. Kennedy surprised the experts by surging into the lead on the second ballot; at one point he was only 39 votes shy of winning. However, a number of states then left their "favorite son" candidates and switched to Kefauver, giving him the victory. Kennedy then gave a gracious concession speech. The narrow defeat raised his profile and helped Kennedy's long-term presidential chances; by losing to Kefauver he avoided any blame for Stevenson's expected loss to Eisenhower in November. The vice presidential nomination vote, which required three separate ballots, was (as of 2024) the last multi-balloted contest held at a quadrennial political convention of any major U.S. political party for the presidency or vice presidency.

Candidates

Senator
Estes Kefauver
of Tennessee
Senator
John F. Kennedy
of Massachusetts
Senator
Hubert Humphrey
of Minnesota
New York Mayor
Robert F. Wagner, Jr.
of New York
Senator
Albert Gore, Sr.
of Tennessee
Senator
Clinton P. Anderson
of New Mexico
Governor Frank G. Clement of Tennessee
Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida
Governor Luther H. Hodges of North Carolina

The vote totals in the vice presidential balloting are recorded in the following table, which also comes from Bain & Parris.

Vice Presidential Balloting
Candidate	1st (Before Shifts)	1st (After Shifts)	2nd (Before Shifts)	2nd (During Shifts)	2nd (After Shifts)	Unanimous
Kefauver	466.5	483.5	551.5	551.5	755.5	1,372
Kennedy	294.5	304	618	648	589
Gore	178	178	110.5	80.5	13.5
Wagner	162.5	162.5	9.5	9.5	6
Humphrey	134	134.5	74.5	74.5	2
Hodges	40	40	0.5	0.5	0
Maner	33	33	0	0	0
Collins	28.5	1.5	0	0	0
Anderson	16	16	0	0	0
Clement	13.5	13.5	0.5	0.5	0.5
Brown	1	1	0.5	0.5	0
Symington	1	1	0	0	0
Johnson	0.5	0.5	0	0	0
Not Voting	3	3	6.5	6.5	5.5