The 1936 Delaware gubernatorial election was held on November 3, 1936. Incumbent Republican Governor C. Douglass Buck was barred from seeking re-election to a third term, creating an open race. A challenging contest developed on the Republican side to succeed Buck, with Harry L. Cannon, former State Senator I. Dolphus Short and Assistant Motor Vehicle Commissioner

George S. Williams George Short Williams (October 21, 1877 – November 22, 1961) was an American office administrator and politician from Millsboro in Sussex County, Delaware. A member of the Republican Party, Williams served as U.S. Representative from Delawar ...

all emerging as frontrunners. Cannon, a longtime figure in state politics who served as a member of the State Board of Agriculture and on the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

Board of Trustees, ultimately won the nomination. Short walked out of the convention, however, and shortly thereafter organized a slate of statewide candidates as Independent Republicans, dividing the party. On the Democratic side, a close contest developed among former Wilmington City Councilman

Richard McMullen Richard Cann McMullen (January 2, 1868 – February 18, 1944) was an American manufacturer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party, who served as Governor of Delaware. McMullen w ...

and attorneys Edward W. Cooch and Henry Isaacs. McMullen ultimately won the nomination on the first ballot at the state convention, and was quickly endorsed by his opponents. In the general election, McMullen ended up winning over Cannon by a fairly wide margin. Short siphoned support away from Cannon, receiving 7% of the vote. However, the schism was likely not dispositive by itself; McMullen won 50% of the vote to Cannon's 43%. McMullen's victory, the first win for a Democratic candidate for Governor since

1896 Events January * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's dis ...

, (and the win with an outright majority of the vote since 1890,) occurred as President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

was handily winning the state over Republican presidential nominee

Alf Landon Alfred Mossman Landon (September 9, 1887October 12, 1987) was an American oilman and politician who served as the 26th governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937. A member of the Republican Party, he was the party's nominee in the 1936 presidential ...

General election

References

Bibliography

* Delaware House Journal, 106th General Assembly, 1st Reg. Sess. (1937).

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King Edward VIII, following the death of his father, George V, at Sandringham House. * January 28 – Death and state funer ...

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

November 1936 in the United States {{Delaware-stub