Conventions, National Nominating Party

ORIGINALLY DESIGNED TO give citizens more direct control over whom their party nominated to run for president, national nominating party conventions also became an opportunity for parties to develop a platform of their beliefs and policy objectives. However, as primaries and caucuses have gained in importance, national nominating party conventions now serve to project party unity to voters, generate party pride, and build grassroots support for the nominee going into the campaign. Through the early 1800s, a caucus of that party's members in Congress chose a political party's presidential nominee. As the country's population and geography expanded, there was a growing demand by party members not in Congress to have a say in the presidential nomination.

In 1831, the Anti-Masonic Party held the first nominating convention in Baltimore, Maryland. The nominee was presented as someone chosen by the public, rather than by the Washington elite, and proved so popular that the Democrats followed suit in 1832 by nominating Andrew Jackson. The purpose of the convention soon expanded to preparing a party platform, which presented the beliefs of the party to the public, and policies it would implement if its candidates were elected. The Democrat's first platform was created in 1852, and the Republicans followed in 1856.

Until the 1950s, national nominating conventions did significant party business, frequently after days of debate. Because convention delegates were not committed to any particular candidate, the nominee was not known until the end of the convention and often required numerous ballots; which also created the opportunity for dark horse candidates. For instance, it took 49 ballots to select Franklin Pierce in 1852, and 46 for Woodrow Wilson in 1912. James Polk was nominated on the ninth ballot in 1844, however, his name was not entered until the 8th ballot, and Warren Harding, who many Americans had never heard of, was chosen as a compromise candidate to break a deadlock at the 1920 convention. These conventions involved significant debate between candidates and delegates, with each side making deals in order to gain support.

The most noteworthy of the national nominating party conventions was the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The divisions in the country at that time over Vietnam were reflected in the streets of the city and in the convention itself. Violence erupted outside, as groups denied permits to protest the Vietnam War did so anyway, and were met by police with tear gas and batons. On the convention floor, shouting and shoving broke out between delegates supporting Eugene McCarthy, who opposed the war, and Hubert Humphrey, who supported the war and became the nominee even though he did not enter a single primary.

However, as television became more prominent and primaries and caucuses took on greater importance, the purpose of the national nominating party convention changed. Starting in the 1970s, Republicans and Democrats instituted rule changes committing delegates to a chosen candidate prior to the convention and, for the Democrats, eliminating the two-thirds majority requirement for nomination. This streamlined the convention by making the nominee known months beforehand. Television coverage was becoming more important at the same time, it also encouraged parties to move platform debates behind closed doors in order to project a united party and broadcast their core message to television audiences.

...