Two-Thirds Rule

Candidates for the Democratic presidential or vice-presidential nomination faced an especially high hurdle during the party's first century. Unlike other major parties, the Democrats used a controversial rule that required a two-thirds majority vote of the national party convention to obtain either nomination.

The party adopted the rule at its first convention, in 1832, and followed it until 1936. During those 104 years the rule denied the presidential nomination to two candidates—Martin Van Buren and James Beauchamp “Champ” Clark—who received majorities but not the required two-thirds vote.

On the first ballot in 1844, former president Van Buren won 146 of the 266 convention votes, or 54.9 percent majority. His total fell below a simple majority on succeeding roll calls, and on the ninth ballot the nomination went to former governor James K. Polk of Tennessee. Polk thus became the first dark-horse presidential candidate.

Ironically, Van Buren had benefited twice from the two-thirds rule since its inception. At the 1832 convention, President Andrew Jackson wanted the rule adopted because it ensured the nomination of Van Buren in place of Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who had clashed with Jackson on several issues, notably Calhoun's support of southern states' rights to nullify federal laws they deemed unconstitutional. After being dumped from the ticket, Calhoun returned to South Carolina to continue his fight against Jackson as a U.S. senator. He was the first vice president to resign.

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As vice president in 1836, Van Buren was Jackson's choice to succeed him as president after two terms in office. Again the two-thirds rule favored Van Buren, who won the nomination and the election. He was defeated for reelection in 1840, however, making him the first incumbent president denied a second term after first completing a full term as vice president. George Bush in 1992 became the second such person.

At the 1912 convention House Speaker Champ Clark of Missouri received a bare 50.8 percent majority on the [Page p485]tenth ballot with 556 of the 1,094 convention votes. He received even lower majorities through the sixteenth ballot. The nomination ultimately went to New Jersey governor Woodrow Wilson on the forty-sixth ballot.

The Republican Party never adopted the two-thirds rule. In contrast to the typical GOP convention, Democratic conventions often were characterized by turbulence and multiballot contests over nominations. In 1924 it took Wall Street lawyer John W. Davis 103 roll calls to win the Democratic nomination.

With the assistance of Clark's son, Sen. Joel Bennett Clark of Missouri, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won repeal of the two-thirds rule at the 1936 convention. Southern delegations had long fought repeal because the rule gave the South a virtual veto over the selection of national ticket nominees. The issue was settled with a compromise that promised larger southern delegations at future Democratic conventions, with seats allocated on the basis of the party's voting strength in a state rather than solely by population.