Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic National Committee

Abstract

This article examines Franklin D. Roosevelt's concept of and relationship with the Democratic National Committee during his presidency. It argues that during the 1920s Roosevelt had wanted to reorganize the DNC in order to use it as a vehicle for making the Democratic Party a more distinctly liberal party in its ideology and policy agenda and more democratic and particpatory in its decision-making and fund-raising processes. It reveals, however, that following his election to the presidency he no longer sought to internally reform the DNC for this purpose and would rely on the pursuit of the New Deal policy agenda for liberalizing the Democratic Party while using the DNC's special divisions to coopt liberal interest groups and voting blocs attracted to Roosevelt and the New Deal. This article concludes that the expansion of special DNC divisions for blacks, women, and labor had the effect of making the DNC more reflective of and responsive to liberally-inclined voting blocs and interest groups by 1945.