Democratic National Convention 1928 - Houston
In 1928, Houston publisher Jesse H. Jones successfully persuaded the Democratic Party to hold their national convention in Houston, the first time since the Civil War that a major party convention had been held in the South. The party entered the convention deeply divided. Traditionally the party of the rural Southerners, who held dear to prohibition and Protestantism, the Democrats on the national level had become increasingly urban, Catholic, and "wet" (anti-Prohibition). The new look of the Democratic party was personified by their probable nominee as the convention opened, Governor Al Smith of New York. Smith was Catholic, backed by the New York City political machine of Tammany Hall, and aggressively anti-prohibition. The sentiment of Texas Democrats was overwhelmingly anti-Smith, and there was great discontent in the Texas delegation when Smith received the nomination as expected. Governor Moody embodied the sentiments of the delegates when he led the fight to put a "bone-dry" prohibition plank in the party’s platform. Moody became nationally known to a nation of radio listeners when the meeting of the platform committee was broadcast. However, the young governor lost the fight, and the party instead adopted a plank pledging merely "honest enforcement" of the Constitution. It was far less than the prohibitionists had hoped for. Their disappointment turned to rage when Smith’s acceptance telegram called for "fundamental changes" in the prohibition laws. Moody found himself in a no-win situation. If he campaigned for Smith, he would be accused of abandoning prohibition, which many Texans, including Moody himself, were still passionate about. If he refused to campaign for Smith, he would be accused of betraying his party loyalty. Throughout the summer and fall, Moody tried to straddle the fence, neither campaigning for Smith nor repudiating him. In the end, Herbert Hoover carried Texas, the first Republican ever to do so. The bruising fight left the Texas Democrats in tatters and facing a struggle for control of the party. Moody's career never really recovered from the election debacle. As it happened, the election would prove to be the last stand for the prohibitionists. The arrival of the Great Depression would herald the end of their crusade, though Texans retained the "local option" that enabled individual counties to remain dry. - Texas State Library & Archives Commission
