1956 Republican National Convention

Political convention of the Republican Party February 2026 July 2021 1956 Republican RP1956.png 125 RV1952.png 125 Nominees Eisenhower and Nixon August 20–23, 1956 Cow Palace Daly City, California Dwight D. Eisenhower PennsylvaniaNichols David A. 2011 Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis--Suez and the Brink of War https://archive.org/details/eisenhower1956pr0000nich registration New York, NY Simon & Schuster 250 978-1-4391-3934-9 "At 9:13, Ike, Mamie and Dr. Snyder departed by car for Gettysburg, where the Eisenhowers, as Pennsylvania residents, were obligated to vote." Richard M. Nixon California 1952 1960 Arthur B. Langlie The 1956 Republican National Convention was held by the Republican Party of the United States at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, from August 20 to August 23, 1956. U.S. Senator William F. Knowland was temporary chairman and former speaker of the House Joseph W. Martin Jr. served as permanent chairman. It renominated President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Vice President Richard M. Nixon as the party's candidates for the 1956 presidential election. On August 23, 1956, singer Nat King Cole spoke at the Republican Convention. Convention scheduling thumb|Entrance ticket, featuring illustrations of both Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln (the first Republican to be elected president) and featuring a commemoration of the centennial of the party's first presidential convention in (held in 1856) thumb|Back of entrance ticket, with an illustration of the Cow Palace (the main venue of the convention) The 1956 Republican convention was held after that year's Democratic National Convention. This was unusual, as since 1864, in every election but 1888, Democrats had held their convention second.Whose Convention Goes First? https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2000/08/whose-convention-goes-first.html Slate Magazine 11 April 2020 en 3 August 2000 It has become an informal tradition that the party holding the White House (which, accordingly, in 1956 had been the Republican Party) hosts their convention second, but it is unclear when this tradition began (Democrats had held the White House and held their conventions second between 1936 and 1952, but it is unclear whether they scheduled their conventions second in these years because of their White House incumbency, or whether they scheduled them second because it was traditional that Democratic National Conventions had been held after the Republican National Convention). Presidential nomination Presidential candidates President Eisenhower was unanimously re-nominated by the Republican delegates for President of the United States. Presidential BallotingCandidate1stEisenhower1,323 Presidential Balloting / 3rd Day of Convention (August 22, 1956) Vice Presidential nomination Vice Presidential candidates right|thumb|200px|Convention-goers at the 1956 Republican National Convention holding signs for Richard Nixon. Eisenhower had considered other running mates, but with his health a concern, he ultimately decided that Vice President Richard Nixon was best prepared to assume the presidency. By the time of the convention, a unanimous renomination for Nixon was expected until one renegade delegate, former Democratic Congressman and perennial candidate Terry Carpenter, decided to place in nomination for vice president a man named Joe Smith, from Carpenter's own Terrytown, Nebraska.Joe Smith Incident C-SPAN.org https://www.c-span.org/video/?3990-1/joe-smith-incident 2021-07-08 www.c-span.org en-us When asked who Joe Smith was at the 1956 convention, Carpenter mysteriously replied, "Oh, he is a symbol of an open convention, in that sense of the word."The Lone Dissenter https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-delegates-dissent-at-a-boring-convention 2021-07-08 The New Yorker July 19, 2016 en-US It was eventually revealed that there was no such man, and that his nomination was a protest against the perceived political theater of the closed 1956 Republican National Convention.Terry Carpenter https://www.terrytown.org/terry-carpenter.html 2021-07-08 CITY OF TERRYTOWN en Carpenter ultimately did cast his one dissenting vote for vice president for Joe Smith. Vice Presidential BallotingCandidate1stNixon1,322Smith1 Vice Presidential Balloting / 3rd Day of Convention (August 22, 1956) Keynote address The keynote speaker at the convention was Arthur B. Langlie, the governor of Washington.Republican Keynote https://www.nytimes.com/1956/08/21/archives/republican-keynote.html The New York Times July 5, 2026 August 21, 1956 See also History of the United States Republican Party List of Republican National Conventions 1956 Democratic National Convention 1956 United States presidential election United States presidential nominating convention References External links Republican Party platform of 1956 at The American Presidency Project Eisenhower nomination acceptance speech for President at RNC (transcript) at The American Presidency Project http://politicalgraveyard.com Universal newsreel footage of the convention Universal newsreel footage of the convention Video of Nixon nomination acceptance speech for Vice President and Eisenhower nomination acceptance speech for President at RNC from C-SPAN (via YouTube) Audio of Eisenhower nomination acceptance speech for President at RNCFebruary 2021 InternetArchiveBot yes 1952Chicago, Illinois Republican National Conventions 1960Chicago, Illinois Category:Republican National Conventions Republican Category:1956 in California Category:Republican Party (United States) events in California Category:August 1956 in the United States Category:Dwight D. Eisenhower Category:Richard Nixon