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Al Smith, the beloved four-term governor of New York, was the first Catholic to appear on a major party ballot for president.
The 1928 presidential campaign was marred by the Herbert Hoover organization unleashing a wave of anti-Catholic bigotry, aided by the Klu Klux Klan and other nativist groups, that accused Smith of being an agent of the papacy and hence the devil himself. Protestant preachers railed against him from the pulpit. Even mainstream protestant churches warned against Smith’s “dual loyalties.”
TheSmithcampaignwassuchadisasterthatneithermajorpartywouldputupaCatholiccandidateforthirtyyears,whenDemocratsnominatedJohnF.Kennedy.
Smithdiedin1944,andin1945,themostpoliticalCatholiccardinalinAmericanhistory,NewYork’sFrancisSpellman,decidedtoholdadinnerto“bringtogetherAmerica’spolitical,business,andmilitaryelitetoraisemoneyforvariousCatholiccharities,”accordingtoCityJournal’sVincentJ.Cannato.
Spellman’schanceryinNewYorkCitywasknownas“thepowerhouse,”andnoDemocratcouldwinthenominationwith
