List of Democratic National Conventions

This is a list of Democratic National Conventions. These conventions are the presidential nominating conventions of the Democratic Party of the United States. Click on the year to take you to the corresponding article about the convention. (Conventions whose nominees won the subsequent presidential election are tinted in light blue. Four other conventions — in 1876, 1888, 2000 and 2016 — which nominated candidates who won more popular votes than any other party's but not the Presidency are tinted in pale yellow. )

Footnotes

¹ [1832] A resolution endorsing "the repeated nominations which he [Jackson] has received in various parts of the Union" was passed by the convention.
² [1840] A resolution stating "that the convention deem it expedient at the present time not to choose between the individuals in nomination, but to leave the decision to their Republican fellow-citizens in the several states" was passed by the convention. Most Van Buren electors voted for Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky for the vice presidency; others voted for Littleton Waller Tazewell of Virginia and James K. Polk of Tennessee in the election of 1840.
³ [1844] Silas Wright of New York was first nominated and he declined the nomination.
⁴ [1860 June] Caleb Cushing resigned as permanent chairman.
⁵ [1860 June] Douglas and Johnson were chosen as the candidates of the Front Street Theater convention after most of the Southern delegations walked out. The convention bolters soon formed their own convention, located at the Maryland Institute, also in Baltimore, on June 28, 1860. At their convention Caleb Cushing again served as permanent chairman and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky was nominated for the presidency and Joseph Lane of Oregon was nominated for the vice presidency. (1860 Southern Democratic platform)
⁶ [1860 June] Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama was first nominated but he declined the nomination.
⁷ [1872] Greeley and B. Gratz Brown had already been endorsed by the Liberal Republican Party, meeting on May 1 in Cincinnati. A dissident group of Straight-Out Democrats, meeting in Louisville, Kentucky on September 3, nominated Charles O'Conor of New York for President and John Quincy Adams II of Massachusetts for Vice President, but both men declined the nomination.^[3]
8 [1896] "Gold" Democrats opposed to the Free Silver plank of the 1896 platform and to Wm J. Bryan's candidacy convened as the National Democratic Party in Indianapolis on September 2, and nominated John M. Palmer of Illinois for President and former Governor Simon Bolivar Buckner of Kentucky for Vice President.
⁹ [1896] Bryan was later nominated for President in St. Louis, together with Thomas E. Watson of Georgia for Vice President, by the National Silver Republican Party meeting on July 22, and by the People's Party (Populists) meeting on July 25.^[4]
10 [1948] Breakaway delegations left the Philadelphia Convention for conventions of the Progressive and States Rights Democratic Parties. The Progressives, meeting on July 23, also in Philadelphia, nominated former Vice President Henry A. Wallace of Iowa for President and Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho for Vice President. (1948 Progressive Party platform)
The States' Rights Democrats (or "Dixiecrats"), meeting in Birmingham, Alabama on July 17, nominated Governors J. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina for President and Fielding Wright of Mississippi for Vice President. (1948 States' Rights Democratic platform)^[5]
11 [1972] Eagleton withdrew his candidacy after the convention and was replaced by R. Sargent Shriver, Jr. of Maryland.
¹² [2016] Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida was intended to be the chair, but resigned two days prior to the convention.^[6]

Keynote speakers

• 1896 – Senator John W. Daniel of Virginia, temporary convention chairman^[7]
• 1900 – Governor Charles S. Thomas of Colorado^[8]
• 1904 – Representative John Sharp Williams of Mississippi^[8]
• 1908 – Theodore Bell of California, former congressman, temporary convention chairman ^[9]
• 1912 – former Chief Judge and 1904 Presidential nominee Alton B. Parker of New York
• 1916 – former Governor Martin Glynn of New York^[10]
• 1920 – Homer Cummings, Connecticut, Democratic National Committee chairman, state's attorney for Fairfield County, Connecticut, temporary convention chairman ^[11]
• 1924 – Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi^[12]
• 1928 – Claude Bowers, New York, historian, political commentator and temporary convention chairman^[13]
• 1932 – Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky, temporary convention chairman ^[14]
• 1936 – Senator Alben Barkley of Kentucky, and Senator Joseph Robinson of Arkansas^[15]
• 1940 – Speaker of the House of Representatives William Bankhead of Alabama, temporary convention chairman^[16]
• 1944 – Governor Robert Kerr of Oklahoma, temporary convention chairman^[17]
• 1948 – Senate Minority Leader Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky (also V.P. nominee)^[18]
• 1952 – Governor Paul Dever of Massachusetts^[19]
• 1956 – Governor Frank Clement of Tennessee ^[20]
• 1960 – Senator Frank Church of Idaho
• 1964 – Senator John O. Pastore of Rhode Island^[21]
• 1968 – Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
• 1972 – Governor Reubin Askew of Florida^[22]
• 1976 – Representative Barbara Jordan of Texas and Senator John Glenn of Ohio ^[23]
• 1980 – Congressman Mo Udall of Arizona
• 1984 – Governor Mario Cuomo of New York^[18]
• 1988 – Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards
• 1992 – Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, former Representative Barbara Jordan of Texas, Governor Zell Miller of Georgia (only time with three keynote speakers)^[18]
• 1996 – Governor Evan Bayh of Indiana
• 2000 – Representative Harold Ford, Jr. of Tennessee
• 2004 – State Senator Barack Obama of Illinois
• 2008 – Former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia
• 2012 – Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, Texas
• 2016 – Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

See also

• List of United States Democratic Party presidential tickets
• List of Republican National Conventions
• List of Whig National Conventions
• U.S. presidential election
• U.S. presidential primary
• 2012 Democratic National Convention
• 2016 Democratic National Convention

References