Born in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, in 1887, Landon moved to Kansas and was a millionaire in the oil industry by 1929. He was elected Governor of Kansas in 1932. He was re-elected governor in 1934 - the only Republican governor to be re-elected that year. He served as governor from 1933 until 1937. As Governor, Landon supported parts of the New Deal but opposed labor unions.
In 1936, Landon chose not to run for re-election as Governor but to become the Republican presidential nominee opposing the re-election of FDR. The 1936 Presidential election was extraordinarily lopsided, with Landon carrying only Maine and Vermont, and losing the popular vote by more than 10 million votes. The overwhelming Roosevelt victory prompted Democratic party boss James Farley to joke, "As Maine goes, so goes Vermont."
Alfred Mossman "Alf" Landon (September 9, 1887 – October 12, 1987) was an American Republican politician from Kansas, notable nationally for his 1936 nomination as the Republican opponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Landon's lecture, titled "New Challenges in International Relations" was the first in a series of public issues lectures that continues to this day and has featured numerous world leaders and political figures, including six U.S. presidents (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush, and George W. Bush).
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