Description

Henry Wallace’s path to—and through--national politics was an unusual one. Raised on a farm in Iowa, Wallace edited his family’s agricultural newspaper while his father served as Secretary of Agriculture under two Republicans, Presidents Harding and Coolidge. Differences over farm policies led Wallace to break with the party his family had always supported. He campaigned for Democratic candidate Al Smith in 1928 and endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Because of this political work and his reputation in agricultural science and economics, FDR tapped Wallace as his Secretary of Agriculture even though Wallace was still a registered Republican. The youngest member of FDR’s Cabinet, Wallace became, according to economist John Kenneth Galbraith, “second only to Roosevelt as the most important figure of the New Deal.”Wallace registered as a Democrat in 1936 and four years later was named Roosevelt’s running mate for his third term (irreconcilable differences which had distanced FDR from his first vice president John Nance Garner became permanent when Garner declared his own campaign for the presidency before FDR had announced his decision to seek a third term). In spite of FDR’s belief in him, Democratic Party leaders continued to see Wallace as an outsider and pushed the president to replace Wallace on the 1944 ticket. When Harry S. Truman became vice president, Roosevelt returned Wallace to the Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce making him the last former vice president to serve in a subsequent presidential cabinet. Wallace served as Secretary of Commerce until September 1946 when he...

Record Contributed By

National Museum of American History

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution