October Surprise

By hattieL

  • Garfield's Death Warrent

    For the 1880 election, Chinese immigration was a big focus. Republican candidate James Garfield pushed for better negotiations with China and less strict restrictions. 500,000 copies of a fake letter were sent out by Democrats. Garfield allegedly sent this letter to a businessman named H.L. Morey, & said NO restrictions on immigration would be good for business. The Republican party proved that it was forged, but the letters still affected the election results, costing Garfield California.

  • FDR Almost Losing Votes of Black People

    In the 1936 election, FDR carried 71% of black people's vote. In 1940 however, things were already changing because of FDR's lack of change in military segregation. On Oct. 28, at a campaign event in NYC, one of FDR's press aides Stephen Early kneed a black cop in the crotch, giving an unenthusiastic apology afterwards. To fix the situation, FDR promoted Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Jr. to be the first brigadier general, and created the Tuskegee Airmen. FDR still won, only losing some black votes.

  • Peace? pt 1

    The Vietnam War was the main focus of the 1968 and the 1972 elections. During the 1968 election, President Lyndon Johnson halted all U.S bombing campaigns in Vietnam to support his vice president Hubert Humphrey's election campaign. A few days later, the promise of peace fell through and Nixon won instead.

  • Peace? pt. 2

    In 1972, the Vietnam War was still ongoing. There seemed to be some breakthroughs with Northern Vietnam, and although Southern Vietnam wasn't enthusiastic about accepting America's terms, Nixon's national security advisor Henry Kissinger announced that "peace was at hand" during a press conference on October 26th. Nixon won with a huge advantage, likely because of this. In reality, the war continued for 3 more years.

  • The Non-existent October Surprise

    During the 1980 election, there was an Iranian Hostage Crisis where 50 Americans were held hostage. The current President Jimmy Carter had failed to free the hostages, and Ronald Reagan promised to free them in his campaign. Reagan's campaign manager, William Casey, suspected that Carter was just waiting to announce the release of the hostages during the few weeks leading up to the election, calling it Carter's "October Surprise." This never ended up happening, and Ronald Reagan won the election