From Smoke-Filled Rooms to Prime Time Republican Conventions in Dated Steps

There was a time when the most important people at a national convention were the ones nobody could see. They sat in hotel suites, in hallways, in the back rooms of the arena, trading delegations like horses at a county fair. The ballots on the floor were the formality. The decision was made somewhere else, by somebody else, usually while the delegates were supposed to be asleep. Today the same event is a four-night television production with a schedule down to the minute, a roll call that is more ceremony than contest, and a nominee everybody has known about since the spring.

How did we get from one to the other? Not in one jump. Step by step, over a century and a half, and each step had a cause. Let me take you through the Republican story in dated entries, and after each one I will tell you what it meant for the delegates in the hall and for the voters at home. If you want the machinery behind it, see How Republicans Pick Nominees from Party Bosses to Primaries and Caucuses and how delegates are chosen and what they really do at a national convention. This is the story told in order.

The founding conventions

June 1856: Philadelphia

The brand-new party held its first national convention, adopted a platform opposed to the spread of slavery, and nominated John C. Frémont for President. There was no primary system, and delegates were chosen by state and local meetings, so the convention was the only place where the party could decide anything. What it meant: the convention was the party. Everything was decided in the room.

May 1860: the Wigwam in Chicago

The favorite was Senator William Seward of New York. The winner, on the third ballot on May 18, was Abraham Lincoln, a former one-term congressman from Illinois. Lincoln's managers worked the delegations behind the scenes, and the hall was packed with local supporters. We tell it in full in Three Ballots in the Wigwam and How Lincoln Beat the Favorite in 1860. What it meant: the front-runner did not win. A convention could overturn expectations, and delegates were persuadable, which meant that organization and deals mattered more than public opinion.

June 1880: Chicago, a dark horse

Former President Ulysses Grant, whose supporters wanted him to serve a third term, led the early ballots, but he could not win a majority. After a long deadlock, delegates turned to Congressman James Garfield of Ohio, who had come to the convention as a supporter of another candidate. Garfield was nominated on the thirty-sixth ballot. What it meant: a deadlocked convention could pick a candidate nobody had planned on. That is a feature of a system in which delegates are free to move.

The age of the brokers

June 1912: Chicago, the party splits

President William Howard Taft controlled enough of the delegates, through the party organization in states that did not hold primaries, to be renominated, though former President Theodore Roosevelt had won most of the primaries held that year. Roosevelt's supporters left and formed a new party. Read the whole drama in Taft, Roosevelt and the Convention Fight That Split the Party in 1912. What it meant: primaries were arriving, but they did not yet bind delegates. The party leaders could ignore the popular vote and did, at a cost: Woodrow Wilson won the White House in the three-way race.

June 1920: Chicago, the origin of the phrase

The convention was deadlocked among several candidates through repeated ballots. Senator Warren Harding of Ohio was nominated on the tenth ballot, and the party chose Calvin Coolidge, the governor of Massachusetts, for Vice President. The phrase "smoke-filled room" entered the language through reports that the decision was made by party leaders in a hotel suite late at night. Whether the story is exactly true is debated, but the phrase stuck because it captured something real. What it meant: a handful of party leaders could decide, and the public could only watch. The Harding administration's later scandals, which we cover in Teapot Dome and What a Party Owes Its Voters When Its Own People Fail, became a cautionary tale about that method.

June 1924: Cleveland and the radio

The Republican convention in Cleveland was broadcast live by radio, so that millions of Americans could hear the proceedings for the first time. The nomination of the incumbent, Calvin Coolidge, was never in doubt. What it meant: the convention had an audience beyond the hall. Speeches were now written for listeners at home, and the delegates became extras in a larger production.

June 1940: Philadelphia, the businessman

The party nominated Wendell Willkie, a utility company executive who had never held elective office, on the sixth ballot. Willkie had been a Democrat not long before. His supporters packed the galleries, and a national wave of enthusiasm helped carry him past the party's more established candidates. What it meant: public opinion and organized supporters could move a convention. It was an early sign of what a grassroots campaign could do.

The cameras arrive

June 1948: Philadelphia, the first on television

The first Republican convention to appear on television was seen by a modest audience in a handful of Eastern cities, connected by cable. Governor Thomas Dewey of New York was nominated on the third ballot. What it meant: a new medium had arrived, and it would transform everything about how conventions looked and sounded.

July 1952: Chicago, a fight on camera

Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the conservative favorite known as "Mr. Republican," faced General Dwight Eisenhower. The two sides fought over which delegations from several Southern states should be seated, and the argument played out before television cameras. Eisenhower's supporters won the key credentials fights and then the nomination on the first ballot. What it meant: for the first time, ordinary viewers could watch a procedural fight and form a judgment about it. A delegate's vote on a credentials committee report was now a public act.

July 1964: San Francisco, a nomination won in the precincts

Barry Goldwater arrived at the Cow Palace with a delegate lead built by organized conservative activists in state conventions and primaries, not through a deal among governors. The party's old wing fought back with platform amendments and lost, as we describe in The 1964 Goldwater Campaign Lost 44 States and Won the Future. What it meant: a movement could take the party from the bottom up. Delegate selection at the state and local level was where the fight now took place.

August 1968: Miami Beach, Nixon on the first ballot

Richard Nixon was nominated on the first ballot over Nelson Rockefeller and Ronald Reagan, who both made late efforts to stop him. What it meant: by 1968 the front-runner usually had the delegates before the convention opened. The late challenge from the right and the left still showed the party's divisions, but the broker's room was losing its power.

When primaries took over

August 1976: Kansas City, the last open fight

President Gerald Ford faced a challenge from Ronald Reagan that went all the way to the convention floor. Ford won the first ballot by a narrow margin, fewer than 120 votes, after both men courted uncommitted delegates for weeks. Reagan was invited to the podium on the final night, and the hall listened to him in rapt silence. Our piece The 1976 Kansas City Convention and the Last Real Fight Over the Nomination tells the story. What it meant: it was the last time a Republican convention went to the floor with the nomination truly in doubt. After 1976, the front-runner of the primaries has always won.

July 1980: Detroit, the coronation and the vice presidential drama

Reagan arrived with a decisive delegate lead. The suspense moved from the nomination to the second spot on the ticket, as rumors circulated that former President Ford might join the ticket. In the end Reagan chose George H. W. Bush. What it meant: the nominee's only real decision left was the running mate. The convention now served to unify the party behind a candidate decided months earlier.

August 1988: New Orleans, a pledge and a surprise

Vice President Bush accepted the nomination in an address that included a pledge about taxes, which would shape the rest of his political career. We tell that story in Read My Lips and How the 1990 Budget Deal Led to the 1992 Defeat. He surprised the hall and the country by choosing Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate. What it meant: the convention's drama came from the announcement of the running mate and from the acceptance speech, both of which were written for the television audience.

August 1996: San Diego, the networks pull back

Senator Bob Dole was the nominee, and the outcome was known months before. The major broadcast networks, which once carried the conventions gavel to gavel, reduced their coverage to a few hours a night. What it meant: if nothing was decided on the floor, the networks saw no news. The party had a choice: abandon the show or make it a better show.

The pageant

July 2000: Philadelphia

The convention was staged for the viewer at home. Speakers were chosen to illustrate a message, the stage was designed for the cameras, and George W. Bush was nominated with the theme of "compassionate conservatism." What it meant: the convention had become a message-delivery vehicle, and the party hired producers as well as organizers.

August and September 2004: New York

The party met in Madison Square Garden in New York City, the first Republican convention held there, in the days leading up to the third anniversary of September 11. President Bush was renominated. What it meant: the location and timing were chosen for symbolism, which tells you how far the event had moved from a deliberative meeting.

September 2008: St. Paul

Hurricane Gustav, which struck the Gulf Coast, led the party to scale back the opening day. Days before, Senator John McCain had announced Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. What it meant: events could force the show to change, and the running mate announcement was the main news of the week.

August 2012: Tampa

A tropical storm, Isaac, caused organizers to cut the first day short, with the convention meeting briefly and then recessing. Governor Mitt Romney was nominated. What it meant: a convention can lose a night and nobody misses the business, since there is no business left.

July 2016: Cleveland

Donald Trump was nominated after the long primary campaign described in The 2016 Republican Primary and How a Field of Seventeen Became One. A last attempt by opponents on the first day to force a recorded vote on the rules ended when the chair ruled that the voice vote had carried. What it meant: the delegates were bound by their states' primary results, and the rules gave them little room to depart.

August 2020: Charlotte and Washington

The pandemic scaled the convention back drastically. A small group of delegates met in Charlotte for the formal business, and a planned later portion in Jacksonville was canceled. President Trump delivered his acceptance speech from the South Lawn of the White House. What it meant: it showed that the show could be run with almost no crowd, which made the question of what the convention is for harder to avoid.

July 2024: Milwaukee

The Republican National Convention met in Milwaukee and nominated Donald Trump for President and Senator JD Vance for Vice President. What it meant: a convention in the modern style: a nominee settled months before, a ticket announced in the opening days, and four evenings of speeches and video.

What the steps added up to

If you read the entries in order, a pattern appears. Three forces did the work.

1. Primaries. As more states let voters choose delegates, and as the national party and state laws bound those delegates to the voters' choice, the decision moved from the convention to the primary calendar. The last time it did not was 1976.
2. Television. Cameras made the floor a performance. A ballot that is watched by millions is different from one cast in a hotel suite.
3. Party rules. The Republican National Committee's rules, written and rewritten at each convention, decide who is seated, how delegates are bound, and how many ballots they are bound for. Rules are quietly the most powerful part of the story.

Here is the strongest argument against the modern convention, and I will state it as its critics would. "It is a four-night infomercial. It costs a fortune, it decides nothing, and the networks no longer even carry it." And here is the reply. The convention still does real work. It adopts the party's rules for the next four years, as our post on the The Republican Party org chart, from your precinct to the RNC explains. It adopts the platform. It gives the party a chance to introduce its nominee to the country, and it gives activists from every state a chance to meet. A pageant, done well, is not a bad way to introduce a party to the voters. And if the primaries ever fail to produce a majority, the old machinery is still there. The rules still allow the delegates to decide. Nobody should assume the smoke-filled room is gone for good.

My own verdict: the move from brokers to primaries was a good thing for ordinary Republicans, because it put the decision in the hands of voters and not just insiders. The cost is that a ritual with no suspense is easy to ignore, and a party that ignores its own convention forgets that it is a membership organization, not a fan club.

The bottom line

• The Republican convention moved from the place where the nominee was chosen to a televised ceremony, in steps: primaries in the early 1900s, radio in 1924, television in 1948 and 1952, and the last open floor fight in 1976.
• Delegates matter at the earliest stage. If you want a voice in the nomination, the fight is in your county and state conventions and in the primary, not in the arena in July.
• Learn the rules. The rules adopted at each convention decide how delegates are bound and what happens if no one has a majority.
• Watch the platform and the rules, not just the speeches. That is where the lasting decisions are made.
• Run for delegate. The party is always looking for people who will show up, and it is easier than you think to become one.