Kingfish Strategy

The Kingfish Strategy was a Democratic Party electoral strategy enacted during the 1938 midterm elections. In the fall out of his break with former Vice President John Garner, then President Franklin D. Roosevelt had desires to replace Conservative Democratic members of congress from the south with those who would be more supportive of his New Deal agenda and he saw the 1938 primaries as an ideal opportunity to do so. Attorney General Huey Long, who had become more close with Roosevelt and Vice President William Bankhead while serving together in cabinet, suggested Roosevelt might seem like an imposing northerner should he attempt to get involved in southern primaries. Long proposed that Roosevelt allow southern New-Dealers to do the campaigning work in the south utilizing more southern-friendly and populist talking points of the type that Long had perfected. Despite Roosevelt’s skepticism, Bankhead would agree with Long's position and Roosevelt would leave the two in charge of campaigning against several incumbent southern democratic Senators in favor more progressive primary challengers.

Other New Dealers, such as Alben Barkley of Kentucky, Joseph Robinson of Arkansas, and Claude Pepper of Florida all made appearances in neighboring states as well. This strategy would be a significant success and several southern incumbents would lose their primaries. Those participating in the Kingfish strategy linked their opponents to Garner's 1936 third party campaign, claiming they were not true Democrats that were trying to spoil the vote and the New Deal, that they worked for Wall Street and oil tycoons such as Standard Oil before their voters, and that they would rather a corporate dictatorship to prosperity for the common man. Notably they would largely remain silent on racial issues besides some comparisons to the unpopular Klu Klux Klan. Conservative incumbents would be defeated in states such as Georgia, Maryland, and South Carolina, and New-Dealers would win competitive primaries in various other states and districts throughout the south. Other conservative southerners still in congress would soon change their tune, showing the impact this election had towards southern political realignment. Despite overall Republican gains within both houses in the midterms, the governing coalition following 1938 was significantly more progressive and unified and the attempt at a conservative coalition was broken.