1956 Democratic National Convention

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The 1956 National Convention of the Democratic Party nominated former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois for President and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee for Vice President. It was held in the International Amphitheatre on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois August 13–17, 1956. Unsuccessful candidates for the presidential nomination included Gov. W. Averell Harriman of New York, Sen. Lyndon Baines Johnson of Texas, and Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri.

As the unsuccessful 1952 Democratic Party presidential nominee, Stevenson had the highest stature of the active candidates and was easily renominated.

The convention was marked by a "free vote" for the vice-presidential nomination in which the winner, Kefauver, defeated Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. The vice-presidential vote, which required three separate ballots, was one of the last multi-ballot contests held at the quadrennial political convention of any major U.S. political party.

The Democratic convention preceded the Republican convention in the Cow Palace, San Francisco, California. Incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated for a second term.

NBC-TV assigned two of its reporters, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, to co-anchor their 1956 convention television coverage. The two men were so successful at this assignment that the network promoted them to anchor their evening news broadcast, the Huntley-Brinkley Report (1956-1970).

Preceded by: 1952

Democratic National Conventions

Succeeded by: 1960