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Trivia answer
What is the earliest month in which a major party held a political convention?
a. April
b. May
c. June
d. July
In recent presidential elections, nominating conventions have typically been held toward the end of summer. Since 2000, the earliest major party presidential nominating convention was the 2016 Republican National Convention, held between July 18-21, 2016. In the 2020 cycle, the Democratic convention was held even earlier, between July 13-16, while the Republican convention took place between August 24-27. The earliest start to a convention in U.S. history was the 1860 Democratic National Convention, which opened in April.
The 1860 Democratic National Convention was held in Charleston, South Carolina, between April 23 and May 3. At the convention, Southern and Northern Democrats debated the party's position on slavery. Frontrunner Stephen Douglas (D-Ill.) and many of the Northern Democrats supported the concept of popular sovereignty, which called for allowing residents of territories to vote on whether to enter the Union as a slave state or a free state. The Southern Democrats were concerned that the greater population of the North would lead to most territories voting to enter as free states and, eventually, a free state majority in the U.S. Senate voting to outlaw slavery. The convention ended without settling on a nominee.[1] Both the Northern and Southern Democrats later held separate conventions in June, with the Northern Democrats nominating Douglas and the Southern Democrats nominating Vice President John C. Breckinridge (D-Ky.).[2]
The Republican National Convention of 1860, that party's earliest, was held between May 16-18 in Chicago, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln (R-Ill.) won the nomination on the third ballot. The only other Republican National Convention to be held in May was the 1868 convention, also hosted in Chicago.[3]
