The California gubernatorial election, 1934 was held on November 6, 1934. Held in the midst of the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, the 1934 election was amongst the most controversial in the state's political history, putting conservative Republican Frank Merriam

Frank Merriam

Frank Finley Merriam was an American politician who served as the 28th governor of California from June 2, 1934 until January 2, 1939...

 against former Socialist Party

Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

 member turned Democrat Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair

Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. , was an American author who wrote close to one hundred books in many genres. He achieved popularity in the first half of the twentieth century, acquiring particular fame for his classic muckraking novel, The Jungle . It exposed conditions in the U.S...

, author of The Jungle

The Jungle

The Jungle is a 1906 novel written by journalist Upton Sinclair. Sinclair wrote the novel with the intention of portraying the life of the immigrant in the United States, but readers were more concerned with the large portion of the book pertaining to the corruption of the American meatpacking...

. A strong third party

Third party (United States)

The term third party is used in the United States for any and all political parties in the United States other than one of the two major parties . The term can also refer to independent politicians not affiliated with any party at all and to write-in candidates.The United States has had a...

 challenge came from Commonwealth-Progressive

Progressive Party (United States, 1924)

The Progressive Party of 1924 was a new party created as a vehicle for Robert M. La Follette, Sr. to run for president in the 1924 election. It did not run candidates for other offices, and it disappeared after the election except in Wisconsin. Its name resembles the 1912 Progressive Party, which...

 Raymond L. Haight

Raymond L. Haight

Raymond LeRoy Haight was an American lawyer and politician from California. Involved in the Republican and Commonwealth-Progressive parties, Haight ran as a third party candidate during the 1934 California gubernatorial election.-Biography:Haight was born in San Jose, California to George Haight...

, a Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 lawyer campaigning for the political center. Much of the campaign's emphasis was directed at Sinclair's EPIC movement

End Poverty in California movement

Standing for End Poverty in California, EPIC was an effort for well-known muckraking writer and former Socialist Upton Sinclair to implement socialist reforms through California's Democratic Party during the Great Depression by recruiting supporters into the party and then securing that party's...

, proposing socialist reforms to cure the state's ailing economy. Merriam, who had recently assumed the governorship following the death of James Rolph

James Rolph

James “Sunny Jim” Rolph, Jr. was an American politician and a member of the Republican Party. He was elected to a single term as the 27th governor of California from January 6, 1931 until his death on June 2, 1934 at the height of the Great Depression...

, characterized Sinclair's proposal as a step towards communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

.

General Election Results