The Parties' National Conventions

From Ballot Access News:

"Both major parties recently set the dates for their 2012 national conventions. The 2012 general election is on November 6.

"The Republicans will meet August 27-30, and the Democrats will meet September 3-6. Both major parties will be able to comply with state certification deadlines, which in some states are 60 days before the election. Sixty days before the 2012 general election works out to September 7.

"The locations for these conventions will be determined in the next six months."

For some years now, it has been traditional for the party of the incumbent president to hold its convention last. Hence the Democrats in 2012 will convene four days after the Republican convention has ended.

According to Michael Holt’s book, The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War, the Antimasons, a regional party, held the first such convention in September 1831. They nominated their 1832 presidential candidate, William Wirt, and only 13 states were represented.

The National Republicans– most of whom joined the Whig Party when it was later founded– met in December 1831 and nominated Henry Clay for the 1832 election.

The first convention of what is today called the Democratic Party met in Baltimore and renominated President Andrew Jackson in May 1832.

The Democrats held their convention for 1836 in May 1835 and nominated Martin Van Buren. They did not convene again until May 1840, when they renominated President Van Buren.

The Whigs held their first convention in December 1839 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They nominated William Henry Harrison for the 1840 election.

Today's Republican Party was founded in the summer of 1854. That party nominated John C. Fremont for president in 1856, and he lost to the Democrat James Buchanan.

The Republicans convened in May 1860 and nominated Abraham Lincoln on the third ballot.