In 1836, William Henry Harrison was the first presidential candidate to campaign aboard a train, launching a practice of whistle-stop campaigning that allowed candidates to greet and speak with voters in small towns along the way.
One of the most famous presidential railroaders was Harry S. Truman. During his 1948 whistle-stop tour, he traveled more than 28,000 miles and delivered more than 350 speeches. Is whistle-stop campaigning still happening?
We have as our guest today an expert who’s going to fill us in. Edward Segal is one of the few people to organize a modern-day whistle-stop campaign-train tour. He served as a campaign manager, press secretary, and aide to Democratic and Republican presidential and congressional candidates.
Segal is the bestselling author of Crisis Ahead and has written for Forbes.com, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other major publications. He has a new called Whistle-Stop Politics: Campaign Trains and the Reporters Who Covered Them.
Here are key points we discussed with Segal:
- Tell us about how whistle-stop campaigning was used by political candidates and about your book.
- In fact, why did you write it?
- How many politicians have campaigned by train?
- What lessons could today’s politicians learn from past whistle-stopping candidates?
- Given today’s technology, the prevalence of social media, etc., is there any chance that this form of campaigning will regain its popularity?
- Can you share some interesting stories from your research about those candidates in days gone by?
- How did campaign trains change the outcome of campaigns, such as George McGovern and Bobby Kennedy?
- Do you anticipate that whistle-stop campaigning will be used in the 2024 campaign?
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