The year 1937 was not the happiest of times for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, despite his landslide victory on the 1936 election over Republican candidate Alf Landon. His New Deal and Second New Deal initiatives had not gone as well as he had expected, and he thought this was because of adverse rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ever since the 1932 general election that had propelled him into the presidency, Roosevelt had enjoyed a solid majority in both houses of Congress and so had been able to navigate most of his program through the legislative process.