I’m grateful for so much this Thanksgiving, including an independent platform and a community of readers who appreciate in-depth coverage of Iowa politics.

In past years, I have marked this holiday by sharing links about its origins and the associated myths, or ideas for making soup and other dishes from Thanksgiving leftovers.

Today, with permission from Matthew Isbell, I want to share a vignette about Iowa’s Thanksgiving celebrations during a previous era, when (like today) this state was solidly Republican during a Democratic presidency.

Isbell covered the episode “when Thanksgiving was Partisan” at his MCIMaps website in 2017 and recently shared a condensed version of the tale on his Substack newsletter.

The U.S. had long celebrated Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. But in 1939, that date would fall on November 30. Retailers were worried the late start to the post-Thanksgiving holiday season would cut into sales, so President Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved up the holiday from the fifth Thursday to the fourth (November 23). Isbell writes,

The response was not what FDR had hoped.  Reaction from lawmakers and the public was not supportive of the move.  Voter sentiments fell on ideological lines, but with Republicans much more passionate in opposition.  A Gallup poll from the time found Democrats backed the move 52-48, but Republicans were opposed 79-21.  Overall voters opposed the measure 62-38.  Republican lawmakers were no more supportive.  Many GOP governors pledged to keep the date on the original day planned.  The November 23rd date was derided as “Franksgiving” by FDR opponents.

Iowa’s new Republican governor, George Wilson, was part of the trend, according to this map created by Isbell.

President Roosevelt declared another “early” Thanksgiving in 1940 (selecting November 21 instead of November 28), and more states went along with the idea. But Iowa remained among the sixteen holdouts resisting Franksgiving.

The Democratic-controlled Congress decided to address the issue in 1941, when FDR declared Thanksgiving to be November 20, even though the last Thursday of the month was November 27. Sixteen states including Iowa said no.

According to Isbell, by 1941 the economic data showed early Thanksgiving dates did not measurably increase consumer spending on Christmas shopping. “FDR likely could have simply stopped offering earlier dates, but the resolution compromise seems like a way for both sides to save some face and not ‘back down.'”

Under the resolution Congress approved and FDR signed in late 1941, Thanksgiving was set for the fourth Thursday in November. When the resolution came into play in 1944, most states, including Iowa, celebrated the federal holiday on November 23. But eight states, mostly across the south, stuck to the “last Thursday” tradition—in part because of football games scheduled.

Nowadays, no one minds when “Franksgiving” falls before the last Thursday of November. Given how quick Governor Kim Reynolds and other Iowa Republicans are to bash alleged “overreach” by the Biden administration, though, one can only imagine what they would say if the current president tried to boost the economy by altering a longstanding holiday tradition.

All maps were created by Matthew Isbell and are published here with permission.