CT Dems will host their annual celebratory John Bailey Dinner on November 15, 2025 (6:00 pm) at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford. The keynote speaker will be Governor Andy Beshear (D-KY).
John Moran Bailey (November 23, 1904 – April 10, 1975) was an American politician who played a major role in promoting the New Deal coalition of the Democratic Partyand its liberal policy positions.
Bailey dominated Connecticut Democratic politics as a party chairman, from 1946 to his death in 1975. He typically had a decisive voice in selecting the party's candidates for top offices and in coordinating Democrats in the state legislature. He was even more powerful as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1961 until 1968 and was one of the main behind-the-scenes backers of John F. Kennedy.
John M Bailey, was one of the proud founders of the Young Democrats of America, serving as a national officer in 1935 from Connecticut, an organization which was crafted from the Presidential Candidacy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933.
Bailey was the dominant figure in Connecticut politics between 1950 and his death in 1975. From his office in Hartford two blocks from the State Capitol, he coordinated and controlled statewide election campaigns and the activities of the Connecticut General Assembly.
Bailey's tenure as head of the Connecticut Democratic party was credited with turning the state from one politically dominated by WASP Yankee Republicans to one dominated by Democratic candidates of Roman Catholic and Jewish background, such as Abraham Ribicoff, Thomas Dodd, John Dempsey, and Ella T. Grasso.
Bailey's term as DNC chairman was a roller-coaster ride, as he oversaw the party's moment of greatest political strength (following the 1964 electoral landslide) and greatest political weakness (the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago). He was also the first Chairman to oversee the loss of the South.
Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, Bailey and the new president, Lyndon B. Johnson, oversaw the greatest electoral landslide in United States history, with the party winning 486 electoral votes as well as supermajorities in both houses of the US Congress. The 1966 elections to the House of Representatives and the Senate saw Republican gains but Democrats retaining control of both houses of Congress as well as the majority of governorships.
In 1968, the Republican Party again nominated Richard Nixon as the presidential nominee and quickly rallied around him. However, the Democrats were more divided, particularly over the controversial Vietnam War. Senator Eugene McCarthy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Senator George McGovern, Vice President Hubert Humphrey were only some of those who sought the nomination, with Bailey co-presiding over the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the end, Nixon was elected, but the Democrats retained their majority in both houses of Congress.
Bailey died in 1975 and was interred at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.
The John M. Bailey Papers have been donated to the University of Connecticut and are available for research.
Any East Lyme Democrats who wish to be part of the delegation honoring the life of John Bailey at the Annual Dinner on November 15, please reach out to Scott or Lisa.
