UPTON SINCLAIR

Upton Sinclair was a prolific author, muckraking journalist and politician who unsuccessfully ran for California governor during the Great Depression. 

In 1906, after working undercover in Chicago’s meatpacking plants, Sinclair authored The Jungle, which exposed unsanitary conditions in the industry and led to enactment of the U.S. Pure Food and Drug Act and the U.S. Meat Inspection Act. 

Nearly 30 years later, the ardent Socialist captured the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor. His platform was End Poverty in California (EPIC).

The 1934 election set new standards for nastiness and saw the birth of modern campaign management. 

Sinclair was labeled a Communist and faced overwhelming opposition from California’s business community. 

The state’s powerful movie industry mobilized a well-funded campaign against Sinclair, requiring some of Hollywood’s biggest stars to help the anti-Sinclair effort. MGM fabricated movie newsreels by using actors to portray a horde of immigrants pouring into the state seeking government handouts. 

Whitaker and Baxter, a husband-and-wife team of political consultants, managed the campaign against Sinclair. They flooded newspapers with paid advertisements and anti-Sinclair news releases that many publications ran unedited.  

Republican Governor Frank Merriam won the contest by 259,000 votes.