at the state party convention, which was held two weeks after the primary. The accepted practice was that the Republican gubernatorial candidate selected the chair, who was elected and then served as the campaign manager for the governor's campaign. The chair would raise funds, accompany the candidate, and work with county chairs to turn out the vote. Once the campaign ended, the state party chair became a de facto assistant governor, fending off job seekers, coordinating state and federal patronage, serving as a liaison with legislators and party officials, and gathering political intelligence to help the legislative program. At this time the legislature met every two years, in the non-election year. In January of the election year, candidates would network and announce their candidacies at the Kansas Day social events in Topeka, an event the party chair would attend. This would initiate the primary election campaigns and the cycle would start again. Depression and the New Deal (1930–1936) The stock market crash of October 1929 marked the start of the decade-long economic downturn known as the Great Depression, which took hold in Kansas between the 1930 and 1932 elections. Kansas voters concluded that the Republican agenda of rigorous austerity in government, cutting government size, and reducing taxes was not working and needed to be supplemented by other programs – programs of the type offered by the national Democrats. Between 1930 and 1938 the Kansas Republican Party sustained a period of political decline. Republicans lost the governorship in 1930 and 1936. Alf Landon, elected governor in 1932, had managed to balance the state's budget and to be re-elected in 1934, the only Republican governor in the nation re-elected. On that basis he became the Republican presidential candidate for 1936, but lost his home state in the election. A Democrat won a special election and in 1932 was re-elected as U.S. Senator. The Republicans held four of the seven Congressional seats in 1932–36. In the State House, Republicans dropped from 101 representatives after the 1928 election to between 65 and 75 seats, a bare majority. In the Senate, they dropped from 37 seats to 26 seats in 1932 and 24 seats in 1936. In response, Kansas Republicans changed to reflect the popular will and adopted more expansive government-backed economic agenda, while maintaining strict prohibition, even after national prohibition was removed in 1932. Landon, a self-described "pragmatic progressive", demonstrated the Kansas Republican Party's