the 1932 Democratic National Convention, he was convinced that Roosevelt would not get the necessary two-thirds majority to win the nomination. Ritchie was considered a major contender for the Presidency in 1932. Ritchie was well received, but Roosevelt was nominated on the fourth ballot. Ritchie and several others including Governor George Dern were considered for the vice presidential nomination, which ultimately went to John Nance Garner. Throughout his 15 years as governor, Ritchie called the legislature into special session several times, including once in 1920 to vote on women's suffrage in Maryland, and again in 1933 to ratify the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933. Ritchie tried, but failed to achieve nomination as president during the election of 1932, and declined an offer by Franklin D. Roosevelt to be his running mate. Defeated for fifth term, and legacy Ritchie's popularity as governor reached its peak during the early years of his fourth term, but gradually began to wane because of growing jealousy within the party as a result of his long tenure as governor, and because of two lynchings that had occurred on the Eastern Shore of Maryland (those of Matthew Williams in Salisbury in 1931, and George Armwood in Princess Anne in 1933). Although Ritchie's model, business-like government had thoroughly modernized Maryland, he had forged a Democratic party organization which his opponents attacked as a "machine". In 1934 Ritchie was seeking his fifth term and "Ritchie forever" seemed a real possibility. However, Dr. Charles Conley cut heavily into the Ritchie vote in the Democratic primary, and Republican opponent Harry W. Nice attacked the governor's relief efforts and promised to be "more new Dealish" than the conservative Ritchie. While a Ritchie victory was widely predicted, when Nice took all but three counties the postmortems agreed that the governor's longevity "and the cry of 'too long'" was the fundamental explanation, but the opposition of Baltimore blacks and labor also seemed significant. In the general election, Nice defeated Ritchie 253,813 to 247,644. He was also a member of Civitan International. Personal life and death Ritchie had been married, but his work got in the way of his marriage, and he ended up getting divorced. After his defeat, Ritchie returned to his law practice in Baltimore. On February 24, 1936, Ritchie died suddenly and unexpectedly of what was determined to be a cerebral hemorrhage. After a private funeral, Ritchie's body was placed