 Curtis was a leader of the anti-Hoover movement, forming an alliance with two of his Senate colleagues, Guy Goff and James E. Watson, as well as Governor Frank Lowden of Illinois.Less than a week before the convention, he described Hoover as a man "for whom the party will be on the defensive from the day he is named until the close of the polls on election day".But, despite his earlier opposition, Curtis had no qualms about accepting the vice-presidential nomination.