LOST:
1936 to FDR

He supported Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive party in 1912, and in 1922 was private secretary to the governor of Kansas. He later became known as the leader of the liberal Republicans in the state. He was elected chairman of the Republican state central committee in 1928 and directed the Republican presidential and gubernatorial campaigns in Kansas in that year.

In 1936, Landon chose not to run for re-election as Governor but to become the Republican presidential nominee opposing the re-election of FDR. At the Republican National Convention in 1936, Landon was nominated for the presidency on the first ballot, with newspaper publisher Frank Knox selected as his running mate.

The 1936 Presidential election was extraordinarily lopsided. Although Landon gained nearly 17 million votes and obtained the endorsement of track star Jesse Owens, he lost the popular vote by more than 10 million votes. He carried only Maine and Vermont for a total of 8 electoral votes to Roosevelt's 523. FDR's win was the most crushing electoral victory since 1820. 

In November 1962, when he was asked to describe his political philosophy, Landon said: I would say practical progressive, which means that the Republican party or any political party has got to recognize the problems of a growing and complex industrial civilization. And I don't think the Republican party is really wide awake to that.

Landon died October 12, 1987, 34 days after his 100th birthday. 

http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0909.html/