The Bourbon Democrats managed to win control of the Democratic nomination many times before Roosevelt's 1932 nomination, and they were the dominant faction of the Democrats before the Populists merged with them in 1896. The Bourbon Democrats had a bad habit of losing elections. Some people claim that they only lost 1876 and 1888 because of Republican corruption, but that view overlooks the fact that at the same time, the Democrats prevented black people from voting Republican, and had the elections been racially fair the Republicans could have won without stealing.