 And 32 years before that, it was a senator from Massachusetts named John F. Kennedy who said a torch had been passed to a new generation. The same 32-year span separated Kennedy at the top of the ticket from New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, that harbinger of the New Deal. And yes, another 32 years takes the party back to the start of its populist era, led by the fresh face from Nebraska, William Jennings Bryan.