1944 United States presidential election

Presidential electoral votes by state.

The United States presidential election of 1944 took place while the United States was preoccupied with fighting World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) had been in office longer than any other president, but remained popular. Unlike 1940, there was little doubt that Roosevelt would run for another term as the Democratic candidate. His Republican opponent in 1944 was New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Dewey made an energetic campaign, but there was little doubt, in the midst of a world war, that FDR would win a record fourth term.

Nominations

Democratic Party Nomination

See also: 1944 Democratic National Convention

Roosevelt was a popular, war-time incumbent and faced little formal opposition. Although a growing number of the party's conservatives - especially in the South - were increasingly skeptical of Roosevelt's economic and social policies, few of them dared to publicly oppose Roosevelt, and he was renominated easily. The balloting went thusly:

• President Franklin Roosevelt 1086
• Harry F. Byrd 87
• James A. Farley 1

Although the party's conservatives could not stop FDR from winning the nomination, the obvious physical decline in the President's health, as well as rumors of private health problems - led many delegates and party leaders to strongly oppose Henry Wallace. Wallace, who was FDR's second Vice-President, was regarded by most conservatives as being too left-wing and personally eccentric to be second in line to the Presidency. Numerous party leaders privately told Roosevelt that they would fight Wallace's renomination, and they proposed Missouri Senator Harry Truman, a moderate who had become well-known as the chairman of a Senate wartime investigating committee, as FDR's new running mate. Roosevelt, who personally liked Wallace and knew little about Truman, reluctantly agreed to accept Truman as his running mate. Even so, many liberal delegates refused to abandon Wallace, and they cast their votes for him on the first ballot. However, enough large Northern, Midwestern, and Southern states supported Truman to give him the victory on the second ballot.

The balloting (source: Richard C. Bain & Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records (Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 1973), pp. 266-267.

vice-presidential vote

ballot	1	2 (before shifts)	2 (after shifts)
Harry S Truman MO	319.5	477.5	1,031
Henry A. Wallace IA	429.5	473	105
John H. Bankhead II AL	98	23.5	0
Scott W. Lucas IL	61	58	0
Alben W. Barkley KY	49.5	40	6
J. Melville Broughton NC	43	30	0
Paul V. McNutt IN	31	28	1
Prentice Cooper TN	26	26	26
Scattering	118.5	20	7

President Roosevelt was making a trip to the South Pacific in order to discuss military strategy with General Douglas MacArthur, and thus didn't attend the convention. This was the last time that a presidential nominee failed to attend a national convention during the 20th century.

Republican Party Nomination

As 1944 began the frontrunners for the Republican nomination appeared to be Wendell Willkie, the party's 1940 candidate; Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the leader of the party's conservatives; and New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who had risen to national fame as the prosecutor of numerous mafia figures, most notably "Lucky" Luciano, the organized-crime boss of New York City. However, Taft surprised many by announcing that he was not a candidate; instead he voiced his support for fellow Ohio Senator John Bricker, another conservative. In the key Wisconsin primary Dewey crushed both Willkie and General Douglas MacArthur, thus forcing Willkie to withdraw as a candidate. At the 1944 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Dewey easily overcame the candidacy of Bricker and was nominated on the first ballot. Dewey then chose Bricker as his running mate; Bricker was nominated by acclamation.

General election

The Fall Campaign

The Republicans campaigned against the New Deal, seeking a smaller government and less-regulated economy as the end of the war seemed in sight. Nonetheless Roosevelt's continuing popularity was the main theme of the campaign. To quiet rumors of his poor health, Roosevelt insisted on making a vigorous campaign swing in October, and rode in an open car through city streets. A high point of the campaign occurred when Roosevelt, speaking to a meeting of labor union leaders, gave a speech carried on national radio in which he ridiculed Republican claims that his administration was corrupt and wasteful with tax money. He particularly ridiculed a GOP claim that he had sent a US Navy warship to pick up his Scottish terrier Fala in Alaska, noting that "Fala was furious" at such rumors. The speech was met with loud laughter and applause from the labor leaders. In response, Dewey gave a blistering partisan speech in Oklahoma City a few days later on national radio, in which he accused Roosevelt of being "indispensable" to corrupt big-city Democratic organizations and American Communists; he also referred to members of FDR's cabinet as a "motley crew". However, American battlefield successes in Europe and the Pacific during the campaign, such as the liberation of Paris in August 1944 and the successful Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines in October 1944, made Roosevelt unbeatable.

In the election on November 7, 1944, Roosevelt scored a comfortable victory over Dewey. Roosevelt took 36 states for 432 electoral votes, while Dewey won 12 states and 99 electoral votes (266 were needed to win). In the popular vote Roosevelt won 25,612,916 votes to Dewey's 22,017,929. Dewey did better against Roosevelt than any of FDR's four Republican opponents, and he did have the personal satisfaction of beating Roosevelt in FDR's hometown of Hyde Park, New York, and of winning Truman's hometown of Independence, Missouri. Dewey would again be the Republican presidential nominee in 1948 and would again lose.

The 1944 Presidential race was the last time both major-party nominees were from New York. This could happen again in 2008 if Rudy Guiliani and Hillary Clinton are the major-party nominees.

Results

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote
Franklin D. Roosevelt	Democratic	New York	25,612,916	53.4%	432	Harry S Truman	Missouri	432
Thomas Edmund Dewey	Republican	New York	22,017,929	45.9%	99	John William Bricker	Ohio	99
(none)	Texas Regulars	(n/a)	135,439	0.3%	0	(none)	(n/a)	0
Norman Thomas	Socialist		79,017	0.2%	0	Darlington Hoopes	Pennsylvania	0
Claude Watson	Prohibition		74,758	0.2%	0	Andrew Johnson	Kentucky	0
Other			57,004	0.1%	—	Other		—
Total			47,977,063	100%	531			531
Needed to win					266			266

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1944 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 1, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 1, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Further reading

• Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds.; Public Opinion, 1935-1946 (1951), massive compilation of many public opinion polls from USA

Gallup, George Horace, ed. The Gallup Poll; Public Opinion, 1935-1971 3 vol (1972) esp vol 1; summarizes results of each poll as reported to newspapers

Miscellanea

• The 1944 election would be the last election in which a Democratic presidential candidate carried every state in the South.
• The 1944 election was the first since Grover Cleveland's re-election in 1892 in which the bellwether state of Ohio backed a losing candidate.

See also

• President of the United States
• U.S. Senate election, 1944
• Homefront-United States-World War II
• Hell-Bent for Election, animated Roosevelt campaign film

External links

• 1944 popular vote by counties