1944 United States presidential election

Democratic Party (United States) 1944 Democratic Party ticket
Franklin D. Roosevelt	Harry S. Truman
for President	for Vice President
32nd President of the United States (1933–1945)	U.S. Senator from Missouri (1935–1945)
Campaign

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  United States Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia
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  U.S. Postmaster General James Farley of New York
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  Ohio State Auditor Joseph T. Ferguson of Ohio
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  Representative Fred H. Hildebrandt of South Dakota
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  Secretary of State Cordell Hull of Tennessee
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  High Commissioner Paul V. McNutt of Indiana
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  U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York

Roosevelt/Truman poster

President Roosevelt was the popular, wartime incumbent and faced little formal opposition. Although many Southern Democrats mistrusted Roosevelt's racial policies, he brought enormous war activities to the region and the end of its marginal status was in sight. No major figure opposed Roosevelt publicly, and he was re-nominated easily when the Democratic Convention met in Chicago. Some pro-segregationist delegates tried to unite behind Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd, but he refused to campaign actively against Roosevelt, and did not get enough delegates to seriously threaten the President's chances.

The obvious physical decline in the president's appearance, as well as rumors of secret health problems, led many delegates and party leaders to oppose Vice President Henry A. Wallace for a second term strongly. Opposition to Wallace came especially from Catholic leaders in big cities and moderate Democrats. Wallace, who had been Roosevelt's vice president since January 1941, was regarded by most conservatives as being too left-wing and personally eccentric to be next in line for the presidency. He had performed so poorly as economic coordinator that Roosevelt had to remove him from that post. Numerous moderate party leaders privately sent word to Roosevelt that they would fight Wallace's re-nomination as vice president and proposed instead Senator Harry S. Truman, a moderate from Missouri. Truman was highly visible as the chairman of a Senate wartime committee investigating fraud and inefficiency in the war program. Roosevelt, who personally liked Wallace and knew little about Truman, agreed reluctantly to accept Truman as his running mate to preserve party unity.[4] Even so, many delegates on the left refused to abandon Wallace, and they voted for him on the first ballot.[5] However, enough large Northern, Midwestern, and Southern states supported Truman to give him victory on the second ballot. The fight over the vice-presidential nomination proved to be consequential; the ticket won and Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Truman instead of Wallace became the nation's thirty-third President.[6]

Republican Party (United States) 1944 Republican Party ticket
Thomas E. Dewey	John W. Bricker
for President	for Vice President
47th Governor of New York (1943–1954)	54th Governor of Ohio (1939–1945)
Campaign

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  Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York
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  Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio
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  Representative Charles A. Christopherson of South Dakota
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  Representative Everett Dirksen from Illinois
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  General Douglas MacArthur from Arkansas
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  Senator Chapman Revercomb of West Virginia
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  Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota
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  Governor Earl Warren of California
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  Businessman Wendell Willkie from New York

As 1944 began, the frontrunners for the Republican nomination appeared to be Wendell Willkie, the party's 1940 nominee, Senator Robert A. Taft from Ohio, the leader of the party's conservatives, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the leader of the party's moderate eastern establishment, General Douglas MacArthur, then serving as an Allied commander in the Pacific theater of the war, and former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, then serving as a U.S. naval officer in the Pacific. Taft surprised many by declining to run for president as he wanted to remain in the Senate; instead, he voiced his support for a fellow Ohio conservative, Governor John W. Bricker.[7]

With Taft out of the race some Republican conservatives favored General MacArthur. However, MacArthur's chances were limited by the fact that he was leading Allied forces against Japan, and thus could not campaign for the nomination. His supporters entered his name in the Wisconsin primary nonetheless. The Wisconsin primary proved to be the key contest, as Dewey won by a surprisingly wide margin. He took fourteen delegates to four for Harold Stassen, while MacArthur won the three remaining delegates. Willkie was shut out in the Wisconsin primary; he did not win a single delegate. His unexpectedly poor showing in Wisconsin forced him to withdraw as a candidate for the nomination. However, at the time of his sudden death in early October 1944, Willkie had endorsed neither Dewey nor Roosevelt. At the 1944 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Dewey easily overcame Bricker and was nominated for president on the first ballot. Dewey, a moderate to liberal Republican, chose the conservative Bricker as his running mate. Dewey originally preferred fellow liberal California Governor Earl Warren, but agreed on Bricker to preserve party unity (Warren would go on to run with Dewey in the 1948 election). Bricker was nominated for vice president by acclamation.

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of blue are for Roosevelt (Democratic), shades of red are for Dewey (Republican), and shades of green are for "No Candidate" (Texas Regulars).

The Republicans campaigned against the New Deal,[8] 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.[9] He particularly derided a Republican 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.[10] The speech was met with loud laughter and applause from the labor leaders. In response, Governor 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;[11] he also referred to members of Roosevelt'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 President Roosevelt unbeatable.

Throughout the campaign, Roosevelt led Dewey in all the polls by varying margins. On election day, the Democratic incumbent scored a fairly comfortable victory over his Republican challenger. Roosevelt took 36 states for 432 electoral votes (266 were needed to win), while Dewey won twelve states and 99 electoral votes. In the popular vote, Roosevelt won 25,612,916 (53.4%) votes to Dewey's 22,017,929 (45.9%). Dewey conceded in a radio address the following morning, but declined personally call or send a telegram to President Roosevelt. Roosevelt sent Dewey a telegram reading, "I thank you for your statement, which I heard over the air a few minutes ago."[12] Roosevelt's victory made him the only person ever to win the presidential popular vote four times, and neither party would win the popular vote four consecutive times until the Democrats did so in all four elections from 2008 to 2020.

The important question had been which leader,[13] Roosevelt or Dewey, should be chosen for the critical days of peacemaking and reconstruction following the war's conclusion. Most American voters concluded that they should retain the governing party, and particularly the president who represented it. They also felt it unsafe to do so in "wartime", in view of ever-increasing domestic disagreements.

Dewey did better against Roosevelt than any of Roosevelt's previous three Republican opponents: Roosevelt's percentage and margin of the total vote were both less than in 1940. Dewey also gained the personal satisfaction of finishing ahead of Roosevelt in his hometown of Hyde Park, New York, and ahead of Truman in his hometown of Independence, Missouri.[14] Dewey would again become the Republican presidential nominee in 1948, challenging President Truman (who had assumed that office on FDR's death), and would again lose, though by somewhat smaller popular- and electoral-vote margins.

Of the 3,095 counties/independent cities making returns, Roosevelt won the most popular votes in 1,751 (56.58%) while Dewey carried 1,343 (43.39%). The Texas Regular ticket carried one county (0.03%).

In New York, only the combined support of the American Labor and Liberal parties (pledged to Roosevelt but otherwise independent of the Democrats to maintain their identities) enabled Roosevelt to win the electoral votes of his home state.

In 1944, the constantly growing Southern protest against Roosevelt's leadership became clearest in Texas, where 135,553 people voted against Roosevelt but not for the Republican ticket. The Texas Regular ticket resulted from a split in the Democratic Party in its two state conventions, May 23 and September 12, 1944. This ticket, which represented the Democratic element opposing the re-election of President Roosevelt, called for the "restoration of states' rights which have been destroyed by the Communist New Deal" and "restoration of the supremacy of the white race".[15] Its electors were uninstructed.

As he had in 1940, Roosevelt won re-election with a lower percentage of both the electoral vote and the popular vote than he had received in the prior elections—the second of only three American presidents to do so, preceded by James Madison in 1812 and followed by Barack Obama in 2012. Andrew Jackson in 1832 and Grover Cleveland in 1892 had received more electoral votes but fewer popular votes, while Woodrow Wilson in 1916 had received more popular votes but fewer electoral votes.

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1944 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved August 1, 2005.Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved August 1, 2005.

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  Results by county, shaded according to winning candidate's percentage of the vote

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  Presidential election results by county
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  Democratic presidential election results by county
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  Republican presidential election results by county
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  "Other" presidential election results by county

[16]

Margin of victory less than 1% (25 electoral votes):

1. Ohio, 0.37%

Margin of victory less than 5% (165 electoral votes):

1. Michigan, 1.02%
2. New Jersey, 1.35%
3. Wisconsin, 1.80%
4. Wyoming, 2.47%
5. Pennsylvania, 2.78%
6. Missouri, 2.94%
7. Illinois, 3.47%
8. Idaho, 3.49%
9. Maryland, 3.70%
10. New Hampshire, 4.24%
11. Iowa, 4.50%
12. Oregon, 4.85%
13. Maine, 4.99%

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (138 electoral votes):

1. New York, 5.01% (tipping point state)
2. Connecticut, 5.36%
3. Minnesota, 5.55%
4. Indiana, 5.65%
5. Massachusetts, 5.81%
6. Colorado, 6.81%
7. New Mexico, 7.03%
8. North Dakota, 8.35%
9. Delaware, 9.11%
10. Kentucky, 9.23%
11. Nevada, 9.24%
12. Montana, 9.35%
13. West Virginia, 9.78%

[17]

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)

1. Armstrong County, South Dakota 100.00%
2. Leake County, Mississippi 99.15%
3. Chesterfield County, South Carolina 98.77%
4. Taliaferro County, Georgia 98.48%
5. Barnwell County, South Carolina 98.41%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)

1. McIntosh County, North Dakota 91.98%
2. Jackson County, Kentucky 91.56%
3. Sevier County, Tennessee 87.24%
4. Logan County, North Dakota 86.47%
5. Owsley County, Kentucky 86.11%

• Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds.; Public Opinion, 1935–1946 (1951), massive compilation of many public opinion polls from USA
• Gallup, George H. ed. The Gallup Poll, Volume One 1935–1948 (1972) statistical reports on each poll
• Chester, Edward W A Guide to Political Platforms (1977) online
• Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National Party Platforms, 1840-1964 (1965) online 1840-1956