Presidential election in the United States in 1944

‹  1940  •   •  1948 ›
40th presidential election
November 7, 1944
			Democratic Party
			Franklin D. Roosevelt / Harry S. Truman
			electors					432
			be right				25,612,916
									53.4%
			Republican Party
			Thomas Dewey / John Bricker
			electors					99
			be right				22,017,929
									45.9%
Election results by state
36 states   Roosevelt / Truman						12 states   Dewey / Bricker
President of the United States
Before the election Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic Party						Elected Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic Party

The 40th presidential election in the United States was held on November 7, 1944 , during the final stages of World War II . Due to this extraordinary global situation, the incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to run for an unprecedented fourth term. Without internal party opposition, he secured the Democratic nomination and defeated his Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey in a clear decision in the actual election .

Starting position

Franklin D. Roosevelt ruled longer than any other president before or after him in 1944 (the constitutional limitation of two terms was introduced in 1951 in response, previously in the tradition established by the first President George Washington in the presidential election in 1796 , two-time presidents had always been on waived a third term). After the landslide-like election successes in 1932 and 1936 , his first two terms in office were marked by economic and social reforms within the framework of the New Deal , which aimed to overcome the Great Depression . After the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe in 1939 and the worsening situation in 1940, President Roosevelt decided to apply for a third term. In November of that year he was the only president to be elected a third time with a clear majority . Domestic politics largely took a back seat and after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the USA finally entered World War II, after war supplies had been delivered to Great Britain and the Soviet Union since spring . In the course of 1944 at the latest, an Allied victory over the Third Reich became apparent. Domestically, the war years were characterized by rapid economic growth , with which the country finally overcame the Great Depression.

Candidates

Democrats

Democratic candidates:

• 

  President Franklin D. Roosevelt

President Franklin D. Roosevelt (back left), Harry S. Truman as Vice-President-elect (center), and outgoing Vice President Henry A. Wallace (right) after the November 1944 election

As President of the War, Roosevelt continued to be popular with both the Democratic party base and the population. In contrast to the 1940 election, there were no doubts about his renewed candidacy due to the global political situation, despite rumors about his compromised health. Although there were occasional reservations about Roosevelt's progressive domestic policy within the conservative party wing from the South , the nomination was secured without opposition.

The selection of the Democratic vice-presidential candidate received an exceptionally high level of attention. Within the party leadership, resentment had become loud about the previous incumbent Henry A. Wallace , who was considered too left-leaning and unpredictable. Although Roosevelt's deteriorating health was not publicly discussed, given this circumstance, many party officials were concerned about a possible successor to Wallace in the White House . The party leadership's favorite for the post of vice president was Harry S. Truman , a Senator from Missouri . Truman did not belong to the inner circle around the president, but he loyally supported the government's agenda in domestic and foreign policy. He gained notoriety not least through his work on a Senate committee for the supervision of war production, where he took action against corruption and waste. Despite his good personal relationship with his previous deputy, President Roosevelt agreed to Senator Truman replacing the post. At the Democratic Party Congress in July 1944, Truman was then elected Roosevelt's running mate in the decisive vote with 1,031 delegate votes. Wallace received only 105 votes. After the election, however, he was reappointed to the government by the President as Minister of Commerce .

republican

Republican candidates:

• 

  New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey

• 

  Ohio Governor John W. Bricker

• 

  Wendell Willkie, attorney

• 

  General Douglas MacArthur

• 

  Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen

• 

  Congressman Everett Dirksen

The Republicans started the election year with several candidates who were traded as favorites. Among them were the New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey , his colleague from Ohio John W. Bricker, and the lawyer and businessman Wendell Willkie , who won the nomination four years earlier but was defeated by Roosevelt. Another applicant was the well-known General Douglas MacArthur . However, since MacArthur was commander in chief of the US Forces in the Pacific in 1944 , he did not campaign actively. Barely chances, meanwhile, were the governor of Minnesota Harold Stassen and Congressman (and later Chief Whip in the Senate) Everett Dirksen granted, both were considered too inexperienced. For many observers, the resignation of the influential Senator Robert A. Taft , the leader of the conservative party wing , came as a surprise . Instead, he supported Bricker, who was also part of the party conservatives. Although only a small number of state primaries held primary elections in 1944 (the overwhelming majority of party congress delegates were appointed by local party authorities), the Wisconsin vote was viewed as something of a "sentiment". Wendell Willkie came off unexpectedly weak in this poll. In particular, his very progressive views and the cooperation with Roosevelt on foreign policy issues, for example he undertook a number of diplomatic missions on behalf of the President since his defeat in 1940, were not very popular with many Republicans. Despite his limited political experience, the clear winner of the vote was Thomas E. Dewey. Already in 1940 this cut off strongly in the selection process of his party, although at that time he was only a district attorney in New York ; he did not take over the governorship until the beginning of 1943 (in 1938 his first attempt to be elected governor failed by the popular democratic incumbent Herbert H. Lehman , which earned him national recognition). Dewey stood for moderate to liberal positions within the party ; As head of government in what was then the most populous federal state, he succeeded in finding a balance between economic interests, solid state finances and the expansion of the welfare state .

At the Republican nomination convention in the summer of 1944, Favorite Dewey clearly prevailed. At 42, he is still the youngest candidate for the presidency of his party. In order to find a balance within the party between the two big wings and to enable a broad mass of voters to identify with the Republican team, the conservative Bricker became a vice-presidential candidate. Dewey originally favored his fellow governor from California Earl Warren , who also belonged to the liberal camp, as a running mate . Ultimately, however, he agreed to pacify the Conservative Brickers nomination. Warren then became Dewey's running runner- up in 1948 .

Election campaign

Roosevelt campaigning on October 27, 1944

In terms of foreign policy, there were few differences between the two adversaries; During the election campaign, Dewey denounced the supposed inefficiency of the New Deal and called for more economic deregulation . He also portrayed the President as a "tired old man" surrounded by a cabinet full of "tired old men". In his July 1944 nomination speech, Roosevelt characterized his challenger as too inexperienced and immature for president in these critical times of war. He also warned that if they triumphed, Republicans would revise much of the successful New Deal reforms. To prevent rumors that his health was deteriorating, Roosevelt insisted on a vigorous election campaign. He traveled extensively across the country, gave several speeches, and drove through the cities in an open car to shake hands. Roosevelt's counterattack to the Republicans' trumped- up allegation that the president forgot his dog Fala during a troop inspection trip to an island in the Aleutian Islands and sent a destroyer of the United States Navy to pick it up made a particular impression , which cost the taxpayer several million dollars . Roosevelt ridiculed the Republican accusations with his skillful rhetoric at a lecture on September 23, 1944, which made the audience laugh:

"These Republican leaders have not been content with attacks on me, or my wife, or on my sons. No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala. Well, of course, I don't resent attacks, and my family don't resent attacks, but Fala does resent them. You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I'd left him behind on an Aleutian island and had sent a destroyer back to find him —At a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars — his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself ... But I think I have a right to resent, to object, to libelous statements about my dog ​​"

“These Republican leaders did not stop at attacking me, my wife and my sons. No, that's not all, now it's against my little dog, Fala. Of course, I don't resent attacks, and neither does my family, but Fala resents them. You know Fala is a Scot. When Fala learned that the Republican novelists in Congress and elsewhere had concocted a story that I forgot about him in the Aleutian Islands and sent a destroyer to find him at the expense of the taxpayer of two or three or eight or twenty million dollars , his Scottish soul was badly hit. He hasn't been the same dog since then. I'm used to hearing vicious lies about me that I'm old, worm-eaten, or portraying myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to be angry with defamatory claims about my dog ​​and to contradict them. "

Result

Results by county: Blue counties were won by Roosevelt, red counties were won by Dewey. The stronger the color, the greater the lead in votes

Roosevelt consistently led all of the opinion polls during the year, albeit by a narrow margin. The successes of the Allies in the European theater of war ultimately gave the incumbent a great advantage. As expected, Roosevelt won again on November 7, 1944. Despite a slight loss of votes compared to the election four years earlier, 53.4% ​​of voters still voted for him; Dewey received 45.9% of the vote. Roosevelt and Truman won in 36 states, while Dewey and his running mate John W. Bricker were successful in only twelve states. Like Willkie in 1940, these were mostly in the Midwest and parts of New England . With the exception of Michigan , Republicans won all states by 1940. In addition, Dewey won Ohio , Wisconsin, and Wyoming . The state of New York , in which both candidates lived, fell just barely to Roosevelt, but not as close as in the previous election. However, Roosevelt's hometown of Hyde Park voted by a majority for Dewey, as did Dutchess County , which is where both applicants lived (the only time both candidates were from the same county ). The strongholds of the Democrats were the big cities and the then still democratic south of the USA (see Solid South ). At the same time, the Democrats won additional seats in the congressional elections that were held in parallel, after the party's majorities were only very tight as a result of the 1942 congressional elections.

The result of the 1944 presidential election also had some peculiarities: On the one hand, it is the last to this day in which a candidate received more than 90% of the votes in a federal state . Roosevelt got 94% of the vote in Mississippi . On the other hand, with the exception, the landslide re-election of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 not a democratic candidate Roosevelt result in tuning ratio ( Popular Vote ) exceeded or electors. Even so, Dewey achieved the best result of any of Roosevelt's four Republican opponents. As a result of his gains, Roosevelt is one of only three US presidents who fell short of the last election with fewer votes in the electorate and in the Electoral College, but were re-elected. This was previously the case only with James Madison in 1812 and later with Barack Obama in 2012 . Andrew Jackson received fewer percentages in the popular election in 1832 , but more electors than in his first election victory in 1828 . Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, was able to win more votes in his confirmation in 1916 than in 1912 , while the result in the electoral committee was much tighter than four years earlier.

candidate	Political party	be right		electors
		number	percent
Franklin D. Roosevelt	democrat	25,612,916	53.4%	432
Thomas E. Dewey	republican	22,017,929	45.9%	99
Norman Thomas	socialist	79.017	0.2%	0
Claude Watson	Prohibitionist	74,758	0.2%	0
Other / no candidate	Texas Regulars / Other Voices	192.443	0.3%	0
total		47,977,063	100%	531

266 votes were necessary for the election to the president.

After the election

Roosevelt's fourth inauguration ceremony in front of the White House on January 20, 1945

Due to the ongoing state of war and Roosevelt's poor health, the fourth inauguration of the President on January 20, 1945 was not held on the steps of the Capitol with a grand ceremony, but in a very simple ceremony on the terrace of the White House. Roosevelt's address to his countrymen lasted only about five minutes.

Roosevelt died just three months later in office on April 12, 1945, shortly before the end of World War II. He was succeeded by Harry S. Truman , who had only served as Vice President for 82 days.

literature

• Donald Richard Deskins, Hanes Walton, Sherman C. Puckett: Presidential Elections, 1789-2008: County, State, and National Mapping of Election Data. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2010, ISBN 978-0-472-11697-3 , pp. 376-384 (= Chapter 42: Franklin D. Roosevelt's Third Reelection. ).

Web links

Commons : 1944 US Presidential Election  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Franklin D. Roosevelt: Campaigns and elections. ( October 10, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ) Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.
2. ↑ Michael A. Davis: Politics as usual: Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey and the wartime presidential campaign of 1944. pp. 192-195.