United States presidential election, 1944

United States presidential election, 1944

November 7, 1944
531 electoral votes of the Electoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Thomas E. Dewey Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Harry S. Truman John W. Bricker Electoral vote 432 99 States carried 36 12 Popular vote 25,612,916 22,017,929 Percentage 53.4% 45.9%
Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Dewey/Bricker, Blue denotes those won by Roosevelt/Truman. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic Elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic

The United States presidential election of 1944 was the 40th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1944. Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic nominee, sought his fourth term in office; he defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the general election.

The election was set against the backdrop of World War II, which was going well for the United States and its Allies. Roosevelt had already served longer than any other president, but remained popular. Unlike in 1940, there was little doubt that he would run for another term as the Democratic candidate. Dewey, the Governor of New York, campaigned against the New Deal and for a smaller government, but was ultimately unsuccessful in convincing the country to change course. Rumors of Roosevelt's ill health, though somewhat dispelled by his vigorous campaigning, proved to be prescient; Roosevelt would die and be replaced by his new Vice President, Harry S. Truman, within a half-year of winning re-election.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Main articles: 1944 Democratic National Convention and Democratic vice presidential nomination of 1944

Democratic candidates:

• 

  President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt/Truman poster

President Roosevelt was the popular, wartime incumbent and faced little formal opposition. Although many Southern Democrats distrusted 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 actively campaign 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 strongly for a second term. Opposition to Wallace came especially from Catholic leaders in big cities and labor unions. Wallace, who was 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 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, reluctantly agreed to accept Truman as his running mate to preserve party unity. Even so, many delegates on the left 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 victory on the second ballot. The fight over the vice presidential nomination proved to be consequential; Roosevelt died in April 1945, and Truman became the nation's 33rd President instead of Wallace.

Republican Party

Main article: Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1944

Further information: 1944 Republican National Convention

Republican candidates:

• 

  Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York

• 

  Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio

• 

  Representative Everett Dirksen from Illinois

• 

  General Douglas MacArthur from New York

• 

  Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota

• 

  Businessman Wendell Willkie from New York

As 1944 began, the frontrunners for the Republican nomination appeared to be Wendell Willkie, the party's 1940 candidate, Senator Robert A. Taft of 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 announcing that he was not a candidate; instead, he voiced his support for a fellow conservative, Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio. 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 14 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 not endsorsed either Dewey nor Roosevelt. At the 1944 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, 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 became Dewey's vice presidential candidate in the election of 1948). Bricker was nominated for vice president by acclamation.

General election

The Fall Campaign

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, 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 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. The speech was met with loud laughter and applause from the labor leaders. In response, Dewey gave a blistering partisan speech in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 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 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 Roosevelt unbeatable.

Results

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, while Dewey won 12 states and 99 electoral votes (266 were needed to win). In the popular vote Roosevelt won 25,612,916 (53.4%) votes to Dewey's 22,017,929 (45.9%).

The important question had been which leader, Roosevelt or Dewey, should be chosen for the critical days of peacemaking and reconstruction following the war's conclusion. A majority of the American people concluded that they should not change from one party, and particularly from one leader. They also felt that in view of ever-increasing domestic disagreements it was not safe to do so in "wartime".

However, Roosevelt's percentage of the total vote was less than in 1940, and his margin of the total vote was less. Dewey did better against Roosevelt than any of Roosevelt's previous three Republican opponents, and he did have the personal satisfaction of finishing ahead of Roosevelt in his hometown of Hyde Park, New York, and of finishing ahead of Truman in his hometown of Independence, Missouri. Dewey would again be the Republican presidential nominee in 1948 and would again lose, though by a slightly smaller margin.

Of the 3,095 counties/independent cities making returns, Roosevelt won 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 so as to keep separate their identity) 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 votes were cast 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 represented the Democratic element opposing the re-election of President Roosevelt. 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 presidents in US history 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.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote		Electoral vote	Running mate
			Count	Pct		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote
Franklin D. Roosevelt (Incumbent)	Democratic	New York	25,612,916	53.39%	432	Harry S. Truman	Missouri	432
Thomas E. Dewey	Republican	New York	22,017,929	45.89%	99	John W. Bricker	Ohio	99
(none)	Texas Regulars	(n/a)	143,238	0.30%	0	(none)	(n/a)	0
Norman Thomas	Socialist	New York	79,017	0.16%	0	Darlington Hoopes	Pennsylvania	0
Claude A. Watson	Prohibition	California	74,758	0.16%	0	Andrew N. Johnson	Kentucky	0
Edward A. Teichert	Socialist Labor	Pennsylvania	45,188	0.09%	0	Arla Arbaugh	Ohio	0
Other			11,816	0.02%	—	Other		—
Total			47,977,063	100%	531			531
Needed to win					266			266

Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

Popular vote
Roosevelt			53.39%
Dewey			45.89%
No Candidate			0.28%
Thomas			0.16%
Others			0.28%

Electoral vote
Roosevelt			81.36%
Dewey			18.64%

• 

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

Results by state

States won by Roosevelt/Truman

States won by Dewey/Bricker

		Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic			Thomas E. Dewey Republican			No Candidate Southern Democrat/ Texas Regulars			Norman Thomas Socialist			Other			Margin		State Total
State	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	electoral votes	#	%	#
Alabama	11	198,918	81.28	11	44,540	18.20	-	-	-	-	190	0.08	-	1,095	0.45	-	154,378	63.08	244,743	AL
Arizona	4	80,926	58.80	4	56,287	40.90	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	421	0.31	-	24,639	17.90	137,634	AZ
Arkansas	9	148,965	69.95	9	63,551	29.84	-	-	-	-	438	0.21	-	-	-	-	85,414	40.11	212,954	AR
California	25	1,988,564	56.48	25	1,512,965	42.97	-	-	-	-	2,515	0.07	-	16,831	0.48	-	475,599	13.51	3,520,875	CA
Colorado	6	234,331	46.40	-	268,731	53.21	6	-	-	-	1,977	0.39	-	-	-	-	-34,400	-6.81	505,039	CO
Connecticut	8	435,146	52.30	8	390,527	46.94	-	-	-	-	5,097	0.61	-	1,220	0.15	-	44,619	5.36	831,990	CT
Delaware	3	68,166	54.38	3	56,747	45.27	-	-	-	-	154	0.12	-	294	0.23	-	11,419	9.11	125,361	DE
Florida	8	339,377	70.32	8	143,215	29.68	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	196,162	40.65	482,592	FL
Georgia	12	268,187	81.74	12	59,880	18.25	-	-	-	-	6	0.00	-	36	0.01	-	208,307	63.49	328,109	GA
Idaho	4	107,399	51.55	4	100,137	48.07	-	-	-	-	282	0.14	-	503	0.24	-	7,262	3.49	208,321	ID
Illinois	28	2,079,479	51.52	28	1,939,314	48.05	-	-	-	-	180	0.00	-	17,088	0.42	-	140,165	3.47	4,036,061	IL
Indiana	13	781,403	46.73	-	875,891	52.38	13	-	-	-	2,223	0.13	-	12,574	0.75	-	-94,488	-5.65	1,672,091	IN
Iowa	10	499,876	47.49	-	547,267	51.99	10	-	-	-	1,511	0.14	-	3,945	0.37	-	-47,391	-4.50	1,052,599	IA
Kansas	8	287,458	39.18	-	442,096	60.25	8	-	-	-	1,613	0.22	-	2,609	0.36	-	-154,638	-21.07	733,776	KS
Kentucky	11	472,589	54.45	11	392,448	45.22	-	-	-	-	535	0.06	-	2,349	0.27	-	80,141	9.23	867,921	KY
Louisiana	10	281,564	80.59	10	67,750	19.39	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	69	0.02	-	213,814	61.20	349,383	LA
Maine	5	140,631	47.45	-	155,434	52.44	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	335	0.11	-	-14,803	-4.99	296,400	ME
Maryland	8	315,490	51.85	8	292,949	48.15	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22,541	3.70	608,439	MD
Massachusetts	16	1,035,296	52.80	16	921,350	46.99	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4,019	0.21	-	113,946	5.81	1,960,665	MA
Michigan	19	1,106,899	50.19	19	1,084,423	49.18	-	-	-	-	4,598	0.21	-	9,303	0.42	-	22,476	1.02	2,205,223	MI
Minnesota	11	589,864	52.41	11	527,416	46.86	-	-	-	-	5,073	0.45	-	3,176	0.28	-	62,448	5.55	1,125,529	MN
Mississippi	9	168,479	93.56	9	11,601	6.44	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	156,878	87.12	180,080	MS
Missouri	15	807,804	51.37	15	761,524	48.43	-	-	-	-	1,751	0.11	-	1,395	0.09	-	46,280	2.94	1,572,474	MO
Montana	4	112,556	54.28	4	93,163	44.93	-	-	-	-	1,296	0.63	-	340	0.16	-	19,393	9.35	207,355	MT
Nebraska	6	233,246	41.42	-	329,880	58.58	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-96,634	-17.16	563,126	NE
Nevada	3	29,623	54.62	3	24,611	45.38	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5,012	9.24	54,234	NV
New Hampshire	4	119,663	52.11	4	109,916	47.87	-	-	-	-	46	0.02	-	-	-	-	9,747	4.24	229,625	NH
New Jersey	16	987,874	50.31	16	961,335	48.95	-	-	-	-	3,358	0.17	-	11,194	0.57	-	26,539	1.35	1,963,761	NJ
New Mexico	4	81,389	53.47	4	70,688	46.44	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	148	0.10	-	10,701	7.03	152,225	NM
New York	47	3,304,238	52.31	47	2,987,647	47.30	-	-	-	-	10,553	0.17	-	14,352	0.23	-	316,591	5.01	6,316,790	NY
North Carolina	14	527,399	66.71	14	263,155	33.29	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	264,244	33.43	790,554	NC
North Dakota	4	100,144	45.48	-	118,535	53.84	4	-	-	-	943	0.43	-	549	0.25	-	-18,391	-8.35	220,171	ND
Ohio	25	1,570,763	49.82	-	1,582,293	50.18	25	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-11,530	-0.37	3,153,056	OH
Oklahoma	10	401,549	55.57	10	319,424	44.20	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1,663	0.23	-	82,125	11.36	722,636	OK
Oregon	6	248,635	51.78	6	225,365	46.94	-	-	-	-	3,785	0.79	-	2,362	0.49	-	23,270	4.85	480,147	OR
Pennsylvania	35	1,940,479	51.14	35	1,835,054	48.36	-	-	-	-	11,721	0.31	-	7,539	0.20	-	105,425	2.78	3,794,793	PA
Rhode Island	4	175,356	58.59	4	123,487	41.26	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	433	0.14	-	51,869	17.33	299,276	RI
South Carolina	8	90,601	87.64	8	4,610	4.46	-	7,799	7.54	-	-	-	-	365	0.35	-	82,802	80.10	103,375	SC
South Dakota	4	96,711	41.67	-	135,365	58.33	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-38,654	-16.66	232,076	SD
Tennessee	12	308,707	60.45	12	200,311	39.22	-	-	-	-	792	0.16	-	882	0.17	-	108,396	21.23	510,692	TN
Texas	23	821,605	71.42	23	191,425	16.64	-	135,439	11.77	-	594	0.05	-	1,268	0.11	-	630,180	54.78	1,150,331	TX
Utah	4	150,088	60.44	4	97,891	39.42	-	-	-	-	340	0.14	-	-	-	-	52,197	21.02	248,319	UT
Vermont	3	53,820	42.93	-	71,527	57.06	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	14	0.01	-	-17,707	-14.12	125,361	VT
Virginia	11	242,276	62.36	11	145,243	37.39	-	-	-	-	417	0.11	-	549	0.14	-	97,033	24.98	388,485	VA
Washington	8	486,774	56.84	8	361,689	42.24	-	-	-	-	3,824	0.45	-	4,041	0.47	-	125,085	14.61	856,328	WA
West Virginia	8	392,777	54.89	8	322,819	45.11	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	69,958	9.78	715,596	WV
Wisconsin	12	650,413	48.57	-	674,532	50.37	12	-	-	-	13,205	0.99	-	1,002	0.07	-	-24,119	-1.80	1,339,152	WI
Wyoming	3	49,419	48.77	-	51,921	51.23	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-2,502	-2.47	101,340	WY
TOTALS:	531	25,612,916	53.39	432	22,017,929	45.89	99	143,238	0.30	-	79,017	0.16	-	123,963	0.26	-	3,594,987	7.49	47,977,063	US

Close states

Margin of victory less than 5% (190 electoral votes):

1. Ohio, 0.37%
2. Michigan, 1.02%
3. New Jersey, 1.35%
4. Wisconsin, 1.80%
5. Wyoming, 2.47%
6. Pennsylvania, 2.78%
7. Missouri, 2.94%
8. Illinois, 3.47%
9. Idaho, 3.49%
10. Maryland, 3.70%
11. New Hampshire, 4.24%
12. Iowa, 4.50%
13. Oregon, 4.85%
14. Maine, 4.99%

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

1. New York, 5.01%
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%

Miscellanea

• 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.
• The 1944 election was the last election in which any candidate received over 90% of the vote in any state (FDR won 94% of votes cast in Mississippi).
• The passing of the 22nd Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1951 renders this election the only occasion in United States history in which a candidate has been allowed to run for a fourth term as president.
• The 1944 presidential race was the only one in history where both candidates hailed from the same county. Roosevelt's home was in Hyde Park, New York. Dewey called Pawling, New York home. Both are in Dutchess County.
• This was the first election since 1900 when Idaho and Wyoming did not vote the same as each other, and the last to date.
• Had Dewey won the 1944 election, he would have become the youngest president in U.S. history, being 20 days younger (as of January 20, 1945) than Theodore Roosevelt, when he took office in 1901 upon the assassination of William McKinley.
• The 1944 presidential election was the last election in which the Democratic party candidate won every single state that constituted the Confederacy.
• The 1944 election was the first one where one of the candidates (Dewey) was born in the 20th century.
• Except Lyndon B. Johnson's landslide reelection in 1964, no post-1944 Democratic candidate has managed to equal or surpass Roosevelt's margin in popular or electoral votes in this election, which was the closest of all his four campaigns.

See also

• President of the United States
• United States Senate elections, 1944
• United States home front during World War II
• Hell-Bent for Election, an animated Roosevelt campaign film.
• Fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt

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
• Hamby, Alonzo L. Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman (1995) ch 17
• Jordan, David M. FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944 (Indiana U.P. 2011)
• Savage, Sean J. "The 1936-1944 Campaigns," in William D. Pederson, ed. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt (2011) pp 96–113 online
• Smith, Richard Norton. Thomas E. Dewey and His Times (1984), the standard scholarly biography
• Weintraub, Stanley. Final Victory: FDR's Extraordinary World War II Presidential Campaign. (Cambridge: Da Capo, 2012). 318 pp.

External links

• 1944 popular vote by counties
• How close was the 1944 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Election of 1944 in Counting the Votes