Election+of+1944

=Election of 1944=

President at the time:
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

**Republicans:**
//Presidental Candidate:// Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York

//Vice Presidential Candidate:// Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio

//Dropped out in Primaries:// General Douglas MacArthur of New York Wendell Willkie of Indiana

**Democrats:**
// Presidential Candidate: // President Franklin D. Roosevelt

//Vice Presidential Candidate:// Harry S. Truman

**Democrats:**
Because FDR was running for his fourth term, there wasn't much to question his nomination. But the conservative Democrats could see that FDR's health was declining, and were afraid that Henry Wallace, FDR's second vice president, who was extremely left-wing, would become first in line for the presidency. They instead wanted Harry Truman, senator from Missouri and a moderate. FDR liked Wallace, but reluctantly accepted Truman. While many liberals fought for Wallace, Truman won out the VP nomination in he second ballot. He became president following FDR's death in 1945.

Unlike the Democratic party, where there was little question as to the presidential nomination, there were several candidates. However, Thomas E. Dewey, governor of New York, was in the lead from the beginning. Governor Bricker of Ohio, Former governor Stassen of Minnesota, and senator Taft of Ohio were also in the running, as well as Wendell Willkie, who had run against FDR and lost in 1940, and general Douglas MacArthur, who was overseas fighting in the Philippines. Although MacArthur was not in the country, his friends and political allies continued to campaign for his nomination; however, Dewey was confirmed as the nominee after the first ballot.
 * Republicans:**

Recent events that affect the election:

 * WWII:**

The previous election, a main focus was keeping America out of the bloody European war. The opposing candidate in the 1940 election, Wendell Willkie, lead a smear campaign claiming that FDR was planning to bring America into the war. Loosing support, FDR, in a pledge that he would later regret, promised that he would "not send American boys into any foreign wars." However, in 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the will of the people shifted from keeping out of the war to paying back the Axis Powers for the attack on US soil. June 6th, 1944 was D-Day, the day Allied troops stormed Normandy, shifting the course of the war.


 * FDR's New Deal:**

FDR had created the New Deal to pull the US out of the economic pit that was the Great Depression in 1933. Willkie campaigned criticizing the incompetence and waste in programs implemented by the New Deal. However, Willkie represented 'Big Business' to most Americans. This lost him a good number of the working class votes.Shortly after the election, however, the US entered WWII and the Great Depression ended, nullifying many of the arguments presented during the campaign. War preparations such as mass production of weaponry and artillery vehicles gave the US the boost it needed to rise out of the Great Depression. Dewey contested the New Deal was far too expensive to continue during the 1944 election but war efforts accounted for 40% of the Gross National Product in 1944 while the New Deal was spending far, far less.

Major Current Events:
The issues that were focused on were war and peace. Politicians were judged on their ability to complete the war effort, of which the United States was leading Allied power, and also to produce the just and lasting peace which would follow, led again by the U.S. as the world’s foremost economic power.

Importance of Election:
The election of 1944 was important because of the fact that FDR was elected for a fourth term. As in every one of his previous three campaigns, he was opposed by a majority of the newspapers at that time, which were owned chiefly by Republicans. Roosevelt, as customary, won by a landslide: 432 to 99 in the Electoral College; 25,606,585 to 22,014,746 in the popular totals. He was elected primarily because the war was going well. Foreign policy was a decisive factor for thousands of voters, who thought that Roosevelt's experienced hand was needed in fashioning a future organization for world peace.

Election Results

 * Electoral Vote:**

Roosevelt: 432 Dewey: 99

266 needed to win.


 * Popular Vote:**

Roosevelt: 53.4% Dewey: 45.9%