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The 1944 United States presidential election was the 40th quadrennial presidential election held on Tuesday, November 7th, 1944. Incumbent President Robert A. Taft would defeat Democratic nominee Richard Russell of Georgia and Progressive Union nominee Burton K. Wheeler to win a second term to the Presidency.
Course of the election[]
Robert Taft accepts the Republican nomination (1944)
Republican Nomination[]
The Republican National Convention would be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 19 to July 21, 1944. Despite running on a solidly isolationist campaign, Robert Taft's administration would get caught up in World War II after the Japanese would attack American army bases on Batan Islands in the Philippines in early 1942. After Taft would give a speech to Congress and the United States would enter the war, the Republican party and American people would rally around President Taft going into 1944. Despite popularity in the Republican Party, relations between Taft and Vice President Martin and they would often disagree on several issues. These tensions, alongside being fed up with the limitations of the position of Vice President, would ultimately result in Martin not running for re-election as Vice President. The Republican convention would ultimately select liberal Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota as Taft's running mate in order to balance out the ticket and appease the factions within the Republican party.
In his acceptance speech in Chicago, Taft would speak about the virtues of American Democracy and the values of the United States. He would also emphasize the war effort as a protection of the United States and of the American people rather than a war of offensive action. He concluded the speech by proclaiming that the United States would win total victory over both the Germans and Japanese, being received with thunderous applause.
| Nominee | Running Mate |
|---|---|
| Robert A. Taft
|
Harold Stassen
|
Democratic Nomination[]
The Democratic Convention would be held in Richmond, Virginia from June 26 to 28, 1944. With the formation of the Progressive Union, many progressive Democrats in urban constituencies would end up switching parties and joining the Progressive Unionists. A result of this would be the strengthening of the conservative base of the Democratic Party, especially the Southern Democrats. Because of the conservative advantage, Georgia Senator Richard Russell would be able to win by wide margins in the Democratic primaries and would be nominated at the convention on the first ballot. In order to solidify the Democratic coalition between the social conservatives of the South and the economic conservatives of the northeast, Russell would select New Jersey and political machine candidate Charles Edison as his running mate.
| Nominee | Running Mate |
|---|---|
| Richard Russell
|
Charles Edison
|
Progressive Union Nomination[]
Since the 1940 election, the Progressive Union would begin a period of rapid expansion. By the 1942 midterms, the Progressive Union's share in Congress had grown to 3 seats in the Senate and 42 seats in the House of Representatives. As the Progressive Party expanded, the party would also begin rebranding. The party would begin to present itself as a more moderate, liberal, social democratic party in order to get more progressive Republicans and Democrats to join the party. This came at the cost of the loyalty of several leftist and socialist parties which had initially joined the Progressive Union, such as the Socialist Party. 1940 Progressive Unionist Vice Presidential Nominee Norman Thomas would denounce the party and leave the party by 1943. The party would also change its logo from a rose to a "bull moose" in 1944 in order to distance itself from socialism and associate itself with the legacy of progressives such as Theodore Roosevelt.
The convention would meet in Cleveland from June 6 to June 9, 1944, with several favorites arising as a potential Presidential nominee. The frontrunners during the convention included previous nominee Henry A. Wallace, Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette Jr., Montana Senator Burton Wheeler, and Boston mayor Maurice Tobin. Montana Senator Burton Wheeler would win out by the 5th ballot and would choose Boston mayor Maurice Tobin as his running mate. The goal of the Wheeler-Tobin ticket was to unite both rural farmers of the Midwest with Union workers in America's large urban centers.
| Nominee | Running Mate |
|---|---|
| Burton Wheeler
|
Maurice J. Tobin
|
General Election[]
The Republicans and the Taft campaign would campaign on strong wartime leadership and the ongoing industrial boom which had begun as a result of the US entering the second world war. Taft's campaign used the recent US victories such as at the Battle of Midway, the ongoing C-Day landings, and successful Invasion of Sicily, as evidence of Taft's competence and capability as commander in chief, even if these victories were largely a result of competent military leadership rather than any leadership quality provided by Taft himself. Taft would also attack the Progressive Union for being socialistic in nature and would attack Democrats for supposedly sabotaging the war effort.
The Democrats, on the other hand, would repeatedly attack Taft for desegregating the military and refusing to intern Japanese Americans. Russell's campaign would claim that Taft was "soft on the Japanese" and that his actions would result in the United States becoming a Japanese colony. These smears would turn vicious after a Russell campaign staffer would accuse Taft's wife, Martha Wheaton Bowers, of being of partial Japanese ancestry which explained Taft's "weakness" regarding Japanese. The Russell campaign would also attack Taft's running mate, Harold Stassen, for his German heritage and spread rumors that he had relatives in the German American Bund. It is believed that this vicious campaign strategy had cost the Russell campaign significant support from Democratic strongholds outside of the deep south.
The Progressive Union spent much of the campaign trail distancing themselves from the previous radical elements of the party, with Wheeler denouncing communism and Marxism in campaign addresses. Wheeler would spend a lot of time campaigning in his home state in Montana as well as surrounding rural states. He would disregard the economic and industrial boom as only benefitting rich urban elites, and he denounced both Taft and Russell for not understanding the needs of farmers and the Midwest as a whole. Pundits would compare the Progressive Union's farmer-centric strategy to previous strategies used by William Jennings Bryan's Democratic Party in the 1896 election and the Populist Party's strategy in the 1892 election. It is believed that Wheeler's prior support for isolationism and praise of Hitler that cost him a lot of support in urban constituencies.
Outcome[]
Due to the ongoing victories in the second world war as well as an economic and employment boom, Taft would win re-election in an electoral college landslide and win the popular vote by over 6 million votes. Taft would sweep the steel belt and the northeastern United States, areas which benefitted largely from the ongoing industrial boom. Meanwhile, Russell would perform well in the southeastern United States, but wasn't able to win any states outside of the southeast. The Progressive Union would perform well in the Great Plains region of the Midwest but would underperform in urban areas which the Wheeler-Tobin ticket had hoped to unite with the rural areas. Harold Stassen would be sworn in as the 34th Vice President of the United States.
See also:[]
Sources cited:[]
- “The American Presidential Election of 1944.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1Cn7jdhHI4&t=194s. Accessed 15 Jan. 2022.
- Wikipedia Contributors. “1944 United States Presidential Election.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Jan. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1944_United_States_presidential_election.