1944 United States Presidential Election

The 1944 United States Presidential Election returned Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency and made Harry S. Truman vice president. The Roosevelt–Truman ticket won by three million votes and carried thirty-six of the forty-eight states, but the close contest meant that a comparatively small shift in the right states could have changed the outcome.

The Democratic nomination

Truman’s place on the ticket followed a tense second ballot at the Democratic convention. After Ed Flynn transferred 74 votes from the New York delegation to Truman, the count briefly tightened again as Henry Wallace came within five votes. Then Alabama’s John Bankhead withdrew and cast the state’s 22 votes for Truman; South Carolina followed with 18 votes, and Indiana, Wyoming, and Maine also shifted to him. Delegates rose, photographers crowded around Truman’s box, and Bess and Margaret joined the celebration as the convention floor erupted.

A narrow victory

On election night, the Roosevelt–Truman ticket prevailed over Thomas E. Dewey’s Republican ticket. Dewey did not concede until nearly four in the morning. The final margin was three million votes, and the ticket carried thirty-six states, a clear national victory by the count but a remarkably close contest in historical perspective: it was the closest presidential election since 1916.

The result’s vulnerability

The scale of the victory concealed how little it would have taken to reverse it. A shift of 300,000 votes in the right states would have elected Dewey and his running mate. Dewey urged Americans to unite behind the winner, expressing the hope that “in the difficult years ahead Divine Providence will guide and protect the President of the United States.” The election thus gave Roosevelt another term while underscoring the uncertainty surrounding the transfer of power that would soon follow.