Frank Hague

Frank Hague, the New Jersey political boss, was one of the professional Democrats who turned toward drafting Eisenhower rather than backing Harry S. Truman for the 1948 presidential nomination. His brief but pointed appearances trace both the depth of the party’s revolt against Truman and the fragility of the alternative it tried to assemble.

Role in the Anti-Truman Movement

On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, the party coalition that Franklin Roosevelt had built was coming apart. Support for an Eisenhower draft crossed ideological and organizational lines: liberals and labor leaders joined big-city political figures in urging the general’s nomination. Hague, identified as Boss Frank Hague of New Jersey, was among those professional Democrats who decided that Eisenhower was the party’s better prospect. The breadth of this movement made it look as though the old coalition might regroup around Eisenhower, even though his politics and position on major issues remained unknown.

Break with Truman

When Matthew Connelly reported Hague’s defection, Truman answered with an unmistakably personal dismissal: “All right, let him go. I never did like him anyhow.” In his diary later that day, Truman grouped Hague with other Democratic leaders opposing his nomination as “double-crossers all,” and predicted that they would get nowhere. The episode shows Truman refusing to treat the loss of a party boss’s support as a reason to reconsider his own standing. He believed the authority of an incumbent president as party leader would prevail, despite the growing revolt.

Eisenhower’s Refusal

Hague’s choice depended on Eisenhower’s willingness to accept the nomination. On July 9, Eisenhower made his refusal “final and complete,” no matter what terms might be offered. Hague reportedly crunched out his cigar and exclaimed, “Truman, Harry Truman. Oh my God!” His reaction captured the anti-Truman campaign’s sudden predicament: the movement had rallied around a candidate who would not let his name go forward. Hague’s appearances thus frame him less as an independent policy voice than as a powerful party figure whose attempted break with Truman was overtaken by the collapse of the draft effort.