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1940 United States presidential election

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1940 United States presidential election

← 1936 November 5, 1940 1944 →

531 members of the Electoral College
266 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout62.5%[1] Increase 1.5 pp
 
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Wendell Willkie
Party Democratic Republican
Home state New York New York[2]
Running mate Henry A. Wallace Charles L. McNary
Electoral vote 449 82
States carried 38 10
Popular vote 27,313,945 22,347,744
Percentage 54.7% 44.8%

1940 United States presidential election in California1940 United States presidential election in Oregon1940 United States presidential election in Washington (state)1940 United States presidential election in Idaho1940 United States presidential election in Nevada1940 United States presidential election in Utah1940 United States presidential election in Arizona1940 United States presidential election in Montana1940 United States presidential election in Wyoming1940 United States presidential election in Colorado1940 United States presidential election in New Mexico1940 United States presidential election in North Dakota1940 United States presidential election in South Dakota1940 United States presidential election in Nebraska1940 United States presidential election in Kansas1940 United States presidential election in Oklahoma1940 United States presidential election in Texas1940 United States presidential election in Minnesota1940 United States presidential election in Iowa1940 United States presidential election in Missouri1940 United States presidential election in Arkansas1940 United States presidential election in Louisiana1940 United States presidential election in Wisconsin1940 United States presidential election in Illinois1940 United States presidential election in Michigan1940 United States presidential election in Indiana1940 United States presidential election in Ohio1940 United States presidential election in Kentucky1940 United States presidential election in Tennessee1940 United States presidential election in Mississippi1940 United States presidential election in Alabama1940 United States presidential election in Georgia1940 United States presidential election in Florida1940 United States presidential election in South Carolina1940 United States presidential election in North Carolina1940 United States presidential election in Virginia1940 United States presidential election in West Virginia1940 United States presidential election in Maryland1940 United States presidential election in Delaware1940 United States presidential election in Pennsylvania1940 United States presidential election in New Jersey1940 United States presidential election in New York1940 United States presidential election in Connecticut1940 United States presidential election in Rhode Island1940 United States presidential election in Vermont1940 United States presidential election in New Hampshire1940 United States presidential election in Maine1940 United States presidential election in Massachusetts1940 United States presidential election in Maryland1940 United States presidential election in Delaware1940 United States presidential election in New Jersey1940 United States presidential election in Connecticut1940 United States presidential election in Rhode Island1940 United States presidential election in Massachusetts1940 United States presidential election in Vermont1940 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Presidential election results map. Blue denotes those won by Roosevelt/Wallace, red denotes states won by Willkie/McNary. 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 1940 United States presidential election was the 39th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican businessman Wendell Willkie to be reelected for an unprecedented third term in office. Until 1988, this was the last time in which the incumbent's party won three consecutive presidential elections. It was also the fourth presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1860, 1904, 1920, 1944, and 2016.

The election was contested in the shadow of World War II in Europe, as the United States was finally emerging from the Great Depression. Roosevelt did not want to campaign for a third term initially, but was driven by worsening conditions in Europe.[3] He and his allies sought to defuse challenges from other party leaders such as James Farley and Vice President John Nance Garner. The 1940 Democratic National Convention re-nominated Roosevelt on the first ballot, while Garner was replaced on the ticket by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. Willkie, a dark horse candidate, unexpectedly defeated conservative Senator Robert A. Taft and Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey on the sixth presidential ballot of the 1940 Republican National Convention.

Roosevelt, acutely aware of strong isolationist and non-interventionist sentiment, promised there would be no involvement in foreign wars if he were reelected.[4] Willkie, who had not previously run for public office, conducted an energetic campaign, managing to revive Republican strength in areas of the Midwest and Northeast. He criticized perceived incompetence and waste in the New Deal, warned of the dangers of breaking the two-term tradition, and accused Roosevelt of secretly planning to take the country into World War II. However, Willkie's association with big business damaged his cause, as many working class voters blamed corporations and business leaders for the Great Depression. Roosevelt led in all pre-election polls and won a comfortable victory; his margins, though still significant, were less decisive than they had been in 1932 and 1936.

Nominations

[edit]

Democratic Party

[edit]
Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party (United States)
1940 Democratic Party ticket
Franklin D. Roosevelt Henry A. Wallace
for President for Vice President
32nd
President of the United States
(1933–1945)
11th
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
(1933–1940)
Campaign
3,250,555 votes
707.5 PD
In order of delegates and votes won
Franklin D. Roosevelt John Nance Garner Charles W. Sawyer James Farley William B. Bankhead O. John Rogge Millard Tydings Burton K. Wheeler Joseph C. O'Mahoney Ellis E. Patterson Cordell Hull Paul V. McNutt
U.S. President
from New York
(1933–1945)
U.S. Vice President
from Texas
(1933–1941)
Lt. Governor
of Ohio
(1933–1935)
U.S. Postmaster General
from New York
(1933–1940)
U.S. House Speaker
from Alabama
(1936–1940)
U.S. Assistant Attorney General
from New York
(1939–1940)
U.S. Senator
from Maryland
(1927–1951)
U.S. Senator
from Montana
(1923–1947)
U.S. Senator
from Wyoming
(1934–1953)
Lt. Governor
of California
(1939–1943)
U.S. Secretary of State
from Tennessee
(1933–1944)
Administrator of the Federal Security Agency
from Indiana
(1934–1945)
3,214,555 votes
691.5 PD
426,641 votes
69.5 PD
283,952 votes
52 PD
76,919 votes
38.5 PD
196,508 votes
22 PD
20 PD 16 PD 8 PD 6 PD 48,337 votes 0 PD 0 PD
Convention vote
President Vice President
Green tickY Franklin D. Roosevelt 946 Green tickY Henry A. Wallace 626
James Farley 72 William B. Bankhead 329
John Nance Garner 61 Paul V. McNutt 68
Millard Tydings 9 Alva B. Adams 11
Cordell Hull 5 James Farley 7
Jesse H. Jones 5
Joseph C. O'Mahoney 3
Alben W. Barkley 2
Prentiss M. Brown 1
Louis A. Johnson 1
Scott W. Lucas 1
Bascom N. Timmons 1
David I. Walsh 0.5

Throughout the winter, spring, and summer of 1940, there was much speculation as to whether Roosevelt would break with longstanding tradition and run for an unprecedented third term. The two-term tradition, although not yet enshrined in the Constitution, had been established by George Washington when he refused to run for a third term in 1796; other former presidents, such as Ulysses S. Grant in 1880 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 had made serious attempts to run for a third term, but the former failed to be nominated, while the latter, forced to run on a third-party ticket, lost to Woodrow Wilson due to the split in the Republican vote. President Roosevelt refused to state definitely whether he would run for a third term. He even indicated to some ambitious Democrats that he would not run. Two of them thus decided to seek the Democratic nomination. These were James Farley, his former campaign manager, and Vice President John Nance Garner. Garner was a Texas conservative who had come to disagree with Roosevelt's liberal economic and social policies, and declined to run for a third term as vice president.

However, as Nazi Germany swept through western Europe and menaced the United Kingdom in the summer of 1940, Roosevelt decided that only he had the necessary experience and skills to see the nation safely through the Nazi threat. He was aided by the party's political bosses, who feared that no Democrat except Roosevelt could defeat the popular Willkie.[5]

At the July 1940 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Roosevelt easily swept aside challenges from Farley and Garner. Roosevelt picked Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace of Iowa to replace Garner on the ticket. An outspoken liberal who had been a Republican until he joined Roosevelt's cabinet, he met strong opposition from conservatives and party traditionalists. Wallace was also known as "eccentric" in his private life: some years earlier, he had been a follower of Theosophist mystic Nicholas Roerich. But Roosevelt insisted that without Wallace he would not run. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to Chicago to vouch for Wallace, and he won the vice-presidential nomination with 626 votes to 329 for House Speaker William B. Bankhead of Alabama.[6]

Republican Party

[edit]
Republican Party (United States)
Republican Party (United States)
1940 Republican Party ticket
Wendell Willkie Charles L. McNary
for President for Vice President
President of
Commonwealth & Southern
(1933–1940)
U.S. Senator from Oregon
(1917–1918, 1918–1944)
Campaign
In order of delegates and votes won
Wendell Willkie Robert A. Taft Jerrold L. Seawell Thomas E. Dewey Arthur Vanderberg Herbert Hoover Hanford MacNider Frank Gannett Arthur H. James
Businessman
from New York
(1919–1939)
U.S. Senator
from Ohio
(1939–1953)
President pro tempore
of California
(1939–1941)
Manhattan District Attorney
from New York
(1938–1941)
U.S. Senator
from Michigan
(1928–1951)
Former U.S. President
from California
Assistant Secretary of War(1925–1928) Businessman
from New York
(1906–1957)
Governor
of Pennsylvania
(1939–1943)
21,140 votes
633 PD
516,428 votes
310 PD
538,112 votes
44 PD
1,605,754 votes
11 PD
100,651 votes 69 votes
9 PD
2 PD 1 PD 1 PD
Convention vote (6th Ballot before Shifts)
President Vice President
Green tickY Wendell L. Willkie 633 Green tickY Charles L. McNary 626
Robert A. Taft 310 Dewey Jackson Short 108
Thomas E. Dewey 11 Styles Bridges 2
Herbert Hoover 9
Hanford MacNider 2
Frank Gannett 1
Arthur H. James 1

In the months leading up to the opening of the 1940 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Republican Party was deeply divided between the party's isolationists, who wanted to stay out of World War II at all costs, and the party's interventionists, who felt that the United Kingdom needed to be given all aid short of war to prevent Nazi Germany from conquering all of Europe. The three leading candidates for the Republican nomination - Senator Robert A. Taft from Ohio, Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg from Michigan, and District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey from New York - were all isolationists to varying degrees.[7]

Taft was the leader of the conservative, isolationist wing of the Republican Party, and his main strength was in his native Midwestern United States and parts of the Southern United States. Dewey, the District Attorney for Manhattan, had risen to national fame as the "Gangbuster" prosecutor who had sent numerous infamous Mafia figures to prison, most notably Lucky Luciano, the organized-crime boss of New York City. Dewey had won most of the presidential primaries in the spring of 1940, and he came into the Republican Convention in June with the largest number of delegate votes, although he was still well below the number needed to win. Vandenberg, the senior Republican in the Senate, was the "favorite son" candidate of the Michigan delegation and was considered a possible compromise candidate if Taft or Dewey faltered. Former President Herbert Hoover was also spoken of as a compromise candidate.

However, each of these candidates had weaknesses that could be exploited. Taft's outspoken isolationism and opposition to any American involvement in the European war convinced many Republican leaders that he could not win a general election, particularly as France fell to the Nazis in June 1940 and Germany threatened the United Kingdom. Dewey's relative youth—he was only 38 in 1940—and lack of any foreign-policy experience caused his candidacy to weaken as the Wehrmacht emerged as a fearsome threat. In 1940, Vandenberg was also an isolationist (he would change his foreign-policy stance during World War II) and his lackadaisical, lethargic campaign never caught the voters' attention. Hoover still bore the stigma of having presided over the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. This left an opening for a dark horse candidate to emerge.[8]

Wendell Willkie for President campaign button.

A Wall Street-based industrialist named Wendell Willkie, who had never before run for public office, emerged as the unlikely nominee. Willkie, a native of Indiana and a former Democrat who had supported Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 United States presidential election, was considered an improbable choice. Willkie had first come to public attention as an articulate critic of Roosevelt's attempt to break up electrical power monopolies.

Willkie was the CEO of the Commonwealth & Southern Corporation, which provided electrical power to customers in eleven states. In 1933, President Roosevelt had created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which promised to provide flood control and cheap electricity to the impoverished people of the Tennessee Valley. However, the government-run TVA would compete with Willkie's Commonwealth & Southern, and this led Willkie to criticize and oppose the TVA's attempt to compete with private power companies. Willkie argued that the government had unfair advantages over private corporations, and should thus avoid competing directly against them.[9]

However, Willkie did not dismiss all of Roosevelt's social welfare programs, indeed supporting those he believed could not be managed any better by the free enterprise system. Furthermore, unlike the leading Republican candidates, Willkie was a forceful and outspoken advocate of aid to the Allies of World War II, especially the United Kingdom. His support of giving all aid to the British "short of declaring war" won him the support of many Republicans on the East Coast of the United States, who disagreed with their party's isolationist leaders in Congress.

Willkie's persuasive arguments impressed these Republicans, who believed that he would be an attractive presidential candidate. Many of the leading press barons of the era, such as Ogden Reid of the New York Herald Tribune, Roy Howard of the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain and John and Gardner Cowles Jr. publishers of the Minneapolis Star and the Minneapolis Tribune, as well as The Des Moines Register and Look magazine, supported Willkie in their newspapers and magazines. Even so, Willkie remained a long-shot candidate; the May 8 Gallup Poll showed Dewey at 67% support among Republicans, followed by Vandenberg and Taft, with Willkie at only 3%.

The German Army's rapid Blitzkrieg campaign into France in May 1940 shook American public opinion, even as Taft was telling a Kansas audience that America needed to concentrate on domestic issues to prevent Roosevelt from using the war crisis to extend socialism at home. Both Dewey and Vandenberg also continued to oppose any aid to the United Kingdom that might lead to war with Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, sympathy for the embattled British was mounting daily, and this aided Willkie's candidacy. By mid-June, little over one week before the Republican Convention opened, the Gallup poll reported that Willkie had moved into second place with 17%, and that Dewey was slipping. Fueled by his favorable media attention, Willkie's pro-British statements won over many of the delegates. As the delegates were arriving in Philadelphia, Gallup reported that Willkie had surged to 29%, Dewey had slipped five more points to 47%, and Taft, Vandenberg and Hoover trailed at 8%, 8%, and 6% respectively.

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps as many as one million, telegrams urging support for Willkie poured in, many from "Willkie Clubs" that had sprung up across the country. Millions more signed petitions circulating everywhere. At the 1940 Republican National Convention itself, keynote speaker Harold Stassen, the Governor of Minnesota, announced his support for Willkie and became his official floor manager.[citation needed] Hundreds of vocal Willkie supporters packed the upper galleries of the convention hall. Willkie's amateur status and fresh face appealed to delegates as well as voters. Most of the delegations were selected not by primaries, but by party leaders in each state, and they had a keen sense of the fast-changing pulse of public opinion. Gallup found the same thing in polling data not reported until after the convention: Willkie had moved ahead among Republican voters by 44% to only 29% for the collapsing Dewey. As the pro-Willkie galleries chanted "We Want Willkie!" the delegates on the convention floor began their vote. Dewey led on the first ballot, but steadily lost strength thereafter. Both Taft and Willkie gained in strength on each ballot, and by the fourth ballot it was obvious that either Willkie or Taft would be the nominee. The key moments came when the delegations of large states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York left Dewey and Vandenberg and switched to Willkie, giving him the victory on the sixth ballot.[10]

Willkie's nomination was one of the most dramatic moments in any political convention.[11] Having given little thought to whom he would select as his vice-presidential nominee, Willkie left the decision to convention chairman and Massachusetts Representative Joseph Martin, the House Minority Leader, who suggested Senate Minority Leader Charles L. McNary from Oregon. Despite the fact that McNary had spearheaded a "Stop Willkie" campaign late in the balloting, the convention picked him to be Willkie's running mate.[12]

General election

[edit]

Polling

[edit]
Polling aggregates
Candidates
  Franklin Roosevelt
  Wendell Willkie
  Undecided

The Gallup Poll accurately predicted the election outcome.[13] However, the American Institute of Public Opinion, responsible for the Gallup Poll, avoided predicting the outcome, citing a four percent margin of error.[14] The Gallup Poll also found that, if there was no war in Europe, voters preferred Willkie over Roosevelt.[13]

Fall campaign

[edit]
Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of blue are for Roosevelt (Democratic) and shades of red are for Willkie (Republican).

Willkie crusaded against Roosevelt's attempt to break the two-term presidential tradition, arguing that "if one man is indispensable, then none of us is free." Even some Democrats who had supported Roosevelt in the past disapproved of his attempt to win a third term, and Willkie hoped to win their votes. Willkie also criticized what he claimed was the incompetence and waste in Roosevelt's New Deal welfare programs. He stated that as president he would keep most of Roosevelt's government programs, but would make them more efficient.[15]

However, many Americans still blamed business leaders for the Great Depression, and the fact that Willkie symbolized "Big Business" hurt him with many working-class voters. Willkie was a fearless campaigner; he often visited industrial areas where Republicans were still blamed for causing the Great Depression and where Roosevelt was highly popular. In these areas, Willkie frequently had rotten fruit and vegetables thrown at him and was heckled by crowds; still, he was unfazed.[16]

Willkie also accused Roosevelt of leaving the nation unprepared for war, but Roosevelt's military buildup and transformation of the nation into the "Arsenal of Democracy" removed the "unpreparedness" charge as a major issue. Willkie then reversed his approach and charged Roosevelt with secretly planning to take the nation into World War II. This accusation did cut into Roosevelt's support. In response, Roosevelt, in a pledge that he would later regret, promised that he would "not send American boys into any foreign wars." The United Kingdom and Germany actively interfered throughout the election, hoping to exploit public sentiments and cultivate political contacts.[17][18][19]

Results

[edit]

Roosevelt led in all pre-election opinion polls by various margins. On Election Day—November 5, 1940, he received 27.3 million votes to Willkie's 22.3 million, and in the Electoral College, he defeated Willkie by a margin of 449 to 82. Willkie did get over six million more votes than the Republican nominee in 1936, Alf Landon, and he ran strong in rural areas in the American Midwest, taking over 57% of the farm vote. Many counties in the Midwest have not voted for a Democrat since. Roosevelt, meanwhile, carried every American city with a population of more than 400,000 except Cincinnati, Ohio. Of the 106 cities with more than 100,000 population, he won 61% of the votes cast; in the Southern United States as a whole, he won 73% of the total vote. In the remainder of the country (the rural and small-town Northern United States), Willkie had a majority of 53%. In the cities, there was a class differential, with the white-collar and middle-class voters supporting the Republican candidate, and working class, blue-collar voters going for FDR. In the North, Roosevelt won 87% of the Jewish vote, 73% of the Catholics, and 61% of the nonmembers, while all the major Protestant denominations showed majorities for Willkie.[20]

Roosevelt's net vote totals in the twelve largest cities decreased from 3,479,000 votes in the 1936 election to 2,112,000 votes, but it was still higher than his result from the 1932 election when he won by 1,791,000 votes.[21] Of the 3,094 counties/independent cities, Roosevelt won in 1,947 (62.93%) while Willkie carried 1,147 (37.07%).

Records

[edit]

Roosevelt was the third of just four presidents in United States history to win re-election with a lower percentage of the electoral vote than in their prior elections, the other three were James Madison in 1812, Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and Barack Obama in 2012. Additionally, Roosevelt was the fourth of only five presidents to win re-election with a smaller percentage of the popular vote than in prior elections, the other four are James Madison in 1812, Andrew Jackson in 1832, Grover Cleveland in 1892, and Obama in 2012. This marked the first time since 1892 that the Democrats won the popular vote in three consecutive elections, and the first since 1840 where they won three consecutive elections. Although at a rate lower than 1936, Roosevelt maintained his strong majorities from labor unions, big city political machines, ethnic minority voters, and the traditionally Democratic Solid South. Roosevelt's third consecutive victory inspired the Twenty-second Amendment, limiting the number of terms a person may be president.

As of 2024, Roosevelt was the sixth of seven presidential nominees to win a significant number of electoral votes in at least three elections, the others being Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, and Richard Nixon. Of these, Jackson, Cleveland, and Roosevelt also won the popular vote in at least three elections. Jefferson, Cleveland, and Roosevelt were also their respective party's nominees for three consecutive elections.

This was the first time that North Dakota voted for a losing candidate and the first time since 1892 that a Democrat won without Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. This was also the first time anyone won without Colorado and Nebraska since 1908, and Kansas since 1900. It was also the fourth presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1860, 1904, 1920, 1944, and 2016.

Willkie and McNary both died in 1944 (October 8, and February 25, respectively); the first, and to date only time both members of a major-party presidential ticket died during the term for which they sought election. Had they been elected, Willkie's death would have resulted in the Secretary of State becoming acting president for the remainder of the term ending on January 20, 1945, in accordance with the Presidential Succession Act of 1886.[22][23]

4.53% of Willkie's votes came from the eleven states of the former Confederacy, with him taking 21.65% of the vote in that region.[24]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote
Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Franklin D. Roosevelt (incumbent) Democratic New York 27,313,945 54.74% 449 Henry A. Wallace Iowa 449
Wendell Willkie Republican New York 22,347,744 44.78% 82 Charles L. McNary Oregon 82
Norman Thomas Socialist New York 116,599 0.23% 0 Maynard C. Krueger Illinois 0
Roger Babson Prohibition Massachusetts 57,903 0.12% 0 Edgar Moorman Illinois 0
Earl Browder Communist Kansas 48,557 0.10% 0 James W. Ford New York 0
John W. Aiken Socialist Labor Connecticut 14,883 0.03% 0 Aaron M. Orange New York 0
Other 2,482 0.00% Other
Total 49,902,113 100% 531 531
Needed to win 266 266

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. "1940 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 31, 2005.Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005.

Popular vote
Roosevelt
54.74%
Willkie
44.78%
Thomas
0.23%
Others
0.25%
Electoral vote
Roosevelt
84.56%
Willkie
15.44%

Geography of results

[edit]
[edit]

Results by state

[edit]

Source:[25]

States/districts won by Roosevelt/Wallace
States/districts won by Willkie/McNary
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic
Wendell Willkie
Republican
Norman Thomas
Socialist
Other Margin State Total
State electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % electoral
votes
# % #
Alabama 11 250,726 85.22 11 42,184 14.34 - 100 0.03 - 1,209 0.41 - 208,542 70.88 294,219 AL
Arizona 3 95,267 63.49 3 54,030 36.01 - - - - 742 0.49 - 41,237 27.48 150,039 AZ
Arkansas 9 158,622 79.02 9 42,121 20.98 - - - - - - - 116,501 58.03 200,743 AR
California 22 1,877,618 57.44 22 1,351,419 41.34 - 16,506 0.50 - 23,248 0.71 - 526,199 16.10 3,268,791 CA
Colorado 6 265,554 48.37 - 279,576 50.92 6 1,899 0.35 - 1,975 0.36 - -14,022 -2.55 549,004 CO
Connecticut 8 417,621 53.44 8 361,819 46.30 - - - - 2,062 0.26 - 55,802 7.14 781,502 CT
Delaware 3 74,599 54.70 3 61,440 45.05 - 115 0.08 - 220 0.16 - 13,159 9.65 136,374 DE
Florida 7 359,334 74.01 7 126,158 25.99 - - - - - - - 233,176 48.03 485,492 FL
Georgia 12 265,194 84.85 12 46,360 14.83 - - - - 997 0.32 - 218,834 70.02 312,551 GA
Idaho 4 127,842 54.36 4 106,553 45.31 - 497 0.21 - 276 0.12 - 21,289 9.05 235,168 ID
Illinois 29 2,149,934 50.97 29 2,047,240 48.54 - 10,914 0.26 - 9,847 0.23 - 102,694 2.43 4,217,935 IL
Indiana 14 874,063 49.03 - 899,466 50.45 14 2,075 0.12 - 7,143 0.40 - -25,403 -1.42 1,782,747 IN
Iowa 11 578,800 47.62 - 632,370 52.03 11 - - - 4,260 0.35 - -53,570 -4.41 1,215,430 IA
Kansas 9 364,725 42.40 - 489,169 56.86 9 2,347 0.27 - 4,056 0.47 - -124,444 -14.47 860,297 KS
Kentucky 11 557,222 57.44 11 410,384 42.30 - 1,014 0.10 - 1,443 0.15 - 146,838 15.14 970,063 KY
Louisiana 10 319,751 85.88 10 52,446 14.09 - - - - 108 0.03 - 267,305 71.80 372,305 LA
Maine 5 156,478 48.77 - 163,951 51.10 5 - - - 411 0.13 - -7,473 -2.33 320,840 ME
Maryland 8 384,546 58.25 8 269,534 40.83 - 4,093 0.62 - 1,944 0.29 - 115,012 17.42 660,117 MD
Massachusetts 17 1,076,522 53.11 17 939,700 46.36 - 4,091 0.20 - 6,680 0.33 - 136,822 6.75 2,026,993 MA
Michigan 19 1,032,991 49.52 - 1,039,917 49.85 19 7,593 0.36 - 5,428 0.26 - -6,926 -0.33 2,085,929 MI
Minnesota 11 644,196 51.49 11 596,274 47.66 - 5,454 0.44 - 5,264 0.42 - 47,922 3.83 1,251,188 MN
Mississippi 9 168,267 95.70 9 7,364 4.19 - 193 0.11 - - - - 160,903 91.51 175,824 MS
Missouri 15 958,476 52.27 15 871,009 47.50 - 2,226 0.12 - 2,018 0.11 - 87,467 4.77 1,833,729 MO
Montana 4 145,698 58.78 4 99,579 40.17 - 1,443 0.58 - 1,153 0.47 - 46,119 18.61 247,873 MT
Nebraska 7 263,677 42.81 - 352,201 57.19 7 - - - - - - -88,524 -14.37 615,878 NE
Nevada 3 31,945 60.08 3 21,229 39.92 - - - - - - - 10,716 20.15 53,174 NV
New Hampshire 4 125,292 53.22 4 110,127 46.78 - - - - - - - 15,165 6.44 235,419 NH
New Jersey 16 1,016,404 51.48 16 944,876 47.86 - 2,823 0.14 - 10,111 0.51 - 71,528 3.62 1,974,214 NJ
New Mexico 3 103,699 56.59 3 79,315 43.28 - 144 0.08 - 100 0.05 - 24,384 13.31 183,258 NM
New York 47 3,251,918 51.60 47 3,027,478 48.04 - 18,950 0.30 - 3,250 0.05 - 224,440 3.56 6,301,596 NY
North Carolina 13 609,015 74.03 13 213,633 25.97 - - - - - - - 395,382 48.06 822,648 NC
North Dakota 4 124,036 44.18 - 154,590 55.06 4 1,279 0.46 - 870 0.31 - -30,554 -10.88 280,775 ND
Ohio 26 1,733,139 52.20 26 1,586,773 47.80 - - - - - - - 146,366 4.41 3,319,912 OH
Oklahoma 11 474,313 57.41 11 348,872 42.23 - - - - 3,027 0.37 - 125,441 15.18 826,212 OK
Oregon 5 258,415 53.70 5 219,555 45.62 - 398 0.08 - 2,872 0.60 - 38,860 8.07 481,240 OR
Pennsylvania 36 2,171,035 53.23 36 1,889,848 46.33 - 10,967 0.27 - 6,864 0.17 - 281,187 6.89 4,078,714 PA
Rhode Island 4 182,182 56.73 4 138,653 43.17 - - - - 313 0.10 - 43,529 13.55 321,148 RI
South Carolina 8 95,470 95.63 8 4,360 4.37 - - - - 2 0.00 - 91,110 91.26 99,832 SC
South Dakota 4 131,362 42.59 - 177,065 57.41 4 - - - - - - -45,703 -14.82 308,427 SD
Tennessee 11 351,601 67.25 11 169,153 32.35 - 463 0.09 - 1,606 0.31 - 182,448 34.90 522,823 TN
Texas 23 909,974 80.92 23 212,692 18.91 - 728 0.06 - 1,137 0.10 - 697,282 62.01 1,124,531 TX
Utah 4 154,277 62.25 4 93,151 37.59 - 200 0.08 - 191 0.08 - 61,126 24.67 247,819 UT
Vermont 3 64,269 44.92 - 78,371 54.78 3 - - - 422 0.30 - -14,102 -9.86 143,062 VT
Virginia 11 235,961 68.08 11 109,363 31.55 - 282 0.08 - 1,001 0.29 - 126,598 36.52 346,607 VA
Washington 8 462,145 58.22 8 322,123 40.58 - 4,586 0.58 - 4,979 0.63 - 140,022 17.64 793,833 WA
West Virginia 8 495,662 57.10 8 372,414 42.90 - - - - - - - 123,248 14.20 868,076 WV
Wisconsin 12 704,821 50.15 12 679,206 48.32 - 15,071 1.07 - 6,424 0.46 - 25,615 1.82 1,405,522 WI
Wyoming 3 59,287 52.82 3 52,633 46.89 - 148 0.13 - 172 0.15 - 6,654 5.93 112,240 WY
TOTALS: 531 27,313,945 54.74 449 22,347,744 44.78 82 116,599 0.23 - 123,825 0.25 - 4,966,201 9.95 49,902,113 US

States that flipped from Democratic to Republican

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Close states

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Margin of victory less than 1% (19 electoral votes):

  1. Michigan, 0.33% (6,926 votes)

Margin of victory less than 5% (192 electoral votes):

  1. Indiana, 1.42% (25,403 votes)
  2. Wisconsin, 1.82% (25,615 votes)
  3. Maine, 2.33% (7,473 votes)
  4. Illinois, 2.43% (102,694 votes)
  5. Colorado, 2.55% (14,022 votes)
  6. New York, 3.56% (224,440 votes)
  7. New Jersey, 3.62% (71,528 votes)
  8. Minnesota, 3.83% (47,922 votes)
  9. Iowa, 4.41% (53,570 votes)
  10. Ohio, 4.41% (146,366 votes)
  11. Missouri, 4.77% (87,467 votes)

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (83 electoral votes):

  1. Wyoming, 5.93% (6,654 votes)
  2. New Hampshire, 6.44% (15,165 votes)
  3. Massachusetts, 6.75% (136,822 votes)
  4. Pennsylvania, 6.89% (281,187 votes) (tipping point state)
  5. Connecticut, 7.14% (55,802 votes)
  6. Oregon, 8.07% (38,860 votes)
  7. Idaho, 9.05% (21,289 votes)
  8. Delaware, 9.65% (13,159 votes)
  9. Vermont, 9.86% (14,102 votes)

Statistics

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[26]

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)

  1. Terrell County, Georgia 100.00%
  2. Tate County, Mississippi 99.81%
  3. Lancaster County, South Carolina 99.57%
  4. Calhoun County, South Carolina 99.55%
  5. Chesterfield County, South Carolina 99.31%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)

  1. McIntosh County, North Dakota 91.66%
  2. Jackson County, Kentucky 88.62%
  3. Gillespie County, Texas 86.74%
  4. Mercer County, North Dakota 85.36%
  5. Johnson County, Tennessee 84.21%

Foreign interference

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The British government engaged covert intelligence operations to support Roosevelt, including the planting of false news stories, wiretaps, "October surprises", and other intelligence activities.[27][28] The German government had allocated $5 million as a campaign war chest via the German embassy to bribe Democratic delegates at the 1940 convention, using American businessman William Rhodes Davis as a conduit. Davis was sympathetic to the German cause after his meeting with Hermann Göring and was enlisted for this purpose. Later, he directed some of these funds towards supporting anti-Roosevelt radio broadcasts by the isolationist labor leader John L. Lewis, with the aim of impeding Roosevelt's re-election bid. Initially a supporter of Roosevelt in 1936, Davis had become disillusioned by 1940, and the two had grown apart over foreign policy. The German envoy in Mexico had also requested $160,000 to sway an unnamed Democratic Party operative in Pennsylvania to unseat interventionist Democratic Senator Joseph Guffey, who was a prominent critic of Nazi Germany. Davis was later identified as Abwehr agent C-80 following his death in August 1941.[18][29]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789-Present". United States Election Project. CQ Press.
  2. ^ "U. S. Electoral College". Archives.gov. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  3. ^ "Radio Address to the Democratic National Convention Accepting the Nomination. | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  4. ^ "FDR Campaigns For Re-election". Archived from the original on January 25, 2013."Roosevelt repeatedly promised that American boys would not have to fight overseas. At one point Willkie hearing Roosevelt make his pledge of "your boys are not going to be sent into a foreign war"
  5. ^ James MacGregor Burns Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956) pp 408-30.
  6. ^ Richard Moe, Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War (2013).
  7. ^ Michael D. Bowen, The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party (2011).
  8. ^ Susan Dunn, 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler-the Election Amid the Storm (Yale UP, 2013).
  9. ^ Steve Neal, Dark Horse: A Biography of Wendell Willkie (1989)
  10. ^ Henry Z. Scheele, "The Nomination of Wendell Willkie." Communication Quarterly 16.4 (1968): 45-50.
  11. ^ Charles Peters, Five Days in Philadelphia: 1940, Wendell Willkie, FDR and the Political Convention That Won World War II (2006) pp 1-5.
  12. ^ Steve Neal, McNary of Oregon: A Political Biography (1985).
  13. ^ a b Gallup, George (January 1941). "Was I Right About Roosevelt?". Coronet. Old Magazine Articles. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
  14. ^ Katz, Daniel (March 1941). "The Public Opinion Polls and the 1940 Election". The Public Opinion Quarterly. Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 52–78
  15. ^ John W. Jeffries, A Third Term for FDR: The Election of 1940 (2017)
  16. ^ * Evjen, Henry O. "The Willkie Campaign; An Unfortunate Chapter in Republican Leadership", Journal of Politics (1952) 14#2 pp. 241–56 in JSTOR
  17. ^ Usdin, Steve (January 16, 2017). "When a Foreign Government Interfered in a U.S. Election — to Reelect FDR". Politico. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
  18. ^ a b Hart, Bradley (January 23, 2019). "Nazis and communists tried it too: Foreign interference in US elections dates back decades". The Conversation. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  19. ^ "A Nazi Attempt To Influence U.S. Elections". CNN. July 23, 1997.
  20. ^ Richard Jensen, "The Cities Reelect Roosevelt" p 189-90
  21. ^ Murphy, Paul (1974). Political Parties In American History, Volume 3, 1890-present. G. P. Putnam's Sons.
  22. ^ Brewer, F. (1945). "Succession to the presidency". Editorial research reports 1945 (Vol. II). Washington, D.C.: CQ Press. Retrieved July 12, 2018. If the Republican ticket had been elected in 1940, the plan of succession adopted in 1886 would probably have come into operation for the first time in 1944. Charles McNary, Republican candidate for Vice President, died on Feb. 25, 1944, With the death of Wendell Willkie, on Oct. 8, his Secretary of State would have been sworn in for the remainder of the term ending on Jan. 20, 1945.
  23. ^ Feinman, Ronald L. (March 1, 2016). "The Election of 1940 and the Might-Have-Been that Makes One Shudder". History News Network. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  24. ^ Sherman 1973, p. 263.
  25. ^ "1940 Presidential General Election Data - National". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  26. ^ "1940 Presidential General Election Data - National". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
  27. ^ Usdin, Steve (January 16, 2017). "When a Foreign Government Interfered in a U.S. Election—to Reelect FDR". Politico. Retrieved October 1, 2017.
  28. ^ Stevenson, William Samuel (June 1, 1999). British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940–1945. Fromm International. ISBN 088064236X.
  29. ^ "A Nazi Attempt To Influence U.S. Elections". CNN. July 23, 1997.

Works cited

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Further reading

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  • Barnard, Ellsworth . Wendell Willkie: Fighter for Freedom (1966)
  • Bowen, Michael D. The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party (U of North Carolina Press, 2011).
  • Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956)
  • Cole, Wayne S. America First: The Battle against Intervention, 1940–41 (1953)
  • Cole, Wayne S. Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle against American Intervention in World War II (1974)
  • Davies, Gareth, and Julian E. Zelizer, eds. America at the Ballot Box: Elections and Political History (2015) pp. 153–66.
  • DeSilvio, David. How Domestic Politics Influenced Foreign Policy in the 1940 Election: FDR, Domestic Politics, Foreign Policy, and the Election of 1940 (2008)
  • Divine, Robert A. Foreign policy and U.S. presidential elections, 1940-1948 (1974) online; pp 3–90 on 1940
  • Doenecke, Justus D. Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939–1941 (2000).
  • Doenecke, Justus D. The Battle Against Intervention, 1939–1941 (1997), includes short narrative and primary documents.
  • Donahoe, Bernard F. Private Plans and Public Dangers: The Story of FDR's Third Nomination (University of Notre Dame Press, 1965).
  • Dunn, Susan. 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler-the Election Amid the Storm (Yale UP, 2013). excerpt
  • Evjen, Henry O. "The Willkie Campaign; An Unfortunate Chapter in Republican Leadership", Journal of Politics (1952) 14#2 pp. 241–56 in JSTOR
  • Gamm, Gerald H. The making of the New Deal Democrats: Voting behavior and realignment in Boston, 1920-1940 (U of Chicago Press, 1989).
  • Gleason, S. Everett and William L. Langer. The Undeclared War, 1940–1941 1953 Policy toward war in Europe; pro FDR
  • Grant, Philip A. Jr. "The Presidential Election of 1940 in Missouri." Missouri Historical Review 1988 83(1) pp 1–16. Abstract: Missouri serves as a good barometer of nationwide political sentiment; The two major political parties considered Missouri a key state in the 1940 presidential election. Wendell Willkie captured 64 of the state's 114 counties, but huge majorities in the urban counties carried the state for Franklin D. Roosevelt.
  • Jeffries, John W. A Third Term for FDR: The Election of 1940 (University Press of Kansas, 2017). xiv, 264 pp. excerpt
  • Jensen, Richard. "The cities reelect Roosevelt: Ethnicity, religion, and class in 1940." Ethnicity. An Interdisciplinary Journal of the Study of Ethnic Relations (1981) 8#2 pp 189–195.
  • Johnstone, Andrew, and Andrew Priest, eds. US Presidential Elections and Foreign Policy: Candidates, Campaigns, and Global Politics from FDR to Bill Clinton (2017) pp 19–39. online
  • Jonas, Manfred. Isolationism in America, 1935–1941 (1966).
  • Katz, Daniel. "The public opinion polls and the 1940 election." Public Opinion Quarterly 5.1 (1941) 52–78.
  • Lewis, David Levering. The Improbable Wendell Willkie: The Businessman Who Saved the Republican Party and His Country, and Conceived a New World Order (Liveright, 2018). excerpt
  • Luconi, Stefano. "Machine Politics and the Consolidation of the Roosevelt Majority: The Case of Italian Americans in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia." Journal of American Ethnic History (1996) 32–59. in JSTOR
  • Madison, James H., ed. Wendell Willkie: Hoosier Internationalist (Indiana University Press, 1992) essays by experts.
  • Moe, Richard. Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War (Oxford UP, 2013). excerpt
  • Neal, Steve. Dark Horse: A Biography of Wendell Willkie (1989)
  • Overacker, Louise. "Campaign finance in the Presidential Election of 1940." American Political Science Review 35.4 (1941): 701–727. in JSTOR
  • Parmet, Herbert S., and Marie B. Hecht. Never again: A president runs for a third term (1968).
  • Peters, Charles. Five Days in Philadelphia: 1940, Wendell Willkie, FDR and the Political Convention That Won World War II (2006).
  • Robinson, Edgar Eugene. They Voted for Roosevelt: The Presidential Vote 1932-1944 (1947). Election returns by County for every state.
  • Ross, Hugh. "John L. Lewis and the Election of 1940." Labor History 1976 17(2) 160–189. Abstract: The breach between John L. Lewis and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 stemmed from domestic and foreign policy concerns. The struggle to organize the steel industry, and after 1938, business attempts to erode Walsh-Healy and the Fair Labor Standards Act provided the backdrop for the feud. But activities of Nazi agents, working through William Rhodes Davis, increased Lewis' suspicions of Roosevelt's interventionist foreign policy and were important in the decision to support Wendell Willkie.
  • Savage, Sean J. "The 1936-1944 Campaigns", in William D. Pederson, ed. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt (2011) pp 96–113
  • Schneider, James C. Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939–1941 (1989)
  • Schearer, Michael. "The Emergence of Wendell Willkie as the 1940 Republican Nominee." (SSRN 2019) online.

Primary sources

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  • Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds.; Public Opinion, 1935–1946 (1951), massive compilation of many public opinion polls from USA online
  • Doenecke, Justus D. ed. In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940–1941 as Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee (1990) excerpt
  • Gallup, George H. ed. The Gallup Poll, Volume One 1935–1948 (1972) statistical reports on each poll
  • Chester, Edward W A guide to political platforms (1977) online
  • Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840-1964 (1965) online 1840-1956
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