United States presidential election, 1940







The United States presidential election of 1940 was the 39th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. The election was contested in the shadow of World War II in Europe, as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression. Incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican businessman Wendell Willkie to be re-reelected for a third term in office.


Roosevelt did not openly campaign for re-nomination, but he and his allies sought to defuse challenges from other party leaders like 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, defeated conservative Senator Robert A. Taft and prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey on the sixth presidential ballot of the 1940 Republican National Convention.


Roosevelt, acutely aware of strong isolationist and non-interventionism sentiment, promised there would be no involvement in foreign wars if he were re-elected. Willkie, who had not previously run for public office, conducted an energetic campaign and managed 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. Willkie was damaged by his association with big business, as many working class voters blamed business leaders for the onset of the Great Depression.


Roosevelt led in all pre-election polls and won a comfortable victory, though his margins were less decisive than they had been in 1932 and 1936. He maintained his strong support from labor unions, urban political machines, ethnic minority voters, and the traditionally Democratic Solid South.




Contents





  • 1 Nominations

    • 1.1 Democratic Party


    • 1.2 Republican Party



  • 2 General election

    • 2.1 Polling


    • 2.2 The fall campaign


    • 2.3 Results


    • 2.4 Geography of results

      • 2.4.1 Cartographic gallery


      • 2.4.2 Results by state



    • 2.5 Close states



  • 3 See also


  • 4 References


  • 5 Further reading


  • 6 External links




Nominations



Democratic Party



United States presidential election, 1940





← 1936
November 5, 1940
1944 →


531 electoral votes of the Electoral College
266 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout62.5%[1]Increase 1.5 pp





























 

FDRoosevelt1938.jpg

WendellWillkie.jpg
Nominee

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Wendell Willkie

Party

Democratic

Republican
Home state

New York[2]

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%



United States presidential election in California, 1940United States presidential election in Oregon, 1940United States presidential election in Washington (state), 1940United States presidential election in Idaho, 1940United States presidential election in Nevada, 1940United States presidential election in Utah, 1940United States presidential election in Arizona, 1940United States presidential election in Montana, 1940United States presidential election in Wyoming, 1940United States presidential election in Colorado, 1940United States presidential election in New Mexico, 1940United States presidential election in North Dakota, 1940United States presidential election in South Dakota, 1940United States presidential election in Nebraska, 1940United States presidential election in Kansas, 1940United States presidential election in Oklahoma, 1940United States presidential election in Texas, 1940United States presidential election in Minnesota, 1940United States presidential election in Iowa, 1940United States presidential election in Missouri, 1940United States presidential election in Arkansas, 1940United States presidential election in Louisiana, 1940United States presidential election in Wisconsin, 1940United States presidential election in Illinois, 1940United States presidential election in Michigan, 1940United States presidential election in Indiana, 1940United States presidential election in Ohio, 1940United States presidential election in Kentucky, 1940United States presidential election in Tennessee, 1940United States presidential election in Mississippi, 1940United States presidential election in Alabama, 1940United States presidential election in Georgia, 1940United States presidential election in Florida, 1940United States presidential election in South Carolina, 1940United States presidential election in North Carolina, 1940United States presidential election in Virginia, 1940United States presidential election in West Virginia, 1940United States presidential election in Maryland, 1940United States presidential election in Delaware, 1940United States presidential election in Pennsylvania, 1940United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1940United States presidential election in New York, 1940United States presidential election in Connecticut, 1940United States presidential election in Rhode Island, 1940United States presidential election in Vermont, 1940United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 1940United States presidential election in Maine, 1940United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1940United States presidential election in Maryland, 1940United States presidential election in Delaware, 1940United States presidential election in New Jersey, 1940United States presidential election in Connecticut, 1940United States presidential election in Rhode Island, 1940United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1940United States presidential election in Vermont, 1940United States presidential election in New Hampshire, 1940ElectoralCollege1940.svg
About this image


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











Democratic Party Ticket, 1940

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Henry A. Wallace

for President

for Vice President

FDRoosevelt1938.jpg


Henry-A.-Wallace-Townsend.jpeg


32nd
President of the United States
(1933–1945)
11th
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
(1933–1940)

Campaign







Democratic candidates

FDRoosevelt1938.jpg

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Incumbent U.S. President

John Nance Garner.jpg

John Nance Garner
Incumbent U.S. Vice President


James Farley
Incumbent U.S. Postmaster General























































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



Bascomb 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 give a definitive statement as to his willingness to be a candidate again, and he even indicated to some ambitious Democrats, such as James Farley, that he would not run for a third term and that they could seek the Democratic nomination. 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.[3]


At the July 1940 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Roosevelt easily swept aside challenges from Farley and John Nance Garner, his Vice-President. Garner was a Texas conservative who had turned against Roosevelt in his second term because of his liberal economic and social policies. As a result, Roosevelt decided to pick a new running mate, Henry A. Wallace from Iowa, his Secretary of Agriculture and an outspoken liberal. That choice was strenuously opposed by many of the party's conservatives, who felt Wallace was too radical and "eccentric" in his private life to be an effective running mate (he practiced New Age spiritual beliefs, and often consulted with the controversial Russian spiritual guru Nicholas Roerich). But Roosevelt insisted that without Wallace on the ticket he would decline re-nomination, and when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to Chicago to vouch for Wallace, he won the vice-presidential nomination with 626 votes to 329 for House Speaker William B. Bankhead of Alabama.[4]



Republican Party












Republican Party Ticket, 1940

Wendell Willkie

Charles L. McNary

for President

for Vice President

WendellWillkie.jpg


Charles McNary farm statesman (cropped1).jpg

President of
Commonwealth & Southern
(1933–1940)

Senate Minority Leader
(1933–1940 & 1941–1944)

Campaign











Republican candidates

ThomasDewey.jpg

Thomas E. Dewey
Incumbent Manhattan District Attorney
from New York

President Hoover portrait.jpg

Herbert Hoover
Former U.S. President
from California

Robert a taft.jpg

Robert A. Taft
Incumbent U.S. Senator
from Ohio

Arthur H. Vandenberg.jpg

Arthur H. Vandenberg
Incumbent U.S. Senator
from Michigan

WendellWillkie.jpg

Wendell Willkie
Businessman
from New York


































































































Presidential Balloting, Republican Convention 1940[5]
Ballot →
1
2
3
4
5
6
before
shifts
after
shifts

Wendell Willkie
105
171
259
306
429
655

√ 998

Robert A. Taft
189
203
212
254
377
318


Thomas E. Dewey
360
338
315
250
57
11


Arthur H. Vandenberg
76
73
72
61
42



Arthur James
74
66
59
56
59



Joseph W. Martin
44
26






Hanford MacNider
34
34
28
26
4



Frank Gannett
33
30
11
4
1
1


Herbert Hoover
17
21
32
31
20
10


Styles Bridges
28
9
1
1



Scattering / Blank
40
29
11
11
11
5
2







Vice Presidential Balloting, Republican Convention 1940


Charles L. McNary

√ 848

Dewey Jackson Short
108

Styles Bridges
2

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.[6]


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 May 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.[7]




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 United States presidential election, 1932, 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.[8]


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. 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.[9]


Willkie's nomination was one of the most dramatic moments in any political convention.[10] 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.[11]



General election



Polling


The Gallup Poll accurately predicted the election outcome.[12] However, the American Institute of Public Opinion, responsible for the Gallup Poll, avoided predicting the outcome, citing a four percent margin of error.[13] The Gallup Poll also found that, if there was no war in Europe, voters preferred Willkie over Roosevelt.[12]



The fall campaign




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.[14]


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.[15]


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 actively intervened throughout the election against isolationism.[16]



Results


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. 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.[17]


Of the 3,094 counties/independent cities, Roosevelt won in 1,947 (62.93%) while Willkie carried 1,147 (37.07%).


As a result of Willkie's gains, Roosevelt became the second of only three presidents in United States history to win re-election with a lower percentage of both the electoral vote and the popular vote than in the prior election, preceded by James Madison in 1812 and followed by Barack Obama in 2012. Andrew Jackson in 1832 and Grover Cleveland in 1892 received more electoral votes but fewer popular votes, while Woodrow Wilson in 1916 received more popular votes but fewer electoral votes.



















































































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 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.


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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



1940 Electoral Map.png



Cartographic gallery



Results by state


[18]


States won by Roosevelt/Wallace
States 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
250,72685.221142,18414.34-1000.03-1,2090.41-208,54270.88294,219
AL

Arizona
3
95,26763.49354,03036.01----7420.49-41,23727.48150,039
AZ

Arkansas
9
158,62279.02942,12120.98-------116,50158.03200,743
AR

California
22
1,877,61857.44221,351,41941.34-16,5060.50-23,2480.71-526,19916.103,268,791
CA

Colorado
6
265,55448.37-279,57650.9261,8990.35-1,9750.36--14,022-2.55549,004
CO

Connecticut
8
417,62153.448361,81946.30----2,0620.26-55,8027.14781,502
CT

Delaware
3
74,59954.70361,44045.05-1150.08-2200.16-13,1599.65136,374
DE

Florida
7
359,33474.017126,15825.99-------233,17648.03485,492
FL

Georgia
12
265,19484.851246,36014.83----9970.32-218,83470.02312,551
GA

Idaho
4
127,84254.364106,55345.31-4970.21-2760.12-21,2899.05235,168
ID

Illinois
29
2,149,93450.97292,047,24048.54-10,9140.26-9,8470.23-102,6942.434,217,935
IL

Indiana
14
874,06349.03-899,46650.45142,0750.12-7,1430.40--25,403-1.421,782,747
IN

Iowa
11
578,80047.62-632,37052.0311---4,2600.35--53,570-4.411,215,430
IA

Kansas
9
364,72542.40-489,16956.8692,3470.27-4,0560.47--124,444-14.47860,297
KS

Kentucky
11
557,22257.4411410,38442.30-1,0140.10-1,4430.15-146,83815.14970,063
KY

Louisiana
10
319,75185.881052,44614.09----1080.03-267,30571.80372,305
LA

Maine
5
156,47848.77-163,95151.105---4110.13--7,473-2.33320,840
ME

Maryland
8
384,54658.258269,53440.83-4,0930.62-1,9440.29-115,01217.42660,117
MD

Massachusetts
17
1,076,52253.1117939,70046.36-4,0910.20-6,6800.33-136,8226.752,026,993
MA

Michigan
19
1,032,99149.52-1,039,91749.85197,5930.36-5,4280.26--6,926-0.332,085,929
MI

Minnesota
11
644,19651.4911596,27447.66-5,4540.44-5,2640.42-47,9223.831,251,188
MN

Mississippi
9
168,26795.7097,3644.19-1930.11----160,90391.51175,824
MS

Missouri
15
958,47652.2715871,00947.50-2,2260.12-2,0180.11-87,4674.771,833,729
MO

Montana
4
145,69858.78499,57940.17-1,4430.58-1,1530.47-46,11918.61247,873
MT

Nebraska
7
263,67742.81-352,20157.197-------88,524-14.37615,878
NE

Nevada
3
31,94560.08321,22939.92-------10,71620.1553,174
NV

New Hampshire
4
125,29253.224110,12746.78-------15,1656.44235,419
NH

New Jersey
16
1,016,40451.4816944,87647.86-2,8230.14-10,1110.51-71,5283.621,974,214
NJ

New Mexico
3
103,69956.59379,31543.28-1440.08-1000.05-24,38413.31183,258
NM

New York
47
3,251,91851.60473,027,47848.04-18,9500.30-3,2500.05-224,4403.566,301,596
NY

North Carolina
13
609,01574.0313213,63325.97-------395,38248.06822,648
NC

North Dakota
4
124,03644.18-154,59055.0641,2790.46-8700.31--30,554-10.88280,775
ND

Ohio
26
1,733,13952.20261,586,77347.80-------146,3664.413,319,912
OH

Oklahoma
11
474,31357.4111348,87242.23----3,0270.37-125,44115.18826,212
OK

Oregon
5
258,41553.705219,55545.62-3980.08-2,8720.60-38,8608.07481,240
OR

Pennsylvania
36
2,171,03553.23361,889,84846.33-10,9670.27-6,8640.17-281,1876.894,078,714
PA

Rhode Island
4
182,18256.734138,65343.17----3130.10-43,52913.55321,148
RI

South Carolina
8
95,47095.6384,3604.37-20.00----91,11091.2699,832
SC

South Dakota
4
131,36242.59-177,06557.414-------45,703-14.82308,427
SD

Tennessee
11
351,60167.2511169,15332.35-4630.09-1,6060.31-182,44834.90522,823
TN

Texas
23
909,97480.9223212,69218.91-7280.06-1,1370.10-697,28262.011,124,531
TX

Utah
4
154,27762.25493,15137.59-2000.08-1910.08-61,12624.67247,819
UT

Vermont
3
64,26944.92-78,37154.783---4220.30--14,102-9.86143,062
VT

Virginia
11
235,96168.0811109,36331.55-2820.08-1,0010.29-126,59836.52346,607
VA

Washington
8
462,14558.228322,12340.58-4,5860.58-4,9790.63-140,02217.64793,833
WA

West Virginia
8
495,66257.108372,41442.90-------123,24814.20868,076
WV

Wisconsin
12
704,82150.1512679,20648.32-15,0711.07-6,4240.46-25,6151.821,405,522
WI

Wyoming
3
59,28752.82352,63346.89-1480.13-1720.15-6,6545.93112,240
WY
TOTALS:531
27,313,94554.74449
22,347,74444.7882
116,5990.23-
123,8250.25-
4,966,2019.9549,902,113
US


Close states


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


  1. Michigan, 0.33%

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


  1. Indiana, 1.42%

  2. Wisconsin, 1.82%

  3. Maine, 2.33%

  4. Illinois, 2.43%

  5. Colorado, 2.55%

  6. New York, 3.56%

  7. New Jersey, 3.62%

  8. Minnesota, 3.83%

  9. Iowa, 4.41%

  10. Ohio, 4.41%

  11. Missouri, 4.77%

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


  1. Wyoming, 5.93%

  2. New Hampshire, 6.44%

  3. Massachusetts, 6.75%


  4. Pennsylvania, 6.89% (tipping point state)

  5. Connecticut, 7.14%

  6. Oregon, 8.07%

  7. Idaho, 9.05%

  8. Delaware, 9.65%

  9. Vermont, 9.86%


See also


  • United States House elections, 1940

  • United States Senate elections, 1940

  • History of the United States (1918–45)

  • Third inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt


  • The Plot Against America, a 2004 alternative history by Philip Roth, premised on the 1940 defeat of Roosevelt by Charles Lindbergh


  • Bring The Jubilee, a 1953 alternative history novel by Warde Moore, set in a universe where the Confederacy won the American Civil War, where the election is contested by Whig candidate Thomas E. Dewey and Populist candidate Jennings Lewis.


References




  1. ^ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara.


  2. ^ ab "U. S. Electoral College". Archives.gov. Retrieved 2016-08-18.


  3. ^ James MacGregor Burns Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (1956) pp 408-30.


  4. ^ Richard Moe, Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War (2013).


  5. ^ Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records (1973), pp. 254–256.


  6. ^ Michael D. Bowen, The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party (2011).


  7. ^ Susan Dunn, 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler-the Election Amid the Storm (Yale UP, 2013).


  8. ^ Steve Neal, Dark Horse: A Biography of Wendell Willkie (1989)


  9. ^ Henry Z. Scheele, "The Nomination of Wendell Willkie." Communication Quarterly 16.4 (1968): 45-50.


  10. ^ Charles Peters, Five Days in Philadelphia: 1940, Wendell Willkie, FDR and the Political Convention That Won World War II (2006) pp 1-5.


  11. ^ Steve Neal, McNary of Oregon: A Political Biography (1985).


  12. ^ ab Gallup, George (January 1941). "Was I Right About Roosevelt?". Coronet. Old Magazine Articles. Retrieved 2016-08-18.


  13. ^ Katz, Daniel (March 1941). "The Public Opinion Polls and the 1940 Election". The Public Opinion Quarterly. Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 52–78


  14. ^ John W. Jeffries, A Third Term for FDR: The Election of 1940 (2017)


  15. ^ * Evjen, Henry O. "The Willkie Campaign; An Unfortunate Chapter in Republican Leadership", Journal of Politics (1952) 14#2 pp. 241–56 in JSTOR


  16. ^ Usdin, Steve (16 January 2017). "When a Foreign Government Interfered in a U.S. Election — to Reelect FDR". Politico. Retrieved 18 January 2017.


  17. ^ Richard Jensen, "The Cities Reelect Roosevelt" p 189-90


  18. ^ "1940 Presidential General Election Data - National". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved April 14, 2013.




Further reading


  • 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. 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.

  • Divine, Robert A. Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections: 1940-1948. Vol. 1 (1974).

  • 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.

  • Dunn, Susan. 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler-the Election Amid the Storm (Yale UP, 2013).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Moe, Richard. Roosevelt's Second Act: The Election of 1940 and the Politics of War (Oxford UP, 2013).

  • 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 online

  • Schneider, James C. Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939–1941 (1989)


External links



  • United States presidential election of 1940 at Encyclopædia Britannica

  • 1940 popular vote by counties


  • How close was the 1940 election? – Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Election of 1940 in Counting the Votes