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531 electoral votes of the Electoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 55.9%[1] 6.6 pp | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential election results map. Blue denotes those won by Roosevelt/Truman, red denotes states won by Dewey/Bricker. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1944 United States presidential election was the 40th election in the history of the United States. It happened on November 7, 1944. Incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) won over Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the general election. In the Electoral College, Roosevelt won 432 votes while Dewey won 99.[2] Roosevelt, a Democrat, won an unprecedented fourth term as president.[3]
The election was held during the latter part of World War II. By this time the war was going well for the United States and its Allies. Roosevelt had already served longer than any other president, but remained popular. Unlike in 1940, there was little doubt that he would run for another term as the Democratic candidate, as his health was failing. Dewey, the Governor of New York, campaigned against the New Deal and for a smaller government. But he could not convince the country to change course. Roosevelt's aides covered up the fact the president was in poor health.[4] Roosevelt would die in office three months after starting his fourth term.[4] His Vice President, Harry S. Truman, would serve out the remainder of his term of office.[4]