⑫ The Result of the election

The election of 1948 is one of the greatest political comeback victories in U.S. political history.

Truman and running mate Alben Barkley won 49.6 percent of the popular vote to Dewey's 45.1 percent, which produced a lopsided electoral vote of 303 to 189, and 39 for Thurmond's Dixiecrats.

Truman's victory came about because he won the support of most of Roosevelt's "New Deal" coalition: labor, Blacks, Jews, farmers from the mid-west, and a number of southern states.

Truman's victory, however, was far from overwhelming. He barely won California, Illinois, and Ohio, and lost the Democratic strongholds Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, and New Jersey. In fact, more Americans voted for other candidates than voted for him.

⑪ Wrong Polls

The final pre-election Gallup poll -- taken in mid-October -- became public the day before the election itself, giving Dewey a solid lead of 49.5 percent to Truman's 44.5 percent of the total vote.

The Truman winning caused pollsters like Gallup, Roper, and Crossley, to investigate where they went wrong. Columnists, reporters, and editorial writers blamed themselves for relying too much on the polls. Marquis Childs, a columnist, wrote,

“We were wrong, all of us, completely and entirely, the commentators, the political editors, the politicians-except for Harry S. Truman, and no one believed him. The fatal flaw was the reliance on the public opinion polls.”

⑩ On Election day

On election day, November 2 1948, Truman, along with Bess and Margaret, voted in their hometown of Independence, Missouri. Truman had lunch with several old friends and repaired alone to a local hotel to await the returns.

At midnight, Truman heard NBC report that while he was ahead by more than one million votes, Dewey was still expected to win. At four in the morning, his secret service agents woke him and told him to turn on the radio: he was ahead by two million votes -- and would maintain the lead. With victory in hand, Truman went to Kansas City, where he awaited Dewey's concession, which came by mid-morning.

Dewey himself went to bed election night thinking he had won. Imagine his surprise the next morning when he discovered that Truman was the victor. Dewey said he felt like a man who awoke in a sealed coffin with a lily in his hand. "If I'm alive, what am I doing here?" he asked. "And if I'm dead, why do I have to go to the bathroom?"

Two days after the election, as the Truman returned to Washington via St. Louis, reporters snapped the most famous photo of Truman's career: an image of the President holding aloft a copy of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman."

⑨ Media against Truman

Truman had fought the media during the presidential campaign.

The commentators, and everyone else, and won the election. Many newspapers, magazines, and political pundits were so confident of Dewey's impending victory. ‘LIFE’ magazine printed a large photo in its final edition before the election; entitled "Our Next President Rides by Ferryboat over San Francisco Bay."

Several well-known and influential newspaper columnists, such as Drew Pearson and Joseph Alsop, wrote columns to be printed the morning after the election speculating about Dewey's possible choices for his cabinet.

Alistair Cooke, the distinguished writer for the Manchester Guardian newspaper in England, published an article on the day of the election entitled "Harry S. Truman: A Study of a Failure."

One of the most famous pictures is of Truman holding the Chicago Daily Tribune, with a headline that reads, “Dewey Defeats Truman.” after the presidential election.

⑧ Lack of money

The party was often so low on funds that the President was cut off during the middle of his speeches. Louis Johnson, his fund-raiser, let the networks cut him off mid-speech to dramatize the financial plight. 

Once, when a station manager told him unless he coughed up more money, the President would be cut off, Jack Redding, the director of Public Relations for Democratic Party, told him to, “Cut him off on a high note,” and in a loud voice stated, “The networks won’t let the President of the United States finish his speech!”

This brought reporters running, stories in the newspapers the next day, and tons of indignant letters to the editors, as well as contributions to the Party.

⑦ Whistle-stop Train Rally

30,000-mile whistle-stop train tour of 30 states,

Delivered about 300,

Denounced the "do-nothing" Republican Congress,

Earning the nickname Give 'Em Hell Harry.

Truman began the presidential campaign in earnest with a Labor Day speech to a large union crowd in Detroit. He stumped energetically throughout the fall, making several train tours across the country.

He spoke out on behalf of civil rights legislation, for repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act and in support of farm aid programs. By trumpeting these issues, the president helped to revive the old New Deal coalition of Southern blacks, labor unionists and farmers.

In Iowa, the President claimed that

"This Republican Congress has already stuck a pitchfork in the farmer's back."

⑥ Truman’s Campaign

New York Times political correspondent James Reston once wrote: "Personality is a force in American politics equally as strong as principle, and ... the American people have always loved a fighter."

Truman, trailing in the polls, decided to adopt a slashing, no-holds-barred campaign. He ridiculed Dewey by name, criticized Dewey's refusal to address specific issues, and scornfully targeted the Republican-controlled 80th Congress with a wave of relentless, and blistering, partisan assaults. He nicknamed the Republican-controlled Congress as the "do-nothing" Congress, a remark which brought strong criticism from GOP Congressional leaders (such as Senator Taft), but no comment from Dewey. In fact, Dewey rarely mentioned Truman's name during the campaign, which fit into his strategy of appearing to be above petty partisan politics.

And also, he embarked on a 31,000-mile train trip across the nation and delivered hundreds of off-the-cuff speeches to crowds. “Give 'em hell, Harry,” was a popular slogan shouted out at stop after stop along the tour.

On civil rights, Truman issued executive orders desegregating the military and ending discrimination in the civil service. No longer beholden to southern Democrats (who supported Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat candidacy), Truman could finally issue these long-promised initiatives that doubtlessly pleased blacks and liberals, two important segments of the Democratic Party.

⑤ TV’s Selection Debut

The 1948 Republican and Democratic conventions, both in Philadelphia, were the first to be televised, and television was blamed for the sparse turnouts on election night in Times Square and other places where pre-TV crowds had traditionally gathered to await results.

④ Truman as a candidate

Nevertheless, Truman easily won the nomination at the Democratic National Convention. 947 Democratic delegates voted for Truman as the Democratic nominee.

Truman then selected Kentucky Senator Alben W. Barkley as his running mate. In a fiery speech accepting the nomination, Truman declared "Senator Barkley and I will win this election and make these Republicans like it -- don't you forget that!"

③ Divided Democratic Party

As Republican Party progressed satisfactorily, Truman’s candidacy had two critical challenges at that time.

In January 1948, Truman's former secretary of commerce (and vice president during Roosevelt's third term), Henry Wallace, announced his intention to run for President as a member of the Progressive Party. In September 1946, Secretary Wallace had delivered a speech critical of the administration's increasingly hard-line foreign policy towards the Soviet Union. Truman asked for Wallace's resignation, which he received. As a third-party candidate, Wallace, who for many years had been darling of the left-wing of the Democratic Party, threatened to rob Truman of the progressive vote.

Another problem was that because Truman presented a proposal to the Congress that would guarantee the rights of blacks, the entire Mississippi delegation and half of the Alabama delegation walked out at the Democratic Party convention held in Philadelphia on July 12, 1948. The southerners that remained did so only to vote against Truman's nomination. By the end of July, southern Democrats had formed the States Rights' Party (also known as the Dixiecrats). It nominated Governor J. Strom Thurmond (SC) and Governor Fielding Wright (MS) for President and vice president.

Divisions within the Democratic Party hurt Truman's chances for re-election in 1948. Truman's weakness as a candidate led some Democrats to consider offering the party's nomination to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whom they (incorrectly) believed to be a Democrat. However, on the eve of the Democratic convention, Eisenhower strongly denied any interest in the nomination, much to Truman's relief.

② Dewey as a candidate

The G.O.P. convention gathered in Philadelphia in June 1948. At first, much consideration had been given to the candidacy of Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, the son of the former president. However, as time goes by, many Republican leaders feared that Taft's abrasive personality might actually cause uniting the splintering Democratic Party.

Based on that concern, the Republicans elected Thomas E. Dewey, their candidate in 1944 and an overwhelming victor in his reelection as governor of New York in 1946. Dewey was in many ways an appealing choice at that time for the Republican Party.

After Republican Party convention, New York Times declared that “Thomas E. Dewey’s Election as President is a Foregone Conclusion.” Top pollsters predicted a Dewey win at the 1948 presidential election, as did leading national political writers. In fact, with the exception of Truman, everyone else was certain Dewey would be elected. Months before the election, the ‘LIFE’ magazine ran a cover of a picture of Dewey with a caption that read, “The Next President of the United States.” Headline after headline screamed Dewey as President.

① Background before the 1948 election

It was hard time for the Democratic Party and Republican’s winning for the 1948 presidential race seemed to be apparent until the day of election. The public seemed to be tiring of the New Deal and its abundant inefficiencies.

After World War II, inflation took off when wartime price controls were lifted and organized labor began striking for higher wages. Americans ware discontented with high taxes, rising cost of living, labor strife, and the Cold War that was brought on with the end of World War II.

In 1946 mid-term congressional elections, the Republican Party took control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the first time since 1928 and a public opinion poll taken in December 1946 revealed that only 35 percent of those surveyed supported Truman’s handling of the presidency.

Actually, it is not surprising that until the 1948 presidential election-day, all the public-opinion showed Truman trailing Republican nominee Dewey, sometimes by double digits.