1948 United States elections
|
Election day
| November 2
|
---|
Incumbent president
| Harry S. Truman
(
Democratic
)
|
---|
Next Congress
| 81st
|
---|
|
Partisan control
| Democratic hold
|
---|
Popular vote margin
| Democratic +4.5%
|
---|
Electoral vote
|
Harry S. Truman
(D)
| 303
|
---|
Thomas E. Dewey
(R)
| 189
|
---|
Strom Thurmond
(
SRD
)
| 39
|
---|
|
1948 presidential election results.
Red
denotes states won by Dewey,
blue
denotes states won by Truman, and
orange
denotes states won by Thurmond. Numbers indicate the
electoral votes
won by each candidate.
|
|
Overall control
| Democratic gain
|
---|
Seats contested
| 33 of 96 seats
(32 Class 2 seats + 2 special elections)
[1]
|
---|
Net seat change
| Democratic +9
|
---|
|
1948 Senate results
Democratic gain
Democratic hold
Republican hold
|
|
Overall control
| Democratic gain
|
---|
Seats contested
| All 435 voting members
|
---|
Popular vote margin
| Democratic +7.2%
|
---|
Net seat change
| Democratic +75
|
---|
|
1948 House election results
Democratic gain
Democratic hold
Republican gain
Republican hold
|
|
Seats contested
| 33
|
---|
Net seat change
| Democratic +6
|
---|
|
1948 gubernatorial election results
Democratic gain
Democratic hold
Republican gain
Republican hold
|
The
1948 United States elections
were held on November 2, 1948. The election took place during the beginning stages of the
Cold War
.
Democratic
incumbent President
Harry S. Truman
was elected to a full term in an
upset
, defeating
Republican
nominee
New York Governor
Thomas E. Dewey
and two erstwhile Democrats. The Democrats won back control of
Congress
from the Republicans. Until
2020
, Democrats would never again flip a chamber of Congress in a presidential election cycle.
In the presidential election, President Truman ran for reelection despite being widely seen, even by fellow Democrats, as a vulnerable incumbent who was too risky for the party to nominate, but he ultimately won his party's nomination. In the fight for the Republican nomination,
Thomas E. Dewey
, who lost the
previous presidential election
, was renominated. In the end, Truman won the presidential election over Dewey in an upset.
In the congressional elections, the Democratic Party benefited from the coattails of Truman's victory and retook Congress. In the
Senate
, the Democrats took nine seats from the Republicans, regaining control of the chamber. In the
House of Representatives
, the Democrats won the national popular vote by a margin of 7.2 percentage points, flipped 75 seats from the Republicans, and won a sizable majority in the chamber; a large swing in the House of Representatives would not occur again
until 2010
.
In the gubernatorial elections, Democrats won six seats from the Republicans and won a majority of gubernatorial offices,
Puerto Rico
also elected
Luis Munoz Marin
of the
Popular Democratic Party
as its first democratically elected
governor
.
President
[
edit
]
In what is considered by most
historians
as the greatest upset in the history of American presidential politics, Democratic incumbent President
Harry S. Truman
defeated
Republican
nominee
Thomas E. Dewey
. Going into Election Day, virtually every
prediction
(with or without public opinion polls) indicated that Truman would lose. Truman took most states outside the Northeast and
Deep South
, and won the popular vote by four points. Dewey won his
party's nomination
for the second straight election, defeating Ohio Senator
Robert A. Taft
and former Minnesota Governor
Harold Stassen
on the Republican convention's second ballot. Truman won the
Democratic nomination
on the first ballot, but the party's platform on
civil rights
caused a third party run by
Dixiecrat
Strom Thurmond
, the
Governor of South Carolina
. Thurmond took four states in the
Deep South
. Former Vice President and former Democrat
Henry A. Wallace
ran as the
Progressive
nominee, but took only two percent of the popular vote.
United States House of Representatives
[
edit
]
As in the Senate, Truman's labeling of the Republican-controlled Congress as "obstructionist" helped the Democrats win a net gain of 75 seats in the House, giving them control of the chamber.
Future president
Gerald Ford
won his first election in this year, being elected to
Michigan's 5th congressional district
.
United States Senate
[
edit
]
The Democrats gained nine seats in the Senate, enough to give them control of the chamber over the Republicans. Truman successfully campaigned against an "obstructionist" Congress that had blocked many of his initiatives. In addition, the U.S. economy had recovered from the postwar recession of 1946?1947.
[2]
[3]
References
[
edit
]