United States presidential election, 1952

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United States presidential election, 1952
4 November 1952

Nominee	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Adlai Stevenson
Party	Republican	Democratic
Home state	Kansas	Illinois
Running mate	Richard Nixon	John Sparkman
Electoral vote	442	89
States carried	39	9
Popular vote	34,075,529	27,375,090
Percentage	55.2%	44.3%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Eisenhower/Nixon, Blue denotes those won by Stevenson/Sparkman. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
Incumbent President Harry S. Truman Democratic President-Elect Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican

The United States presidential election of 1952 took place in an era when the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was in one of its most tense periods. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional investigations into the issue of Communist spies within the U.S. government. McCarthy's so-called "witch hunt", combined with national tension and weariness after two years of bloody stalemate in the Korean War, set the stage for a hotly-fought presidential contest. Incumbent President Harry S. Truman decided not to run, so the Democratic Party instead nominated Governor Adlai Stevenson II of Illinois; Stevenson had gained a reputation in Illinois as an intellectual and eloquent orator. The Republican Party countered with popular war hero General Dwight D. Eisenhower and won in a landslide, ending twenty consecutive years of Democratic control of the White House.

1 Nominations
- 1.1 Republican Party Nomination
  - 1.1.1 Republican National Convention
- 1.2 Democratic Party nomination
  - 1.2.1 Candidates gallery
2 General election
3 See also
4 References
5 External links
6 Navigation

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Republican Party Nomination

Main article: Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1952

The fight for the Republican nomination was largely between General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who became the candidate of the party's moderate eastern establishment, and Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, the longtime leader of the GOP's conservative wing. The moderate Eastern Republicans were led by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the party's nominee in 1944 and 1948. The moderates tended to be interventionists who felt that America needed to fight the Cold War overseas and resist Soviet aggression in Europe and Asia; they were also willing to accept most aspects of the social welfare state created by the New Deal in the 1930's. The moderates were also concerned with ending the GOP's losing streak in presidential elections; they felt that the personally popular Eisenhower had the best chance of beating the Democrats. The conservative Republicans led by Senator Taft were based in the Midwest and parts of the South. The conservatives wanted to abolish many of the New Deal welfare programs; in foreign policy they were often non-interventionists, who believed that America should avoid alliances with foreign powers. Senator Taft had been a candidate for the GOP nomination in 1940 and 1948, but had been defeated both times by moderate Republicans from New York. Taft, who was 62 when the campaign began, freely admitted that 1952 was his last chance to win the nomination, and this led his supporters to work hard for him. Taft's weakness, which he was never able to overcome, was the fear of many party bosses that he was too conservative and controversial to win a presidential election. Eisenhower scored a major victory in the New Hampshire primary when his supporters wrote his name onto the ballot, giving him an upset victory over Taft. However, from there until the Republican Convention the primaries were divided fairly evenly between the two men, and by the time the convention opened the race for the nomination was still too close to call.

[edit] Republican National Convention

Republican candidates

General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower of Kansas

Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota

Senator Robert Taft of Ohio

Governor Earl Warren of California

Eisenhower presidential campaign in Baltimore, Maryland, September 1952.

When the 1952 Republican National Convention opened in Chicago, most political experts rated Taft and Eisenhower as neck-and-neck in the delegate vote totals. Eisenhower's managers, led by Governor Dewey and Massachusetts Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., accused Taft of "stealing" delegate votes in Southern states such as Texas and Georgia. They claimed that Taft's leaders in these states had illegally refused to give delegate spots to Eisenhower supporters and put Taft delegates in their place. Lodge and Dewey proposed to evict the pro-Taft delegates in these states and replace them with pro-Eisenhower delegates; they called this proposal "Fair Play". Although Taft and his supporters angrily denied this charge, the convention voted to support Fair Play 658 to 548, and Taft lost many Southern delegates; this decided the nomination in Eisenhower's favor. However, the mood at the convention was one of the most bitter and emotional in American history; in one speech Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois, a Taft supporter, pointed at Governor Dewey on the convention floor and accused him of leading the Republicans "down the road to defeat", and mixed boos and cheers rang out from the delegates. In the end Eisenhower took the nomination on the first ballot; to heal the wounds caused by the battle he went to Taft's hotel suite and met with him. The Convention then chose young Senator Richard Nixon of California as Eisenhower's running mate; it was felt that Nixon's credentials as a slashing campaigner and anti-Communist would be valuable. Most historians now believe that Eisenhower's nomination was primarily due to the feeling that he was a "sure winner" against the Democrats; most of the delegates were conservatives who would probably have supported Taft if they felt he could have won the general election. The balloting at the Republican Convention went: (Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records, pp. 280-286):

Contender: Ballot	1st Before Shifts	1st After Shifts
Presidential Balloting, RNC 1952
General Dwight D. Eisenhower	595	845
Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft	500	280
Governor Earl Warren of California	81	77
former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen	20	0
General Douglas MacArthur	10	4
Governor Thomas E. Dewey	1	0

[edit] Democratic Party nomination

Democratic candidates

Alben W. Barkley, Vice President from Kentucky
Paul A. Dever, governor of Massachusetts
J. William Fulbright, U. S. senator from Arkansas
W. Averell Harriman, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce from New York
Hubert Humphrey, U. S. senator from Minnesota
Estes Kefauver, U.S. senator from Tennessee
Robert S. Kerr, U.S. senator from Oklahoma
Richard Russell, Jr., U.S. senator from Georgia
Adlai Stevenson, governor of Illinois

[edit] Candidates gallery

Vice President Alben W. Barkley of Kentucky	Governor Paul A. Dever of Massachusetts	Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas	Former Secretary of Commerce and Ambassador W. Averell Harriman of New York
Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota	Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee	Senator Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma	Senator Richard Russell, Jr. of Georgia
Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois

The expected candidate for the Democratic nomination was incumbent President Harry S. Truman. Since the newly passed 22nd Amendment did not apply to whoever was president at the time of its passage, he was eligible to run again. But Truman entered 1952 with his popularity plummeting, according to polls. The bloody and indecisive Korean War was dragging into its third year, Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade was stirring public fears of an encroaching “Red Menace”, and the disclosure of widespread corruption among federal employees (including some high-level members of Truman's administration) left Truman at a low political ebb. Polls showed that he had a 66% disapproval rating, only surpassed decades later by Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.

Truman's main opponent was populist Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, who had chaired a nationally televised investigation of organized crime in 1951 and was known as a crusader against crime and corruption. The Gallup poll of February 15 showed Truman's weakness: nationally Truman was the choice of only 36% of Democrats, compared with 21% for Kefauver. Among independent voters, however, Truman had only 18% while Kefauver led with 36%. In the New Hampshire primary Kefauver upset Truman, winning 19,800 votes to Truman's 15,927 and capturing all eight delegates. Kefauver graciously said that he did not consider his victory "a repudiation of Administration policies, but a desire...for new ideas and personalities." Stung by this setback, Truman soon announced that he would not seek re-election (however, Truman insisted in his memoirs that he had decided not to run for re-election well before his defeat by Kefauver).

Kefauver won all but three primaries, but failed to win nomination

With Truman's withdrawal, Kefauver became the front-runner for the nomination, and he won most of the primaries. However, most states still chose their delegates to the Democratic Convention via state conventions, which meant that the party bosses - especially the mayors and governors of large Northern and Midwestern states and cities - were able to choose the Democratic nominee. These bosses (including President Truman) strongly disliked Kefauver; his investigations of organized crime had revealed connections between mafia figures and many of the big-city Democratic political organizations. The party bosses thus viewed Kefauver as a maverick who could not be trusted, and they refused to support him for the nomination. Instead, with President Truman taking the lead, they began to search for other, more acceptable, candidates. However, most of the other candidates had a major weakness. Senator Richard Russell, Jr. of Georgia had much Southern support, but his support of racial segregation and opposition to civil rights for Southern blacks led Northern delegates to reject him as a racist. Truman favored U.S. diplomat Averell Harriman of New York, but he had never held an elective office and was inexperienced in politics. Truman next turned to his Vice-President, Alben Barkley, but at 74 he was rejected as being too old by labor union leaders. Other minor or favorite son candidates included Oklahoma Senator Robert Kerr, Governor Paul A. Dever of Massachusetts, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, and Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas.

One candidate soon emerged who seemingly had few political weaknesses: Governor Adlai Stevenson II of Illinois. The grandson of former Vice-President Adlai E. Stevenson, Stevenson came from a distinguished family in Illinois and was well-known as a gifted orator, intellectual, and political moderate. In the spring of 1952 President Truman tried to convince Stevenson to take the presidential nomination, but Stevenson refused, stating that he wanted to run for re-election as Governor of Illinois. Yet Stevenson never completely took himself out of the race, and as the convention approached many party bosses, as well as normally apolitical citizens, hoped that he could be "drafted" to run.

The 1952 Democratic National Convention was also held in Chicago; the convention met in the same coliseum the Republicans had gathered in a few weeks earlier. Since the convention was being held in his home state, Governor Stevenson - who still protested that he was not a presidential candidate - was asked to give the welcoming address to the delegates. He proceeded to give a witty and stirring address that led his supporters to begin a renewed round of efforts to nominate him, despite his protests. After meeting with Jack Arvey, the "boss" of the Illinois delegation, Stevenson finally agreed to enter his name as a candidate for the nomination. The party bosses from other large Northern and Midwestern states quickly joined in support. Kefauver led on the first ballot, but had far fewer votes than necessary to win. Stevenson gradually gained strength until he was nominated on the third ballot. The convention then chose Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, a conservative and segregationist, as Stevenson's running mate. Stevenson then delivered an eloquent acceptance speech in which he famously pledged to "talk sense to the American people."

The following table from Richard C. Bain and Judith H. Parris, Convention Decisions and Voting Records (Washington DC: Brookings Instutition, 1973), pp. 286-292 documents the balloting. Candidates are organized according to their highest total on any single ballot, and they are listed only if they received over 20 votes on a single ballot. The 1952 Democratic convention was the last one for either party that needed more than one ballot to select a Presidential nominee.

Presidential Balloting, DNC 1952
Ballot	1	2	3
Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson	273	324.5	617.5
Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver	340	362.5	275.5
Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell	268	294	261
Former Secretary of Commerce and Ambassador W. Averell Harriman	123.5	121	0
Vice President Alben W. Barkley	48.5	78.5	67.5
Oklahoma Senator Robert S. Kerr	65	5.5	0
Massachusetts Governor Paul A. Dever	37.5	30.5	0.5
Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey	26	0	0
Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright	22	0	0
Scattering	26.5	13.5	8

[edit] General election

[edit] The Fall Campaign

Eisenhower campaigned by attacking Korea, Communism and Corruption--that is, what the Republicans regarded as the failures of the outgoing Truman administration to deal with these issues. The Republicans blamed the Democrats for the military's failure to be fully prepared to fight in Korea; they accused the Democrats of "harboring" Communist spies within the federal government; and they blasted the Truman administration for the numbers of officials who had been accused of various crimes. In return, the Democrats criticized Senator McCarthy and other GOP conservatives as "fearmongers" who were recklessly trampling on the civil liberties of government employees. Many Democrats were particularly upset when Eisenhower, on a scheduled campaign swing through Wisconsin, decided not to give a speech he had written criticizing McCarthy's methods, and then allowed himself to be photographed shaking hands with McCarthy as if he supported him. Despite these mishaps, however, Eisenhower had retained his enormous personal popularity from his leading role in the Second World War, and huge crowds turned out to see him around the nation. His campaign slogan, "I Like Ike", was one of the most popular in American history. Stevenson concentrated on giving a series of thoughtful speeches around the nation; he too drew large crowds. Although his style thrilled intellectuals and academics, some political experts wondered if he were speaking "over the heads" of most of his listeners, and they dubbed him an "egghead", based on his baldness and intellectual demeanor. Eisenhower maintained a comfortable lead in the polls throughout most of the campaign.

A notable event of the 1952 campaign concerned a scandal that emerged when Richard Nixon, Eisenhower's running mate, was accused by several newspapers of receiving $18,000 in undeclared "gifts" from wealthy donors. Nixon, who had been accusing the Democrats of hiding crooks, found himself on the defensive. Eisenhower and his aides considered dropping Nixon from the ticket and picking another running mate. However, Nixon saved his political career with a dramatic half-hour speech on live television. During the speech Nixon denied the charges against him, listed all of his modest financial assets, and complimented his wife Pat on her plain cloth coat — the wives of some Truman administration officials had been accused of accepting expensive fur coats from lobbyists. Nixon tearfully concluded his speech by mentioning that one of his supporters had given his daughters a gift — a dog named "Checkers" — and that he would not return it, because his daughters loved it. The "Checkers" speech led thousands of Republicans to wire Eisenhower urging him to keep Nixon on the ticket, which he did.

Both campaigns made use of television ads. A notable ad for “Ike” Eisenhower was an issue-free, feel-good animated cartoon with a soundtrack song by Irving Berlin called I Like Ike. For the first time the candidates' personal medical history was released publicly, as was the candidate's financial histories (thanks to Nixon's speech). [1] Near the end of the campaign Eisenhower, in a major speech, announced that if he won the election he would go to Korea to see if he could end the war. His great military prestige, combined with the public's weariness with the conflict, gave Eisenhower the final boost he needed to win.

On election day — November 4, 1952 — Eisenhower won a decisive victory, taking over 55% of the popular vote and winning 39 of the 48 states. He took four Southern states that the Republicans had won only once since Reconstruction: Virginia, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas.

[edit] Results

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote		Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	RM's Electoral Vote
Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Count	Pct	Electoral Vote	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	RM's Electoral Vote
Dwight David Eisenhower	Republican	Kansas	34,075,529	55.2%	442	Richard Milhous Nixon	California	442
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II	Democratic	Illinois	27,375,090	44.3%	89	John Jackson Sparkman	Alabama	89
Vincent Hallinan	Progressive	California	140,746	0.2%	0	Charlotta Bass	New York	0
Stuart Hamblen	Prohibition	Texas	73,412	0.1%	0	Enoch Holtwick	Illinois	0
Douglas MacArthur	Constitution	Wisconsin	17,205	0.0%	0	Harry Byrd	Virginia	0
Other			87,165	0.1%	–	Other		–
Total			61,769,147	100 %	531			531
Needed to win					266			266

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1952 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (August 1, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (August 1, 2005).

[edit] Close states

Election results in these states were within ten percentage points. Colors represent the winning party, using the present-day convention in which red indicates Republican and blue indicates Democrat.

Kentucky, 0.1
Tennessee, 0.3%
South Carolina, 1.4%
Missouri, 1.6%
Rhode Island, 1.9%
West Virginia, 3.8%
Delaware, 3.9%
Pennsylvania, 5.8%
Louisiana, 5.8%
Texas, 6.4%
North Carolina, 7.8%
Oklahoma, 9.2%
Washington, 9.6%
Massachusetts 9.7%
Illinois, 9.9%

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Paul T. David; Presidential Nominating Politics in 1952 . Volume: 1954. v1 is summary; vol 2-5 detail every state
(1972) in Gallup, George H. (ed.): The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion, 1935–1971, 3 vols., Random House.
Divine, Robert A. (1974). Foreign Policy and U.S. Presidential Elections, 1952–1960.