1948 United States presidential election
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531 members of the Electoral College 266 electoral votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Eisenhower/Wheeler, and red denotes those won by Taft/Vandenberg. Grey denotes the electoral votes for George Patton by 3 Texas faithless electors. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1948 United States presidential election was the 41st quadrennial presidential electional. It was the first presidential election held after World War II and saw Democratic candidate and former Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower defeat Republican Governor Robert A. Taft in the biggest landslide of the 20th century.
In the 1940 election, Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey bested Democratic candidate Harry Hopkins in the slimmest election in history. However, due to severe mismanagement of domestic policy and the loss of World War II under Dewey's administration, the Republican Party was extensively blamed for losing not only the war, but also US territories in the Pacific, which left the party in shambles. Combined with the Democratic Party nominating Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose command of Allied Forces in Britain made him extremely popular, the DNC would see their biggest victory since the days of FDR, reclaiming the ballot box from the Republicans.