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By 1940, American presidential elections followed a familiar script. The major parties each nominated a governor, senator, or vice-president. If the incumbent president had served one term, his party nominated him again, otherwise the party began looking for a new face. In any event, the nominee must be able to boast years of party service, and have the backing of a substantial number of party leaders. The campaign would be staffed and directed by the party’s National Committee and its designees.
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In 1940, however, this script was discarded. After months of hinting that he would step aside, President Franklin Roosevelt began actively seeking his party’s nomination for a third term. The disgusted leader of the Democratic National Committee, James Farley, declined to lead the campaign, and throughout the race FDR would rely on the hard work of private citizens who had benefited from New Deal programs.
Republicans, too, failed to follow the script. Although their list of hopefuls read like a “Who’s Who” of Republican party leaders (Dewey, McNary, Taft, Vandenberg), the party nominated instead to a former Democrat who had never held political office.
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Wendell Willkie was an attorney and president of a utilities firm, Commonwealth & Southern. Not only had he never held political office, he had never been actively associated with any political campaign. He had been a Democrat as recently as 1939, and was so politically uninvolved that when he switched parties even his close friends were unaware of the change.
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Willkie had first attracted public attention as a vocal opponent of certain New Deal programs. Foremost among these was (not surprisingly given his occupation) the Tennessee Valley Authority. Willkie believed the government should leave power generation to private enterprise. The editors of Time and Fortune magazines agreed, and began a program to put Willkie’s name before the public. Willkie was the first presidential candidate to have been “created” by the mass media.
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Perhaps more important than his political beliefs were his personal traits. Willkie had charm and magnetism, and despite being a corporate executive he seemed to have the common touch. These traits would be important in challenging a candidate like Roosevelt, who was legendary for his charisma.
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Often ignoring party leaders, Willkie enjoyed taking his case directly to the voters, be they Republicans or Democrats. Rather than rely on the Republicans’ carefully crafted precinct organizations, Willkie put his faith in several thousand “Willkie Clubs,” made up of Republicans, Democrats, and independents.
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Wendell Willkie was the most energetic campaigner since William Jennings Bryan’s first campaign. The businessman candidate made eight to ten speeches a day, and by campaign’s end he had spoken directly to several million Americans. He did not ignore radio, either, and like Roosevelt he knew how to use the airwaves to good advantage. FDR must have been alarmed in mid-July when a Gallup poll showed more Americans favored Willkie than favored him.
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Roosevelt put off active campaigning as long as possible, hoping Willkie would peak early. Like all incumbent presidents, he made many public appearances that supposedly were not political, but that helped rally public support. Thus FDR visited military bases, TVA dams, and factories. Other figures in the administration made the actual attacks on Willkie. In one memorable statement, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes scorned the idea that Willkie had the common touch, and labeled the Republican candidate “a simple, barefoot Wall Street lawyer.”
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Roosevelt made only five official campaign speeches, all in the final two weeks of the campaign. By then the Willkie campaign was in the process of destroying itself. The problem was that members of the Willkie Clubs, though enthusiastic, lacked actual campaign experience. The experienced leaders of the Republican Party, meanwhile, were miffed, for a number of reasons. They felt left out, and worried that in a Willkie presidency longtime Republican leaders would be ignored in favor of the newly arrived Willkie Club members.
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Undecided voters began to veer away from Willkie, feeling he wasn’t clear on the issues. While he was decidedly anti-TVA, he did support crop subsidies, minimum wage laws, and Social Security. So was he anti-New Deal or wasn’t he? Willkie supported Roosevelt’s military buildup, but then warned that if Roosevelt was elected our boys “were almost on the transports.” By November, few Americans seemed sure just what a Willkie presidency would be like.
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As the election returns came in on November 5, there was one piece of good news for Willkie. He won more votes than any previous Republican nominee, in a very large turnout. The bad news was that he won only 45 percent of the vote, compared to FDR's 55 percent.
Willkie won the two states Landon had won (Maine and Vermont) and also his own home state of Indiana and neighboring Michigan. Rounding out Willkie’s list of states was a contiguous group made up of Iowa, the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado.
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FDR won because the economy seemed to be recovering, and the voters gave him credit for that. Willkie failed to win because voters were not sure how his policies were different from those of Roosevelt. After 1940, both parties returned to the tradition of nominating governors, senators, and vice-presidents, with one general thrown in for old times sake.
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For political collectors, the fun thing about the Willkie campaign is the hundreds and hundreds of designs of Willkie slogan button. Mostly in the 1¼ inch size, the slogans capitalize on issues of the day. Many of the slogans are puzzling sixty years later. Several earlier issues of Buttons and Ballots looked at various Willkie slogan buttons. See our index and on-line back issues for more Willkie reading material.
Here's one interesting item about the Yehudi slogan button. Yehudi was a well-known young violinist at the time.
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Longtime APIC member Gil Gleason is a professional violinist and he reports meeting Yehudi around 1980:
About twenty years ago I was playing a symphony concert with him (actually the dress rehearsal). I went up to him at the break wearing “Joe and I are for Willkie” on one collar and “Yehudi is for Willkie Too” on the other—and I asked him if he voted for Willkie. “I have absolutely no idea,” he said—with a laugh.
One final confession for you Willkie specialists. Don't make too much of the matching set of small sepia Willkie picture buttons we used on our Before and After chart, above. Unfortunately there is not really a matching set—we just flipped one photo to make a nice graphic design!
| © 2001 by Stephen Cresswell |
