Dewey Does It! The Presidency of Thomas E. Dewey (R-NY)

Dewey Does It: The presidency of Thomas Dewey (R-NY)

Written by: Austin Ross



“Simply put… He was the man everyone believed in but nobody wanted.” Nelson Rockefeller

The mood inside of Suite 1527 of the Roosevelt was filled was about a dour as a man walking down to the electric chair. Although the Northeast had stayed loyal to the Grand Ol’ Party, the numbers that the Dewey Campaign had anticipated were not as strong as previously thought. Former Vice President Henry Wallace and his Progressive Party, did not end up pulling away as many voters from the President as had been the prevailing school of thought over the course of the past few months. After a brisk conversation with the nominee about the discrepancy between the latest recorded polls and the actual vote totals coming in over the wire. Republican Campaign Manager Herbert Brownell Jr, went back to work the phone lines as he was placed to various prescient captains within the Industrial belt of the country.

“It looks as if we can claim Pennsylvania, it was damn close…but its’ ours.” Congressman Hugh Scott, with his glasses that were just as thick as his mustache, reported to Brownell as he scribbled the vote tallies down on a yellow legal pad. Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs had stayed loyal to the President but barely, enough to keep its twenty-nine electoral votes firmly within the Governor’s column.

“We needed that to stay in this thing…Can somehow patch me in the numbers in Ohio?” Brownell asked as he furiously scribbled away at his personal electoral college count totals.

Six hundred miles away, at the Senator’s palatial estate outside of Cincinnati called Indian Hill, a President’s son had a direct line to the Roosevelt Hotel in order to give comment on the Ohio numbers. Bob Taft, after discussing it with several newspaper men, including Walter Trohan, a veteran commentator on politics for the Chicago Tribune had concluded that his mortal political rival could clutch victory out of the jaws of defeat. That despite the arrival of vote totals for Harry Truman overtaking Tom Dewey in some of Ohio’s farming communities, the metropolitan areas have held to the 1944 totals.

“Looks like he won’t be licked after all” Senator Taft spoke to Trohan, once the numbers from Illinois rolled in. Governor Dewey had maintained the stalwart Republican vote inside of Chicago and its suburbs. Yet, Dewey was pulling even to slightly ahead of Truman among the rural voters in the farm counties in downstate Illinois.

With both Ohio and Illinois having stayed true to the Republican faith, if by a thread, then the entire election came down to the Home State of the GOP Vice Presidential Nominee. The second term Governor of California, Earl Warren, who was placed on the ticket given his deep popularity amongst voters in the Golden State. The 57-year-old Warren had been a nervous wreck once the official vote totals began rolling into the Roosevelt. After hours of working the lines with exhausted prescient captains and party bosses, Warren felt confident that he had secured the Presidency for the ticket if only by about 8,000 votes. Around 4am on November 3rd, Governor Warren confidently walked into suite 1527, where he found a passed-out Tom Dewey in a lounging chair, with his tie undone and vote-total configurations scrawled on torn pieces of paper around him. Warren lightly touched the candidate on his shoulder in order to wake him.

“Call just came in, California is in our column sir…With its’ twenty-five electoral votes, that bring us to a tally of Dewey-267, Truman-225, and Thurmond-39.” Earl Warren stated with a slight smile.

“Which means…” Dewey droggily replied as he rubbed his temples in an effort to wake himself up.

“That we won the electoral college Mr. President-Elect.! However, we seem to have lost the popular vote by over two million votes.” Warren said, with a bit of hesitation in his voice.

“Thank you, Earl, Frances and I will be down to declare victory in a few minutes.” Dewey said with his voice slightly inflected to give the impression that he was thrilled about the news. Yet as the future Vice President was led outside of the Suite by the future President, Warren could definitely see the worry in the 46-year old’s face. To have won the Presidency, yet without the support of a clear majority of American voters, whatever could that lead to?

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Dewey would be the first President to be elected at the same time as his party lost control of both Houses of Congress. (Whatever butterflies shifted three close states to Dewey, they aren't going to shift the five Senate seats and 49 House seats required to maintain Republican control.)
 
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