FDR dies July 20 1944

We all know what state FDR was in near the end of the war. It wouldn't take much for him to pop his clogs a few months early. So lets say in the early hours of July 20th 1944, Franklin Roosevelt passes away. Henry Wallace is sworn in as president but all he'll be is a seatfiller in the Oval office until a new president is elected.

Speaking of elections, the Democrats are in the middle of their national convention and their candidate just died! Who will they pick to take FDR's place? Will he still be able to win the election?
 
You probably would have alot of voters voting for him out of compassion.
We had a similar situation here in the Netherlands, with Pim Fortuijn getting shot a few days before the elections, and alot of people voted for him out of sympathy. (ofcourse, there's also the fact that people could still vote for him, even though he was dead, and that the subsequent cabinet fell over the most etty of things)
 

bard32

Banned
We all know what state FDR was in near the end of the war. It wouldn't take much for him to pop his clogs a few months early. So lets say in the early hours of July 20th 1944, Franklin Roosevelt passes away. Henry Wallace is sworn in as president but all he'll be is a seatfiller in the Oval office until a new president is elected.

Speaking of elections, the Democrats are in the middle of their national convention and their candidate just died! Who will they pick to take FDR's place? Will he still be able to win the election?

Henry Wallace would have been President.
 
You probably would have alot of voters voting for him out of compassion.
We had a similar situation here in the Netherlands, with Pim Fortuijn getting shot a few days before the elections, and alot of people voted for him out of sympathy. (ofcourse, there's also the fact that people could still vote for him, even though he was dead, and that the subsequent cabinet fell over the most etty of things)

Voters may vote for a dead man...maybe... but a party isn't going to put a dead man as a candidate.

Who will the party choose?
 
We all know what state FDR was in near the end of the war. It wouldn't take much for him to pop his clogs a few months early. So lets say in the early hours of July 20th 1944, Franklin Roosevelt passes away. Henry Wallace is sworn in as president but all he'll be is a seatfiller in the Oval office until a new president is elected.

Speaking of elections, the Democrats are in the middle of their national convention and their candidate just died! Who will they pick to take FDR's place? Will he still be able to win the election?

Is the date you chose a coincidence, or intentional?
 
Intentional. Firstly to be right in the middle of the Democratic National Convention and secondly because I thought I might do a TL with both FDR and Hitler dead on the same day.
 
Intentional. Firstly to be right in the middle of the Democratic National Convention and secondly because I thought I might do a TL with both FDR and Hitler dead on the same day.

Given time differences, you might have them drop dead almost at the exact same moment.
 
Henry Wallace would become the Incumbent President, probably runs against Dewey in 44 however, just with the sympathy vote alone he is able to probably squeeze out a marginal victory.
 
Henry Wallace would become the Incumbent President, probably runs against Dewey in 44 however, just with the sympathy vote alone he is able to probably squeeze out a marginal victory.

But as I've already said, would the democrats really accept him as a candidate? They threw him off as the vice-presidential at the convention because they didn't want him to be president when FDR died! So if FDR died, what could possess the Democrats to nominate Wallace?!
 
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This could actually lead to a very interesting situation. I have my doubts that the conservative wing of the Democrat Party is going to give the nomination to Wallace when they forced him out in OTL. I'd expect more conservative characters such as James Farley and Harry Byrd to contest Wallace's nomination.

Considering that Farley was widely regarded as one of the best political players of his day, I wouldn't be surprised if he captured the nomination, perhaps with Harry Byrd as his VP. If they do indeed win the nomination, I'd expect Wallace to run as a third party but fail to make any real dent.

If Wallace does somehow win the nomination, his re-election is not assured. I don't see FDR's "New Deal" coalition holding together. I'd say that a third party arises in the south under Harry Byrd and cleans house giving the election to Thomas Dewey and the GOP.
 
This could actually lead to a very interesting situation. I have my doubts that the conservative wing of the Democrat Party is going to give the nomination to Wallace when they forced him out in OTL. I'd expect more conservative characters such as James Farley and Harry Byrd to contest Wallace's nomination.

I'd expect James F. Byrnes myself, as he would have been VP in '44 but labour/big city bosses/blacks had problems with him. Probably not insurmountable problems, but enough to veto in favour of compromise Truman.

Plus Farley lost running for Governor of New York and Senate and FDR disliked him after 1940 (and the delegates would likely keep FDR in mind).


If it is Byrnes, presumably with someone from the North and more liberal on civil rights as VP, it takes us back to pre-New Deal politics—Democratic South, Republican everywhere else.

It goes down to whether the New Deal coalition holds together for another election, or whether the Democratic New Dealer voters in the North go back to being Republican.
 
Intentional. Firstly to be right in the middle of the Democratic National Convention and secondly because I thought I might do a TL with both FDR and Hitler dead on the same day.

FDR did indeed have an unspecified health problem on that day. Theories are that it may have been a minor stroke or a heart attack.

I wrote a TL where (among other things) it was a more serious stroke, and the US is run until the next president is sworn in by several members of the cabinet acting covertly . . . to keep Wallace out of office.
 
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