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Tragedy struck the state of Missouri in January of 1944. While returning from his winter break with his family in Kansas City, the Junior Senator, Harry Truman was killed in a motor accident. The vehicle that Truman was riding in was struck from the side by a drunk driver, and Truman was killed along with his wife Bess, several aides, and a driver. The other driver was later found guilty of manslaughter and served life in prison. Despite hopes that the Republican Governor of Missouri, Forrest C. Donnell, might appoint another Democrat, he appointed first term Representative Samuel Arnold (who won reelection in a special election later that year) to the vacancy. The death of Senator Truman was hardly commented upon outside Missouri, though several consumer advocates remarked that cars would surely be safer if some sort of safety measures were implemented in them, while temperance activists commented that Truman would still be alive if only Prohibition hadn't been repealed by the devious, Romanistic Democratic Party.
As the 1944 DNC approached, few wondered about who the presidential nominee would be. While a few rebellious southern delegates planned to throw their support to Virginia senator Harry F. Byrd, Franklin D. Roosevelt was practically guaranteed to win the nomination. However, the position of Vice-President was a more hotly contested one. In 1940, controversial and left-wing Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace was nominated, and he was unpopular among many party machine bosses and southern leaders. However, there was a controversy on exactly who should replace Wallace as Vice-President. James Byrnes of South Carolina was seen as a favorable option, but his policies could potentially alienate Northern black and labour voters. Not only that, but his exit of the Catholic church could hurt the ticket with Catholics, and as the Republican party was likely to nominate Northeasterner and Liberal Thomas Dewey, that could hurt the party in the Northeast. William O. Douglas was considered, but he was also seen as too liberal for many southerners. With this, the search turned to more minor or little-known candidates.
Another issue was Wallace’s popularity. Wallace had been a major part in pushing many Latin American nations into WWII, and was beloved by many northern “Farmer-Labor” voters. The issue was finding a candidate who could match Wallace’s popularity. However, the anti-Wallace group decided to draft a candidate, industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. Kaiser was incredibly popular for his efforts in helping the United States in WWII by building and operating the Kaiser shipyards (which built Liberty Ships), had a decent relationship with labor and Roosevelt, and due to his lack of political experience, he would rely on the help of Southern and Machine Democrats. The only real problem was getting his lack of elected experience across to the public and pushing him into accepting the draft effort. Kaiser was ultimately convinced to take the nomination by Byrnes himself and with Roosevelt’s health declining and him conceivably being able to take the presidency in the next four years, he felt he could make major change in the US quickly.
After Kaiser declared himself a candidate for the 1948 vice-presidential nomination, he received support from many powerful Democrats, including Scott Lucas, John Bankhead, and finally Roosevelt himself. Roosevelt saw Kaiser as a popular unity solution for the party and the two were known to get along. With this, Kaiser was almost assured the nomination. Despite this, Wallace and his allies attempted to challenge him. They would fail.
After the nomination, Wallace obviously felt betrayed, but there was nothing he could truly do to challenge Roosevelt in 1944. Wallace was offered the position of Secretary of Commerce as a consolation prize, but Wallace decided against it, as he wanted to instead run for governor of Iowa in 1946. However, Kaiser would end up endorsing him for the position in 1946, helping him win the Democratic nomination. While this seemed like a nice gesture, Wallace left the Democrats shortly after his inauguration to form the Progressive Party of the United States.
Meanwhile, the Republican nomination was even less contentious. After defeating 1940 Republican candidate Wendell Willkie in the Wisconsin primary and defeating the conservative John Bricker and Douglas MacArthur, Dewey was almost ensured the nomination, and he won all but one delegate for president at the convention. Dewey chose Bricker to be his running mate and looked to challenge Roosevelt and Kaiser despite their popularity.
However, while Dewey and Bricker ran a spirited campaign, most Americans didn’t want to change leaders while there was still a war to be fought. Even Roosevelt’s declining health couldn’t be the issue some wanted to make it, as Roosevelt’s campaign was what many considered “fierce and determined” as he pushed for a fourth term. Not only that, but Kaiser was generally so popular, few felt threatened by his presence as “Roosevelt’s Successor”. There were also controversies around the Dewey ticket, as Dewey had compared the New Deal to communism and attempted to even create scandals around Roosevelt’s dog and Kaiser’s pushes in the healthcare industry. All these attempts would fail, as Paris was liberated by August, and with foreign policy on the mind, few cared.
However, in the state of Texas, a group of conservatives lead by Senator Pappy O’Daniel and Martin Dies Jr. took over the state convention and nominated a slate of electors that opposed Roosevelt. Supporters of the movement were called “Texas Regulars” and had largely left the Democrats over racial issues. Many felt that Roosevelt’s “New Deal” assisted African-Americans too much, and that the hiring of black workers in Kaiser’s Kaiser Shipyards was a major betrayal. Despite that, Democrats in support of Roosevelt (known as “Nationals” for their support of the National Democrats) ran a write-in campaign for Roosevelt. However, controversy over Roosevelt’s running mate ensued, as many voted for Kaiser, Wallace, James Byrnes, “National” representative Lyndon B. Johnson, or even Roosevelt himself as Vice-President. This splintering helped the slate of unpledged electors win the state, but they did fail at deadlocking the electoral college, due to Roosevelt’s strong national result against Dewey. Unpledged electors were not only native to Texas, as unpledged elector slates were on the ballot in South Carolina and Mississippi. However, neither even received more than 10% of the vote, so fit had significantly less of an impact.
Roosevelt managed to win by over 8% of the vote and 3 Texan electors decided against voting for Martin Dies (the man the unpledged electors ended up voting for) to vote for Johnson. This was balanced out, when three faithless electors in Alabama and Mississippi voted for Dies. Strangely, two Alabama electors didn’t vote for Harry F. Byrd, the man most had expected would be given the electors votes as vice-president, but instead for former Alabama attorney general Thomas S. Lawson. Roosevelt entered office for an unprecedented fourth term, but would be leaving early….
Downballot, the Republicans performed poorly. While Roosevelt was expected to win reelection, the number of Republican seats lost was particularly more than expected. In the Senate, the Republicans managed to unseat a single incumbent Democrat, Guy Gillette of Iowa, but faced losses in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota, which brought the Republican seat total to a dismal 34. Many Democrats, like Clark in Missouri and Schricker in Indiana won only by the skin of their teeth as Republican Senate candidates ran fierce campaigns. In the end, however, the blame for losses was put on Thomas Dewey, who was more or less discredited by his defeat that proved worse than Wendell Willkie's in a year in which the Republican vote total surely should have improved.
Alabama: Lister Hill reelected (D hold)
Arizona: Carl Hayden reelected: (D hold)
Arkansas: J. William Fulbright elected (D hold)
California: Sheridan Downey reelected (D hold)
Colorado: Eugene D. Millikin reelected (R hold)
Connecticut: Brian McMahon elected (D gain)
Florida: Claude Pepper reelected (D hold)
George: Walter George reelected (D hold)
Idaho: Glen Taylor elected (D hold)
Illinois: Scott Lucas reelected (D hold)
Indiana: Henry F. Schricker elected (D hold)
Iowa: Bourke Hickenlooper elected (R gain)
Kansas: Clyde Reed reelected (R hold)
Kentucky: Alben Barkley reelected (D hold)
Louisiana: John Overton reelected (D hold)
Maryland: Millard Tydings reelected (D hold)
Missouri: Bennett Champ Clark reelected (D hold)
Missouri special: Samuel Arnold reelected (R hold)
Nevada: Pat McCarran reelected (D hold)
New Hampshire: Charles Tobey reelected (R hold)
New York: Robert Wagner reelected (D hold)
North Carolina: Clyde Hoey elected (D hold)
North Dakota: John Moses elected (D gain)
Ohio: Robert Taft reelected (R hold)
Oklahoma: Elmer Thomas reelected (D hold)
Oregon: Wayne Morse elected (R hold)
Pennsylvania: Francis Myers elected (D gain)
South Carolina: Olin Johnston elected (D hold)
South Dakota: Chandler Gurney reelected (R hold)
Utah: Elbert Thomas reelected (D hold)
Vermont: George Aiken reelected (R hold)
Washington: Warren Magnuson elected (D hold)
Wisconsin: Alexander Wiley reelected (R hold)
The situation in the House was just as grim, though third parties made a stunning breakthrough. In Texas, an independent opposed to the Texas Regulars and conservatism of the dominant political class in that state by the name of Tom Neal was able to capture the seat being vacated by Richard Kleberg in Central Texas' 14th district. In Wisconsin and New York, the Progressive and American Labor Parties respectively were wary of the thought of an industrialist as Vice President (and the fact that he was replacing Henry Wallace of all people) and a candidate that had referred to the New Deal as "Marxist" (allegedly). The Progressives held their two seats and were able to unseat the 1st district's Lawrence Smith while American Labor activist Seon Felshin captured New York's 17th.
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Welcome to my newest Collaboration! As the 1944 DNC is usually a fantastic alternate history area, me and @Baconheimer decided to change it up a little. We hope you enjoy this new TL!