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1,206 delegates to theRepublican National Convention 604 (majority) votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 First place by first-instance vote First place by convention roll call Eisenhower Taft Stassen Warren | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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From March 11 to June 3, 1952, delegates were elected to the1952 Republican National Convention.
The fight for the 1952Republican nomination was largely between popular GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower (who succeededThomas E. Dewey as the candidate of the party's liberal eastern establishment) and SenatorRobert A. Taft ofOhio, the longtime leader of the conservative wing. Foreign policy during theCold War was a major point of contention, with Eisenhower taking aninterventionist stance and Taft favoring greater caution and avoidance of foreign alliances. Eisenhower tended to accept many of thesocial welfare aspects of theNew Deal, to which Taft was adamantly opposed.
Two other major candidates for the nomination, though never challenging Eisenhower or Taft, wereGovernor of California and Dewey's 1948running-mateEarl Warren, and formerGovernor of MinnesotaHarold Stassen, who had contended for the nomination in 1948 as well.
Taft, who was 62 when the campaign began and running his third presidential campaign, freely admitted that this would be his last chance to win the nomination. Taft's weakness, which he was never able to overcome, was the fear of many party bosses that he was too conservative and controversial to win a presidential election.[citation needed] The primaries were ultimately inconclusive, and the nomination was decided by a contest over delegates from Texas and Georgia; led by Dewey andHenry Cabot Lodge Jr., the Eisenhower campaign won a vote of the whole convention to award the contested delegates to Eisenhower, who carried the first ballot. The episode was reminiscent of the1912 Republican National Convention forty years prior, whereTaft's father won the nomination overTheodore Roosevelt by similar means.
In the general election on November 4, Eisenhower and his running mate, SenatorRichard Nixon ofCalifornia, defeated the Democratic party's ticket of GovernorAdlai Stevenson II ofIllinois, and SenatorJohn Sparkman ofAlabama.
Beginning in 1932, during a period which political historians would later call the "Fifth Party System," United States politics were dominated by the Democratic Party and itsNew Deal coalition oflaborers and labor organizations, racial and religious minorities (especially Jews, Catholics, and African Americans), liberal white Southerners, and intellectuals. delivered consistent victories for the Democratic Party at the presidential and congressional level. Entering the 1952 election campaign, no Republican had been elected president since Herbert Hooverin 1928. Republicans had only won a single national election during the period, in the1946 elections to the80th United States Congress.
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Following their victory in 1946, Republicans were hopeful to win back the White House in 1948. With the progressive and Southern wings of the Democratic Partybolting from the presidential ticket and popular Governor of New YorkThomas E. Dewey leading their ticket for the second consecutive campaign, most expected a Republican victory but were surprised by the re-election of PresidentHarry S. Truman in one of the biggest upsets in the history of presidential elections.
Having lost the presidency three times, Dewey declined to make a fourth run. Instead, the leading candidates were Dewey's main rivals for the 1948 nomination, SenatorRobert A. Taft of Ohio and former GovernorHarold Stassen of Minnesota, and his 1948 running mate, Governor of CaliforniaEarl Warren.
During the 1948 campaign,James Roosevelt andAmericans for Democratic Action attempted to draft popular World War II general Dwight D. Eisenhower, thenChief of Staff of the Army, to replace President Truman on the Democratic Party ticket. Eisenhower, who commanded the Allied Expeditionary Force in the invasions of Normandy and Germany, remained broadly popular and admired across the country without regard for political position or region.[1] However, Eisenhower repeatedly declined to seek the Democratic nomination ahead of the 1948 convention and issued aShermanesque statement removing himself from consideration on July 5, 1948.[2] Repeated efforts to ignore his statement failed when Roosevelt admitted that a draft would not succeed to convince Eisenhower, and the party nominated Truman instead.
By 1951, with Truman's popularity polling at record lows, both parties attempted to draft Eisenhower once again. However, since the 1948 election, he had been increasingly drawn toward the Republican Party.[3] Dewey and SenatorHenry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts led efforts to convince Eisenhower to run as a Republican and, through a series of organizations financed and led byCharles F. Willis,Stanley M. Rumbough Jr., andHarold E. Talbott, established a draft effort with over 250,000 members nationwide.[4][5][6][7] Personal friends and former military colleagues were also involved in the Republican draft effort.[7] They were motivated at least partly by Eisenhower's broad appeal, which they felt Stassen and Taft lacked, and his support for post-war international organizations like theUnited Nations andNorth Atlantic Treaty Organization, which Taft opposed or supported to a more limited extent than Eisenhower. With Taft leading the field in late 1951, Eisenhower's reluctance to run declined, and on January 6, 1952, he permitted Lodge to publicly reveal that he considered himself a Republican.[8]
The following leaders were candidates for the 1952 Republican presidential nomination:
These candidates participated in multiple state primaries or were included in multiple major national polls.
| Candidate | Most recent position | Home state | Campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Supreme Allied Commander of NATO (1951–1952) President of Columbia University (1948–1953) |  |  Accepted draft: June 4, 1952[9] Nominated at convention: July 11, 1952 (Campaign) | |
 | United States Senatorfrom Ohio (1939–1953) Ohio State Senator (1931–1933) Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives (1926–1927) |  | Announced campaign: October 16, 1951[10] Defeated at convention: July 11, 1952 (Campaign) | |
 | Governor of California (1943–1953) California Attorney General (1939–1943) District Attorney of Alameda County (1925–1939) |  | Announced: November 1951 (Campaign) | |
.jpg) | President of theUniversity of Pennsylvania (1948–1953) Governor of Minnesota (1939–1943) |  | (Campaign) | |
.jpg) | General of the Army (1944–1964) Commander of the United Nations Command and Governor of the Ryukyu Islands (1950–1951) Commander of theFar East Command (1947–1951) | | ||
The following candidates ran only in their home state's primary or caucus for the purpose of controlling its delegate slate at the convention and did not appear to be considered national candidates by the media.
The following persons were listed in two or more major national polls or were the subject of media speculation surrounding their potential candidacy, but declined to actively seek the nomination.
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| Poll source | Publication | Thomas Dewey | Dwight Eisenhower | Douglas MacArthur | Harold Stassen | Robert Taft | Earl Warren | Other | Undecided/none |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallup[22][a] | July 17, 1949 | 20% | 21% | 13% | 21% | 12% | 9% | 16%[b] | 5% |
| Gallup[23] | Nov. 6, 1949 | 12% | 25% | – | 19% | 15% | 10% | 13%[c] | 6% |
| Gallup[24] | Apr. 5, 1950 | 15% | 37% | – | 12% | 17% | 5% | 9%[d] | 8% |
| Gallup[25] | Sep. 26, 1950 | 14% | 42% | – | 14% | 15% | 6% | 3%[e] | 6% |
| Gallup[26] | Dec. 16, 1950 | 16% | 35% | – | 8% | 24% | 10% | 2% | 5% |
| Gallup[27] | Apr. 13, 1951 | 14% | 38% | – | 9% | 22% | 10% | 3%[f] | 4% |
| Gallup | May 1951 | 30% | – | 10% | 22% | 13% | |||
| Gallup[28] | Dec. 23, 1951 | 9% | 30% | 14% | 3% | 28% | 11% | 3% | 2% |
| 9% | – | 21% | 6% | 34% | 19% | 7% | 4% | ||
| 11% | 35% | – | 3% | 32% | 13% | 4% | 2% | ||
| Gallup[29] | Feb. 12, 1952 | 5% | 33% | 14% | 5% | 33% | 8% | – | 2% |
| Gallup[30] | Mar. 2, 1952 | 5% | 33% | 14% | 6% | 34% | 6% | – | 2% |
| Gallup[31] | Apr. 8, 1952 | 3% | 37% | 12% | 4% | 34% | 9% | – | 1% |
| Gallup[32] | May 1, 1952 | 3% | 44% | 10% | 3% | 33% | 6% | – | 1% |
| Gallup[33] | June 4, 1952 | 2% | 43% | 9% | 3% | 36% | 6% | – | 1% |
| Gallup[34] | June 21, 1952 | – | 44% | 10% | 3% | 35% | 7% | – | 1% |
| Gallup[35] | July 1, 1952 | – | 46% | 10% | 3% | 35% | 5% | – | 1% |
In late 1951, Eisenhower supporters increased their efforts to draft the general by establishing a campaign organization in New Hampshire, the first state to hold a popular election for delegates. GovernorSherman Adams endorsed the effort and became the New Hampshire campaign manager for the Draft Eisenhower campaign.[36] On January 6, at the same press conference revealing Eisenhower was a Republican, Senator Lodge formally submitted the general's name in the New Hampshire primary. The draft movement soon gained the endorsement of twenty-four newspapers, led byTheNew York Times.[37] A Draft Eisenhower rally at Madison Square Garden on February 8 drew a crowd far larger than the arena's capacity; shortly after, Eisenhower privately affirmed that he would contest the presidency, if nominated by the Republicans.[38][39]
On March 11, Eisenhower won the New Hampshire primary over Taft by a margin of 12 percent, sweeping all fourteen delegates.
However, from there until the Republican Convention the primaries were divided fairly evenly between the two men, and by the time the convention opened the race for the nomination was still too close to call.
Statewide contest won by candidates[40]
| Date | Pledged delegates | Contest | Robert A. Taft | Dwight Eisenhower | Harold Stassen | Earl Warren | Douglas MacArthur | Other/uncommitted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 11 | 14 | New Hampshire primary[41][42] | 38.59% | 14 50.25% | 7.08% | - | 3.48% | 0.6% |
| March 18 | 28 | Minnesota | 8.22% | 4 37.07% | 24 44.23% | 1.83% | 0.47% | 8.18% |
| April 1 | Nebraska | 36.33% | 30.15% | 24.29% | 0.85% | 3.41% | 4.97% | |
| 30 | Wisconsin | 24 40.63% | - | 21.85% | 6 33.77% | - | 3.75% | |
| April 8 | 0 | Illinois | 73.56% | 11.59% | 12.19% | 0.22% | 0.59% | 1.85% |
| April 15 | 0 | New Jersey | 35.54% | 60.64% | 3.66% | 0.07% | 0.10% | - |
| April 22 | Pennsylvania | 15.23% | 73.62% | 10.25% | 0.27% | 0.51% | 0.12% | |
| April 29 | Massachusetts | 29.69% | 68.68% | 0.29% | 0.41% | 0.61% | 0.32% | |
| May 6 | 56 | Ohio | 56 78.79% | - | 21.21% | - | - | - |
| May 13 | West Virginia | 78.52% | - | 21.48% | - | - | - | |
| May 16 | Oregon | 6.74% | 64.55% | 2.47% | 16.48% | 6.96% | 3.80%[a] | |
| June 3 | California | 33.61%[b] | - | - | 66.39% | - | - | |
| South Dakota | 50.32% | 49.68%[c] | - | - | - | - |
Italics indicate a write-in candidacy.
Primaries total popular vote results:[17]
When the1952 Republican National Convention opened inChicago, most political experts rated Taft and Eisenhower as neck-and-neck in the delegate vote totals. Eisenhower's managers, led by Governor Dewey and Massachusetts SenatorHenry Cabot Lodge Jr., accused Taft of "stealing" delegate votes in Southern states such as Texas and Georgia. They claimed that Taft's leaders in these states had illegally refused to give delegate spots to Eisenhower supporters and put Taft delegates in their place. Lodge and Dewey proposed to evict the pro-Taft delegates in these states and replace them with pro-Eisenhower delegates; they called this proposal "Fair Play". Although Taft and his supporters angrily denied this charge, the convention voted to support Fair Play 658–548, and Taft lost many Southern delegates; this decided the nomination in Eisenhower's favor. However, the mood at the convention was one of the most bitter and emotional in American history; in one speech SenatorEverett Dirksen ofIllinois, a Taft supporter, pointed at Governor Dewey on the convention floor and accused him of leading the Republicans "down the road to defeat", and mixed boos and cheers rang out from the delegates. In the end Eisenhower took the nomination on the first ballot; to heal the wounds caused by the battle he went to Taft's hotel suite and met with him. The Convention then chose young SenatorRichard Nixon ofCalifornia as Eisenhower's running mate; it was felt that Nixon's credentials as a slashing campaigner and anti-Communist would be valuable. Most historians now believe that Eisenhower's nomination was primarily due to the feeling that he was a "sure winner" against the Democrats; most of the delegates were conservatives who would probably have supported Taft if they felt he could have won the general election. The balloting at the Republican Convention went as follows:[43]
| Presidential balloting, RNC 1952 | ||
| Contender: Ballot | 1st before shifts | 1st after shifts |
|---|---|---|
| GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower | 595 | 845 |
| Ohio SenatorRobert A. Taft | 500 | 280 |
| GovernorEarl Warren ofCalifornia | 81 | 77 |
| FormerMinnesota GovernorHarold Stassen | 20 | 0 |
| GeneralDouglas MacArthur | 10 | 4 |
Freshman California SenatorRichard Nixon was nominated forvice president, also with Dewey's support. Republican politicians thought that his political experience, aggressive style (he was known as strongly anti-communist), and political base on the West would help political newcomer Eisenhower.[44]
Of the 25 Republican governors, only three, Jordan of Idaho, Lee of Utah and Brunsdale of North Dakota, have announced their support of Taft. Their states have a total of twelve electoral votes. The Republican governors of 13 states have announced their support of Ike. The 13 (Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin) have 146 electoral votes in November.
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