1944 United States elections 1944 United States elections The 1944 United States elections was held on November 7, 1944, taking place just a month after the Allies liberated Paris in World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected to an unprecedented fourth term, while the Democrats retained their majorities in both chambers of Congress. Seeking a record fourth term, Democratic incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt was challenged by Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York. Dewey ran an energetic campaign, seeking a smaller government and a less-regulated economy as the end of World War II seemed in sight. Roosevelt dominated the electoral
Franklin D. Roosevelt transformed American politics and started what political scientists call the "New Deal Party System" or the Fifth Party System. Between the Civil War and 1929, Democrats had rarely controlled both houses of Congress and had won just four of seventeen presidential elections; from 1932 to 1979, Democrats won eight of twelve presidential elections and generally controlled both houses of Congress. Roosevelt was elected in November 1932 but, like his predecessors, would not take office until the following March. After the election, Hoover sought to convince Roosevelt to renounce much of his campaign platform and to endorse the Hoover administration's policies.