1944 United States presidential election in West Virginia of the popular vote. 1944 United States presidential election in West Virginia The 1944 United States presidential election in West Virginia took place on November 7, 1944, as part of the 1944 United States presidential election. West Virginia voters chose eight representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. West Virginia was won by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (D–New York), running with Senator Harry S. Truman, with 54.89 percent of the popular vote, against the 41st Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey (R–New York), running with the 54th Governor of Ohio, John W.
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.