1944 United States presidential election in Virginia 1944 United States presidential election in Virginia The 1944 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 7, 1944, throughout the 48 contiguous states. Voters chose eleven representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Virginia voted for the Democratic nominee, incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, over the Republican nominee, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Roosevelt ultimately won the national election with 53.39 percent of the vote. This is currently the last election in Virginia where the Democratic candidate won by a double-digit margin. It is also the last occasion the
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.