1948 United States presidential election

41st quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1948 United States presidential election happened on November 2, 1948. This election was between Harry S. Truman (president at that time) and Thomas E. Dewey (the Governor of New York). Truman won by 303 electoral votes. Dewey got 189 electoral votes. Thurmond got 39 electoral votes including a faithless elector in Tennessee.

1948 United States presidential election

← 1944 November 2, 1948 1952 →

All 531 electoral votes of the Electoral College
266 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout53.0%[1] Decrease 2.9 pp
 
Nominee Harry S. Truman Thomas E. Dewey Strom Thurmond
Party Democratic Republican Dixiecrat
Home state Missouri New York South Carolina
Running mate Alben W. Barkley Earl Warren Fielding L. Wright
Electoral vote 303 189 39
States carried 28 16 4
Popular vote 24,179,347 21,991,292 1,175,930
Percentage 49.6% 45.1% 2.4%

Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Truman/Barkley; Red denotes those won by Dewey/Warren; Orange denotes those won by Thurmond/Wright (including a faithless elector in Tennessee). Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

This election is best known as an upset because of the election results. Predictions showed that Dewey would beat Truman at the polls. For example, a newspaper in Chicago printed an issue in advance which said that Dewey had won the election. However, Truman won the election instead.

Candidates

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Republican Party

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Republican candidates:

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Democratic Party

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Democratic candidates:

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References

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  1. "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara.

Other websites

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