Thomas Dewey

Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was the Governor of New York (1943-1955) and the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency in 1944 and 1948. As a leader of the liberal faction of the Republican party he fought the conservative faction led by Senator Robert Taft.

During the 1930s, Dewey made a name for himself as a fearless prosecutor, actively trying and convicting several key organized crime figures of New York City.

He is well remembered in popular culture for being incorrectly announced by the Chicago Tribune as the presidential winner in 1948, over Harry Truman, who then celebrated this reversal of fortune in an iconic photograph.

Thomas Dewey in The Man With the Iron Heart
Despite having lost the 1944 election, Thomas Dewey was one of several Republicans whose name was bandied about as a possible presidential candidate in 1948.

Thomas Dewey in Joe Steele
Thomas Dewey was a Republican politician from New York. He'd begun as a crusading district attorney before becoming the Governor of New York. He sought the GOP nomination for the presidency in 1940 but lost out to Wendell Willkie.

He did gain the GOP nod in 1944, running against incumbent Joe Steele, who was running for an unprecedented fourth term. While Dewey campaigned hard, it was difficult to campaign substantively against Steele's successes: World War II was going absolutely in the Allies' favor, while at home, the economy was in great shape, with people now earning more than they had before Steele took office in 1933. . Moreover, Steele's apparatus was difficult to contend with. In the end, Steele trounced Dewey. In his concession speech, Dewey wished Steele well, because wishing the President well meant wishing the country well, and Dewey loved the U.S. as he knew Steele did.

Thomas Dewey in Southern Victory
Thomas E. "Tom" Dewey was elected the thirty-fourth President of the United States in 1944 on the Democratic ticket.

Dewey rose to prominence first as a prosecutor in New York, and then as Governor of New York during the Second Great War. An able and very popular politician, Dewey became the obvious choice to challenge the incumbent Socialist, President Charles W. La Follette. Despite the fact that La Follette had led the country to victory in the Second Great War, Dewey successfully ran on a platform that the Socialists had allowed the Confederacy to regain its strength under Jake Featherston, and so were directly responsible for the gains the C.S. made under Operation Blackbeard in 1941.

At his inauguration on February 1, 1945, Dewey pledged to continue U.S. occupation of the C.S. with the intent to integrate the southern states back into the U.S. He also pledged to continue La Follette's policy of racial equality in the armed services. Addressing the international stage, Dewey proposed a continued partnership with the U.S.'s traditional ally, Germany, to police the world and prevent the spread of superbomb technology to former enemies Russia, Japan, and France.

Dewey's Vice President was Harry Truman.

Trivia

 * Dewey was elected at the age of 42, tying Upton Sinclair (who also defeated a sitting President who had led the US to victory in a major war) as the youngest man to win a Presidential election.


 * Dewey would also hold the distinction of being the first President born in the twentieth century. (Sinclair had been the first President born after the War of Secession.)


 * Following Dewey's overwhelming election, his running mate, Harry S Truman, presented a copy of the Chicago Tribune bearing the headline "La Follette Beats Dewey".