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Democratic Ticket
Presidential candidate: HARRY TRUMAN, President
VP candidate: ALBEN BARKLEY, Kentucky Senator
Popular votes: 24,105,810 (49.5%)
Electoral votes: 303
Republican Ticket
Presidential candidate: Thomas Dewey, New York Governor
VP candidate: Earl Warren, California Governor
Popular votes: 21,970,064 (45.1%)
Electoral votes: 189
States' Rights Democratic (Dixiecratic) Ticket
Presidential candidate: Strom Thurmond, South Carolina Governor
VP candidate: Fielding Wright, Mississippi Governor
Popular votes: 1,169,114 (2.4%)
Electoral votes: 39
1948 US Electoral Map: How each state voted. Wisconsin's Choice: LaFollette.

Election Facts

  • The Democratic coalition splintered in this election.
  • Southern segregationists opposed Truman over civil rights and supported Thurmond.
  • Democratic progressives bolted over Truman's postwar foreign policy.
  • Republicans rallied around Dewey, who accepted the New Deal and the nation's new global role.
  • With predictions of his defeat, Truman fought a hard campaign to win the election.
A carload of Truman supporters in Pennsylvania, 1948.
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Republican National Convention, Philadelphia, June 1948.
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A victorious Harry Truman shows off an incorrect newspaper, November 3, 1948.
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Harry Truman rides with Wisconsin Governor Oscar Rennebohm and Senator Carl Thompson during a visit to Madison, October 14, 1948. Photo by James Roy Miller, "Capital Times."
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Harry S. Truman in Madison, September, 1947. Photo by John Newhouse.
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