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Columbia University ( LLB) Signature. Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States in 1944 and 1948, losing the latter to Harry S. Truman in a major upset.
- Overview
- Truman faced a weak economy and a divided party.
- A newspaper error is famously photographed.
- HISTORY Vault: U.S. Presidents
Harry S. Truman’s unexpected election victory over Thomas Dewey was forever imprinted in history, thanks in part to a famous photo.
Heading into Election Day on November 2, 1948, it seemed like Thomas Dewey had the U.S. presidency in the bag. Numerous polls and pundits predicted a win for the Michigan native, New York governor and prominent gang-busting attorney. But, as a now-famous photograph would show, everyone—including the editors of the Chicago Tribune—got it wrong. The surprise victory of the plain-spoken Democratic nominee, Harry S Truman, would become one of the biggest upsets in U.S. presidential history—and it would forever be memorialized, thanks to an embarrassing newspaper gaffe.
Dewey made his name throughout the 1930s by prosecuting dozens of big-name mobsters, including Lucky Luciano and Waxey Gordon. His record helped in his election to governor of New York in 1942. In 1944, he won the Republican nomination for the White House but lost the general election to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1948, the Republicans again chose Dewey as their presidential nominee, with Governor Earl Warren of California as his running mate.
The Democratic nominee, Truman, had ascended to the presidency following Franklin Roosevelt’s sudden death on April 12, 1945, just three months after he’d been sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term. The plain-spoken Truman, a U.S. senator from Missouri before his brief vice-presidency, went on to lead the United States through the end of World War II and the transition to a peacetime economy. But in the 1948 elections, Truman faced significant political head winds.
Rising inflation and labor unrest had contributed to the Democrats losing control of both chambers of Congress in 1946 for the first time in 14 years. Further diminishing Truman’s prospects were divisions within his own political party. His civil rights initiatives had alienated the conservative, Southern wing of the organization. This had spurred the formation of the States’ Rights Democratic Party (or Dixiecrats) and the selection of Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as their presidential nominee. Truman was even facing competition from within his own cabinet. His onetime secretary of commerce (as well as Roosevelt’s vice president from 1941-45), Henry Wallace, who had a following among liberals, decided to run against his former boss as the Progressive Party’s candidate for the Oval Office.
With victory looking like a foregone conclusion for Dewey, the New York governor ran an uninspiring, risk-averse campaign. One newspaper contended his four major speeches could be reduced to four sentences: “Agriculture is important. Our rivers are full of fish. You cannot have freedom without liberty. The future lies ahead.”
President Harry Truman, with wife Bess and daughter Margaret, waving from train during whistle-stop at Pocatello, Idaho in 1948.
Meanwhile, Truman launched an aggressive, populist-style campaign. The president embarked on a “whistle-stop” tour, traveling across America by train and giving speeches in which he spoke out against the “do-nothing” Republican-controlled 80th Congress. “Give ‘em hell, Harry” became a popular slogan among his supporters.
A now-famous photograph taken two days after the president’s come-from-behind triumph. The president was on his way back to Washington from Missouri when his train stopped in St. Louis. It was in the station where Truman picked up a two-day-old copy of the Tribune. Holding the paper, which blared the erroneous banner headline, "Dewey Defeats Truman," Truman flashes a triumphant smile.
On Election Day, the newspaper had been required to go to press earlier than usual due to a printers’ strike. Even though not all the votes had been tallied at the time of the Tribune’s deadline, editors were confident in the multiple polls widely favoring Dewey to win. So they reported that he had done just that. (The Tribune wasn’t the only one to mistakenly call the election for the New York governor; in covering the returns, a leading radio announcer, H.V. Kaltenborn, informed his listeners that even though Truman was ahead, Dewey ultimately would wind up on top.)
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Thomas E. Dewey (born March 24, 1902, Owosso, Mich., U.S.—died March 16, 1971, Bal Harbour, Fla.) was a vigorous American prosecuting attorney whose successful racket-busting career won him three terms as governor of New York (1943–55). A longtime Republican leader, he was his party’s presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948 but lost in both ...
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Nov 3, 2020 · President Harry Truman (right), begins applause as New York Gov. Thomas E. Dewey strides to the speakers' platform during cornerstone laying ceremonies for the permanent headquarters of the United ...
Anniversary: Thomas E. Dewey, the Man Who Saved New York. Mr. Wingrove is a free-lance historical writer. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan. Thomas Dewey is chiefly remembered as the man who didn ...
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Thomas E. Dewey. Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) became an American legend for his success in prosecuting organized crime in New York City. Dewey later was elected the Governor of New York and was the unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Presidency in 1941 and 1948. His gubernatorial administration established ...
