Volume 18 , Issue 20

1948 Democratic Ike For President Boom Surged Forward

This is what we found when we searching in The Eagle on the front page, in Bryan, Texas, Monday 5 July 1948. "Democratic Ike for President 1948" on Newspapers.com.

Found on Newspapers.com

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who once talked Republicans out of throwing his hat into their presidential ring watched silently as a Democratic "Ike for President Boom" surged forward at headlong speed.

President Truman, the man the Eisenhower supporters would replace as a party candidate, was silent too.

But as he headed for a Missouri speaking engagement, a top aide said the President was "absolutely convinced" nothing would come of moves to keep him from getting the nomination.

Although Mr. Truman was quoted as feeling that much of the Eisenhower boom could be traced to Democrats who really were backing Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, the general's supporters could pint to some concrete results of their drive.

Boom Grows For Ike
Without a word of support from the retired Army chief of staff, the number of delegates instructed to cast convention ballots for him climbed swiftly above the 100 mark, while additional Eisenhower voices were raised on all sides.

The bandwagon got a heavy shove the day before in New Jersey, where Democratic Leader Frank Hague, a vice chairman of the party's National committee, drew the state's 36 convention votes to the general.

Washington, July 5 (1948) -- President Truman's recorded strength in the 1948 Democratic National Convention dwindled, but it still exceeded the majority needed for nomination.

New Jersey's shift to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower took 36 votes away from the president.

With 618 votes needed for nomination, Mr. Truman had 286 pledged or instructed, plus 354 claimed. Total: 640.

But the pledged votes included California's 54. James Roosevelt, the California state chairman, was promoting a "Draft Eisenhower Caucus" in Philadelphia just ahead of the national convention.

And the claimed votes included New York's 98. Mayor William O'Dwyer had announced he would attended the Philadelphia caucus, but not as an Eisenhower man.

The New Jersey shift gave Eisenhower 110 pledged votes, with the South ready to give him at least another 70 or 80 if he would take the nomination.

As nearly as could be determined, the rest of the votes were divided this way: Pledged to Gov. Wright of Mississippi, 11-1/2; anti-Truman, 58-1/2; uncommitted, 414.
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