Roosevelt maneuvered the Democrats in Chicago to draft him for renomination. Wendell Willkie was nominated by the Republicans to oppose Roosevelt.
While the Republican party had been strongly isolationist, Willkie abandoned his party's position and came out strongly against Hitler and in support of the extension of the draft. The one issue that Willkie attacked Roosevelt was for breaking the tradition of no third term. In October Roosevelt announced Lend Lease a plan to turn over 50 destroyers and other supplies to Britain. Wilkie supported the action but attacked Roosevelt for not obtaining Congressional support for his actions. Wilike towards the end of the campaign began to attack Roosevelt claiming that if he was reelected he would lead the United States into war. For the first time in the campaign he seemed to finally get traction. It was not enough however.
Despite the fact that 78% of the newspapers endorsed Wilkie Roosevelt carried all of the large cities except for Cincinnati.
Participation of Eligible Voters: 62.5%
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