Button, Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt ran four campaigns as the Democratic candidate for president, winning each time against his Republican opponents. In 1932, he easily defeated the incumbent, President Herbert Hoover. In 1936, he had a landmark victory over Governor Alf Landon of Kansas receiving over 60% of the popular vote. In 1940, FDR made the unprecedented decision to run for a third term. Although he won the election against corporate executive Wendell Willkie, he became only the second president in history to be re-elected with a lower percentage of both the popular and Electoral College votes than he had previously received. Roosevelt’s final victory over Governor Thomas Dewey of New York in 1944 had the lowest total of his four campaigns, just over 53% of the popular vote.