1940 United States Presidential Election (Germania)

For related races, see 1940 United States elections.

The 1940 United States presidential election was the 39th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1940. The election was contested in the shadow of World War II in Europe, as the United States was emerging from the Great Depression. Democratic candidate Joseph P. Kennedy defeated Republican senator Robert A. Taft to be elected into office.

Kennedy was a famous yet unlikely candidate for the presidency. He rose to popularity after conversations between John Garner and Franklin D. Roosevelt were leaked, which showed Roosevelt's intention to try to continue support for the United Kingdom against the German Reich. His intentions later would mention going to war with Germany. This is a factor that lost Roosevelt's support in the 1940 Democratic National Convention.

Kennedy, who believed in strong isolationist and non-interventionism, promised there would be no involvement in foreign wars if he were elected. He also supported the policy of ending the aid to Britain. Taft, who had not previously run for public office, conducted an isolationist campaign and managed to gain Republican votes in areas of the Midwest and West Coast. A part of Taft's success in the Midwest was due to German ancestry within the regions. As the Democratic Party had elected someone who planned on going to war with Germany, they voted for what was seen as the safer option for their beliefs. Kennedy was able to gain support from Democrats by denouncing Roosevelt. He also stated that while serving as ambassador to the United Kingdom he could safely say that the war for Britain was lost. His policy of ending the United State's support of Britain was able to gain mainstream popularity due to Kennedy.

Kennedy was leading in polls, with Taft being predicted to lose in a close race. However, the polls would be proven wrong as Kennedy come out victorious with a major lead of over 5,000,000 votes. Kennedy appealed to the masses due to his pragmatic and open ideas. He gained strong support from labor unions, urban political machines, ethnic minority voters, and the traditionally Democratic Solid South, allowing Kennedy to win his first term.

Democratic Party
Throughout the winter, spring, and summer of 1940, there was much speculation as to whether Kennedy could hold the Democratic Party together. Many Democrats refused to support Kennedy and continued support for Roosevelt. Kennedy would work to campaign in New England, the Rust Belt, and the deep Midwest. Kennedy would become very popular among voters of German descent and pure isolationists. Kennedy would call the war in Europe a "lost cause". He used his work as Ambassador to the United Kingdom in his favor, Kennedy would state that he saw the issues personally and planned to end the aid to the United Kingdom and return aid to the United States. Kennedy's ideals become very popular, even creating the America First Committee. Kennedy had to fight for aid from the party's political bosses, who feared that no Democrat except Roosevelt could defeat the popular Willkie. However, after offering them financial deals for support, they gave Kennedy the aid he needed most.

At the July 1940 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Kennedy easily swept aside challenges from Farley and John Nance Garner, his vice-president. Garner was a Texas conservative who ran against Kennedy because of his isolationist and noninterventionist policies. As a result, Kennedy decided to pick Henry A. Wallace from Iowa, the Secretary of Agriculture and an outspoken liberal. That choice was strenuously opposed by many of the party's conservatives, who felt Wallace was too radical and "eccentric" in his private life to be an effective running mate (he practiced New Age spiritual beliefs, and often consulted with the controversial Russian spiritual guru Nicholas Roerich). But Kennedy insisted that without Wallace on the ticket he would decline the nomination, and when First Lady Rose Kennedy came to Chicago to vouch for Wallace, he won the vice-presidential nomination with 626 votes to 329 for House Speaker William B. Bankhead of Alabama.