1944 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection

1944 Democratic vice presidential nomination

July 21, 1944 (1944-07-21) 1948 →
All 1,176 delegate votes of the Democratic National Convention 589 delegate votes needed to win
Nominee Harry S. Truman Henry A. Wallace Home state Missouri Iowa First ballot 319.5 (27.17%) 429.5 (36.5%) Final ballot 1,031 (90.76%) 105 (9.24%)   Nominee John H. Bankhead II Scott W. Lucas Home state Alabama Illinois First ballot 98 (8.33%) 61 (5.19%) Final ballot 0 (0.00%) 0 (0.00%)
Previous Vice Presidential nominee Henry A. Wallace Vice Presidential nominee Harry S. Truman

This article is part of a series about Harry S. Truman
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The Democratic Party's 1944 nomination for Vice President of the United States was determined at the 1944 Democratic National Convention on July 21, 1944. U.S. Senator Harry S. Truman from Missouri was nominated to be President Franklin D. Roosevelt's running mate in his bid to be re-elected for a fourth term.

How the nomination went to Truman, who did not actively seek it, is, in the words of his biographer Robert H. Ferrell, "one of the great political stories of our century."^[1] The fundamental issue was that Roosevelt's health was seriously declining, and everyone who saw Roosevelt, including the leaders of the Democratic Party, realized it. If he died during his next term, the vice president would become president, making the vice presidential nomination very important. Truman's predecessor as vice president, the incumbent Henry A. Wallace, was unpopular with some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, who disliked his liberal politics and considered him unreliable and eccentric in general. Wallace was the popular candidate and favored by the convention delegates.

As the convention began, Wallace had more than half the votes necessary to secure his re-nomination.^[2] By contrast, the Gallup poll said that 2% of those surveyed wanted then-Senator Truman to become vice president.^[3] To overcome this initial deficit, the leaders of the Democratic Party worked to influence the convention delegates, such that Truman received the nomination.^[4]