Ohio History Journal

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WHISTLE-STOPPING

Through Ohio

by RICHARD O. DAVIES

Ohio played an important role in returning Harry S. Truman to the

White House in 1948. Prior to the election he had been foredoomed to

defeat by all reputable political seers. Ohio was seen as being safely within

the Republican fold, and was supposedly prepared to take part in a nation-

wide Republican blitz. Elmo Roper, for example, quit taking samples of

voter preference as early as September 9, with the comment that only a

"political convulsion" could prevent New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey

from winning the presidency.1 The prognostications were ignored by the

voters, however, as Truman executed the most startling upset victory in

the history of American presidential elections. Ohio went Democratic by

over seven thousand votes, while Truman was returned to the White House

by a popular-vote margin of over two million. In the electoral college he

scored impressively with a 303-189 margin.2

NOTES ARE ON PAGES 196-197