FDR - Part 1

By running for and winning re-election in 1944, Roosevelt ensured that a Democrat would be in the White House until January 20, 1949. Whether it would be him was an open question, considering his declining health (he was secretly suffering from melanoma). Arguably, the Roosevelt Era did not really end until 1968, with the election of Richard Nixon and the Republican adoption of the "Southern Strategy". Up until that point, Democrats had won seven of the past nine Presidential elections; only Roosevelt's Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, was able to win election in 1952 (and re-election in 1956). In that period of time (1932-1968) Democrats controlled Congress except for two occasions, both of them the result of low approval ratings for President Truman: 1947-1949 and again from 1953-1955. In the former instance, the Republican takeover of Congress was seen as a precursor of Truman's impending loss to Republican Thomas Dewey in the Presidential election of 1948. Instead Truman narrowly won re-election and Democrats recaptured both houses of Congress. In 1952, President Truman was again suffering from low popularity, this time from the protracted war in Korea. Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for and won the Republican nomination for President (secretly bargaining with California Governor Earl Warren to appoint him to the first Supreme Court seat that opened up in return for his tacit support). Eisenhower and Republicans would go on to win the White House and Congress, the first time since 1932. It would be short-lived. Eisenhower lost both houses of Congress in his first midterms, and while he would go on to win re-election in 1956, he had to contend with House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, two of the most influential Congressional leaders in U.S. history.