Date(s) June 21–25, 1948 | Venue Convention Hall | |
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Vice Presidential nominee | ||
The 1948 Republican National Convention was held at the Municipal Auditorium, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from June 21 to 25, 1948.
Contents
New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey had paved the way to win the Republican presidential nomination in the primary elections, where he had beaten former Minnesota Governor Harold E. Stassen and World War II General Douglas MacArthur. In Philadelphia he was nominated on the third ballot over the opposition from die-hard conservative Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, the future "minister of peace" Stassen, Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg, and California Governor Earl Warren. In all Republican conventions since 1948, the nominee has been selected on the first ballot. Warren was nominated for Vice President. The Republican ticket of Dewey and Warren surprisingly went on to lose the general election to the Democratic ticket of Harry S. Truman and Alben W. Barkley. One of the decisive factors in convening both major party conventions in Philadelphia that year was the ability for two of the three then young television networks to telecast for the first time live gavel to gavel coverage. Televised primarily to the East Coast by The Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS, and The National Broadcasting Company, NBC, only a few minutes of kinescope film have survived of these historic broadcasts.
Platform
The party platform formally adopted at the convention included the following points:
Candidates before the convention
Vice-presidential nomination
Dewey had a long list of potential running-mates, including the option of reselecting his 1944 running mate Senator John Bricker of Ohio or choosing someone else in Congressman Charles Halleck of Indiana, and former-Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota. Dewey however, chose two-term California Governor Earl Warren as his running-mate; Warren was nominated unopposed.