United States Presidential Election of 1940

FDR won an unprecedented third term, 449 to 82, amid the war in Europe.

Overview

Breaking the two-term tradition set by Washington, Roosevelt ran against Wendell Willkie, a utility executive who had been a Democrat in 1932 and who largely accepted the New Deal while attacking the third term itself. With France fallen and Britain besieged, FDR promised again and again that American boys would not fight foreign wars, and won 449 to 82 with 54.7 percent. The result ratified both intervention-adjacent preparedness and the New Deal order, and set the stage for 1944's fourth term.