The attached article was written by that smiling man whose face is posted above, the pioneering American pollster George Gallup (1901 – 1984), founder of the Institute of Public Opinion. Gallup’s 1941 article revealed some surprising information about U.S. voters and their opinions concerning FDR’s bid for re-election against Wendell Willkie (1892 – 1944):
“The Institute of Public Opinion’s poll on the 1940 election was the most accurate state-by-state poll in history…The poll gave Wilkie eight sure states and he carried ten. It gave Roosevelt a maximum of 472 electoral votes and he received 449.”
Interestingly, despite the class warfare created by the devastation of the Great Depression, FDR’s popularity had dropped among all economic classes since his 1936 election:
“It was most emphatically not a blanket vote of confidence in the domestic program of the New Deal per se. Proof lies in the result of one of the Institute’s most interesting studies during the campaign. When this survey asked voters which candidate they would prefer if there were no war in Europe, a majority of 53 per cent said they prefer Willkie. For his third term Roosevelt can thank the blitzkrieg.”
Click here to read about the African-American voters deserting FDR during the 1944 election.
Below is the 1942 Gallup report on the general dissatisfaction the polled public had with FDR:
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