Then and Now: President Truman in Spokane
In June of 1948, President Harry Truman made a quick stop in Spokane.
Section:Then & Now
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Jesse Tinsley
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Then and Now: President Truman visits Spokane
It’s rare that a sitting president is an underdog in a reelection campaign, but that’s where Harry S. Truman found himself in 1948. He had ascended to the office after the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 and was up for reelection.
In the first presidential contest of the postwar era, both of the major parties were involved in internecine battles behind the scenes, and the impact of the squabbles could decide the election.
The Republicans were in a tight primary featuring 1944 nominee and New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, Minnesota Gov. Harold Stassen, Gov. Earl Warren of California, Sens. Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg and even General Douglas MacArthur. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was a party favorite but declined the nomination.
On the Democrat side, the differences were starker. Mainly, state and congressional leaders from the southern states had split off from the party and formed the States’ Rights Democratic Party, commonly known as the Dixiecrats, led by Gov. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. They stood for segregation and Jim Crow laws and against the integration of the military.
The Dixiecrats knew they wouldn’t win the presidency because they weren’t on enough state ballots to win the Electoral College, but they hoped to force an electoral crisis or at least extract concessions about racial issues.
The Socialist and Progressive parties were also positioned to siphon off votes from Truman. Many thought Truman would lose.
On June 9, 1948, Truman’s train pulled into Spokane’s Northern Pacific Depot, greeted by 2,000 people. The Spokane Chronicle called it “a tremendous welcome for the gentleman from Missouri." A motorcade of 30 cars passed thousands more on the way downtown.
Truman gave his standard stump speech in front of the John Monaghan statue and the Spokane Club. Democrats had lost both houses of Congress in the 1946 midterms. Without specifically mentioning Washington’s 5th district Republican representative, Walt Horan, Truman said he was trying to carry out FDR’s platform “but I’m not getting much help from this Congress and that’s partly your fault.”
The president was in Spokane for only 65 minutes. When he arrived, the President declared to a Spokesman-Review reporter that "The Chicago Tribune and this paper (The Spokesman-Review) are the worst in the United States," based on Republican-leaning editorials.
In November, few Democrats were peeled off by the alternative parties, and Truman won reelection by an electoral count of 303-189, including Washington’s eight electoral votes.
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