Distribution of votes in the 1948 US presidential election
Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party in the 1912 election) which facilitated the former Vice President's election campaign after his dismissal as Secretary of Commerce by President Truman in 1945.
The 1948 US presidential election was the first in sixteen years that did not have Franklin D. Roosevelt leading the ticket. The race was contested by incumbent President Harry S. Truman of the Democratic Party, who had ascended to the presidency following FDR's death in 1945, and Thomas E. Dewey of the Republican Party, who had also appeared on the 1944 ballot. Storm Thurmond and Henry A. Wallace made the largest impact out of any third party candidates. Thurmond represented the newly-formed States' Rights Party, which was made up of former Democrats who wanted to protect racial segregation in the South, and were disturbed by Truman's support of civil rights for ethnic minorities. Wallace had recently formed a new Progressive Party (not to be confused with