Born to a German immigrant, Wendell Willkie was a lawyer and had never held office before running against Franklin Roosevelt in 1940.
He'd actually supported FDR previously, and even donated money for his campaigns, but when the Tennessee Valley Authority was formed to provide power and flood control to the South Willkie drew a line.
Willkie, while a Roosevelt supporter, would become president of the nation's largest electric utility holding company. He spoke out, testified before Congress and ultimately crossed over to the Republican party in 1939.
At the time the Republican party was fractured. Manhattan District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg -- senators from Ohio and Michigan, respectively -- were isolationists and Willkie would win the nod as fears about Nazi Germany grew.
He was routed in the general election, 449 to 82, carrying only ten states while receiving more votes than any previous GOP candidate. It was a vicious, bitter campaign, but after the votes were counted Willkie would again become a prominent Roosevelt supporter.
The man from Indiana would become a diplomat, popular author and an anti-racism activist. He ran again in 1944, but the Republican party saw him as too progressive. Willkie died of heart disease in October of 1944, his running mate Sen. Charles L. McNary died six months earlier. Not before or since have both candidates on a major party ticket died during the term for which they ran.
You can test the early-1940s pop culture knowledge of your friends blurt out "two votes for Villkie" in a vague accent. If they laugh, they know.
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