When Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected in 1944, he won an unprecedented fourth term as U.S. president. He remains the only American president ever elected to four terms.
Roosevelt had already broken the two-term tradition by winning re-election in 1940, but World War II shaped the 1944 campaign. The United States was fighting Germany and Japan, and Roosevelt argued that changing leadership during the conflict could endanger the war effort. He defeated Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey, winning 432 electoral votes to Dewey’s 99.
Roosevelt’s health was deteriorating, a fact that was not fully apparent to the public. He died on April 12, 1945, only a few months after beginning his fourth term, and Vice President Harry S. Truman succeeded him. Congress later approved the Twenty-Second Amendment, ratified in 1951, limiting presidents to two elected terms; it was a response strongly influenced by Roosevelt’s record.