From March 14 to June 11, 1944, voters of the Republican Party selected delegates to the 1944 Republican National Convention for the purpose of selecting their nominee for president in the 1944 election at the 1944 Republican National Convention held from June 26 to June 28, 1944, in Chicago, Illinois. Although the result of the elections were inconclusive, maneuvering by the delegates secured the nomination for Governor of New York Thomas E. Dewey before they convened in Chicago. Dewey easily overcame a challenge from Governor of Ohio John W. Bricker and was nominated on the first ballot. In a bid to maintain party unity, Dewey, a moderate, chose the conservative Bricker as his running mate; Bricker was nominated by acclamation. Background 1940 presidential election In 1940, the Republican nomination was won by Wendell Willkie over Thomas E. Dewey and Robert A. Taft. Willkie owed his nomination to late momentum, at least in part a result of his avowed internationalism; while Dewey and Taft had taken competing stances as isolationists, their popularity declined in response to the growing anxiety over World War II following the fall of France. Dewey, the 38-year old Manhattan district attorney, was particularly damaged by perception that he lacked the experience necessary to manage increasingly bellicose foreign powers. Following his loss to incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Willkie retained a public profile. As the United States entered the war, he took an aggressive stance in favor of Roosevelt's diplomatic and military policies, unlike most of his party. 1942 midterms In the 1942 midterm elections, Republicans ended the Democratic supermajority in the United States Senate. Dewey ascended to leadership of the moderate Eastern wing of the party after his election as Governor of New York, one of the country's most powerful offices. 1943: Willkie declines As the American war effort progressed, the Republican Party struggled to find common ground on the divisive issue of foreign policy. Wendell Willkie had no such hesitation, publishing his views in the April 1943 book One World, an account of his trip abroad serving as a representative for President Roosevelt. The book alienated Republican nationalists, given Willkie's avowed Wilsonian idealism, and Western foreign policy professionals of all stripes, given his calls to abolish empire and defense of Joseph Stalin. The book was the third non-fiction to sell one million copies since 1900, but his tone and ongoing efforts to ally with the White