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1952 election
Further information: 1952 United States presidential election
President Truman; Alabama Senator John J. Sparkman, vice presidential nominee; and Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson, presidential nominee, in the Oval Office, 1952
In 1951, the United States ratified the 22nd Amendment, making a president ineligible for election to a third term or for election to a second full term after serving more than two remaining years of a term of a previously elected president. The latter clause did not apply to Truman's situation in 1952 because of a grandfather clause exempting the incumbent president.[285]

President Truman conferring with labor leader Walter Reuther about economic policy in the Oval Office, 1952
Therefore, he seriously considered running for another term in 1952 and left his name on the ballot in the New Hampshire primary. However all his close advisors, pointing to his age, his failing abilities, and his poor showing in the polls, talked him out of it.[286] At the time of the 1952 New Hampshire primary, no candidate had won Truman's backing. 