In the presidential election , Democratic incumbent President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to serve an unprecedented third term , defeating Republican businessman Wendell Willkie of New York . Although Willkie fared better than the previous two Republican presidential candidates , Roosevelt crushed Willkie in the electoral college and won the popular vote by ten points . At the 1940 Democratic National Convention , Roosevelt overcame opposition from Vice President John Nance Garner and Postmaster General James Farley to win on the first ballot . Willkie won the Republican nomination on the sixth ballot , defeating Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft and Manhattan District Attorney Thomas Dewey
Republican nomination
1940 Republican National Convention
1940 United States elections