The 1948 Republican National Convention was held in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . It was the first presidential convention to be shown on " national " television . ( At this time there were 27 television stations in full operation in the US and an estimated 350,000 TV sets in the whole country . ) As the convention opened , Dewey was believed to have a large lead in the delegate count . His campaign managers - Herbert Brownell , Jr. , Edwin Jaeckle , and J. Russell Sprague - were " as skillful a group of operators as ever manipulated a convention ... it was said at the convention that the Dewey forces " could have won even with Taft " as their candidate . " His main opponent , Senator Taft , was hobbled by an ineffective campaign team that one writer called " bumblers " , and another historian noted that Taft 's campaign manager , Ohio Congressman Clarence J. Brown , " seemed no match for Herbert Brownell ... while the Dewey forces were busy flattering delegates and hinting at promises of patronage , Brown was still worrying about such mundane matters as hotel rooms and seats in the gallery for his friends . " Dewey 's leading opponents – Taft and Stassen – met in Taft 's hotel suite to plan a " stop-Dewey " movement . A key obstacle soon developed , however , as both men refused to unite behind a single candidate to oppose Dewey : " The essence of their impasse was simple . Neither Stassen nor Taft hated Dewey enough to withdraw in favor of the other , and neither man thought he could get his delegates to follow if he did . " Instead , both Taft and Stassen , along with Senator Vandenberg , simply agreed to try to hold their own delegates in the hopes of preventing Dewey from obtaining a majority . This proved to be futile , as Dewey 's efficient campaign team methodically gathered the remaining delegates they needed to win the nomination . Stassen tried to contact General Eisenhower to ask him to reconsider becoming a candidate , but Eisenhower " could not be reached . " After the second round of balloting , Dewey was only 33 votes short of victory . Taft then called Stassen and urged him to withdraw from the race and endorse him as Dewey 's main opponent . When Stassen refused , Taft wrote a concession statement and had it read to the convention at the start of the third ballot ; at this point the other candidates also dropped out , and Dewey was then nominated unanimously by acclamation
1948 Republican National Convention
1948 Republican National Convention
1948 United States presidential election