Hundreds of thousands , perhaps as many as one million , telegrams urging support for Willkie poured in , many from " Willkie Clubs " that had sprung up across the country . Millions more signed petitions circulating everywhere . At the 1940 Republican National Convention itself , keynote speaker Harold Stassen , the Governor of Minnesota , announced his support for Willkie and became his official floor manager . Hundreds of vocal Willkie supporters packed the upper galleries of the convention hall . Willkie 's amateur status and fresh face appealed to delegates as well as voters . Most of the delegations were selected not by primaries , but by party leaders in each state , and they had a keen sense of the fast-changing pulse of public opinion . Gallup found the same thing in polling data not reported until after the convention : Willkie had moved ahead among Republican voters by 44 % to only 29 % for the collapsing Dewey . As the pro-Willkie galleries chanted " We Want Willkie ! " the delegates on the convention floor began their vote . Dewey led on the first ballot , but steadily lost strength thereafter . Both Taft and Willkie gained in strength on each ballot , and by the fourth ballot it was obvious that either Willkie or Taft would be the nominee . The key moments came when the delegations of large states such as Michigan , Pennsylvania , and New York left Dewey and Vandenberg and switched to Willkie , giving him the victory on the sixth ballot
1940 Republican National Convention
1940 Republican National Convention
1940 United States presidential election