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 , his fresh face , appealed to delegates as well as voters . 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 repeatedly yelled " 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 . The voting went like this : Willkie 's nomination is still considered by most historians to have been one of the most dramatic moments in any political convention . Having given little thought to who he would select as his vice-presidential nominee , Willkie left the decision to convention chairman and Massachusetts Congressman Joe Martin , the House Minority Leader , who suggested Senate Minority Leader Charles L. McNary of Oregon . Despite the fact that McNary had spearheaded a " Stop Willkie " campaign late in the balloting , the candidate picked him to be his running mate
1940 Republican National Convention
1940 Republican National Convention
1940 Republican Party presidential primaries