1944 Presidential Election

To call the 1944 Workers' Party National Convention a mess would qualify as understatement of the year. The whole hall was in a free-for-all with nobody having clear control of the situation as the convention lasted for a full two weeks. The party wanted a smooth process for finding a challenger to the slightly popular but potentially vulnerable President Taft, but their wishes were never fulfilled. Minor fights broke out along the way between different factions on the convention floor, with the most notable instance being the squabble between Henry Wallace and Harry Truman delegates. Amidst the chaos of the gathering, Upton Sinclair began to stand out as the candidate that truly excited delegates with his ambitious goals for office, and with an upset victory that brought him the position of Governor of California under his belt, many eventually came around to putting their faiths in him to deliver a victory nationally. Sinclair beat out establishment candidates Daniel Hoan and Alben Barkley, but not until more than 80 ballots, making this convention the longest in American political history. In another rebuke to party bosses, who were now fearful of their clout vanishing altogether soon, Parley Christensen, the 1940 VP nominee, would be selected to join the ticket once more.

The disarray of the WP convention wouldn't deter Sinclair at all, with his eyes squarely focused on kicking Taft out of the White House. As the election draws nearer, the two tickets have made their differences well apparent. President Taft, boastful of his success in pushing conservative reforms, is asking Americans to stay the course with his leadership. His top priority in a second term will be to keep the economy steadily growing with the country seemingly coming out of the Great Depression, and he has maintained his vow to stay out of WWII, a view that the majority of Americans still share but more are growing opposed to. Sinclair is running to the opposite of Taft on virtually all major issues. He has decried "the President's gutting of government" and is promoting an openly socialist platform. In addition, Sinclair is supportive of entering the war, arguing that a Nazi-dominated Europe would pose trouble for the whole world.

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