Ever a Circumstance a President Can Rujn a 3rdterm

On November 5, 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt broke a long-held precedent—one that started with George Washington—when he became the offset president elected to a third term. Roosevelt would keep to vie for, and win, yet a fourth term, taking role again on January twenty, 1945.

FDR was the first, and last, president to win more than than two consecutive presidential elections and his exclusive four terms were in part a consequence of timing. His election for a third term took place equally the United States remained in the throes of the Corking Depression and World War II had just begun. While multiple presidents had sought 3rd terms earlier, the instability of the times allowed FDR to brand a stiff case for stability.

"You have economic-domestic issues and you have foreign policy with the outbreak of World War II in 1939," says Barbara Perry, professor and director of presidential studies at the Academy of Virginia's Miller Centre. "And and so you have his own political viability—he had won the 1936 election with more than than two-thirds of the popular vote."

Eventually U.South. lawmakers pushed back, arguing that term limits were necessary to keep corruption of power in check. Ii years after FDR's expiry, Congress passed the 22nd Amendment, limiting presidents to two terms. Then subpoena was and then ratified in 1951.

At the time of FDR's tertiary presidential run, however, "At that place was nothing but precedent standing in his manner," says Perry. "But, still, precedent, especially as it relates to the presidency, tin can be pretty powerful."

Other U.S. Presidents Who Tried and Failed to Win a Consecutive Third Term

Co-ordinate to the National Constitution Center, nearly of the framers of the Constitution were against term limits, and, although amendments seeking to enforce them were proposed some 200 times betwixt 1796 and 1940 without being adopted, most 2-term presidents followed Washington's precedent in not seeking reelection for a third time.

Still, some had tried. Ulysses S. Grant lost a third campaign in 1880, when James Garfield clinched the Republican nomination. Theodore Roosevelt lost his bid at a 3rd nonconsecutive term in 1912 to William Howard Taft (he had previously served out the rest of President William McKinley's term and and then won reelection). And Woodrow Wilson lost the Democratic nomination in 1920. Harry Truman, who succeeded FDR after his expiry, was president when the 22nd Amendment passed and and then was exempt from the new rule. Truman campaigned for a third term in 1952, but withdrew after losing in the New Hampshire primary.

Roosevelt's campaign for a third term took place as the United states of america had non yet entered Globe War II, and the president was even so trying to agree the line in an neutralist design.

"He was trying to guide us forth to try to keep Britain adrift with things similar lend-lease," Perry says. "That obviously was preying on his mind and he didn't call back that the U.Due south. should 'modify horses in midstream' as this state of war was edifice towards what he knew would eventually be our total-fledged intervention in both the European and Pacific theaters."

Roosevelt's defeat of Republican challenger Governor Alf Landon of Kansas was a rout—the quaternary-largest electoral vote margin ever. His 1940 win against Republican man of affairs Wendell Willkie wasn't quite as impressive, only he still won 55 percent of the popular vote, and took the electoral vote 449 to 82.

Republicans Led the Bulldoze for Presidential Term Limits

This photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt seated at his desk was the last color prototype of him before the announcement of his death.

Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

Of course, not anybody was on Roosevelt's side. The National Constitution Center notes that his decision to run for a third term resulted in key Autonomous supporters and advisors leaving his campaign.

Some political buttons from the fourth dimension read "FDR Out at Third," and Perry notes that despite his popularity, 1-third of Americans, particularly business people and those with means, even so voted against him. They argued he was taking America down the road of socialism.

"Famously, at that place were people who would refuse to speak of him past name and would phone call him 'That Human,'" Perry says. "But he knew the popular vote and the electoral vote were on his side. He wanted to see us through the two greatest catastrophes of the 20th century and he succeeded."

Term Limits Were Ready to Guard Against Tyrannical Rule

In 1944, according to the National Constitution Center, term-limit talk once more came into focus. Republicans were at the forefront of the movement, though many Democrats agreed with the viii-year precedent set by Washington to guard confronting tyrannical rule.

"Iv terms or 16 years is the most dangerous threat to our liberty ever proposed," Thomas Dewey, Roosevelt's Republican opponent, said in a 1944 speech.

Roosevelt won his 4th term when he defeated Dewey with 54 per centum of the popular vote, taking the Electoral College 432 to 99. He died April 12, 1945, eleven weeks into his term, and the phone call for a ramble term-limit amendment was answered two years later, with a two-thirds majority voting in favor of the 22nd Subpoena.

The amendment reads: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the part of President, or acted as President, for more than than two years of a term to which another person was elected President shall be elected to the function of the President more than once."

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Source: https://www.history.com/news/fdr-four-term-president-22-amendment

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