About this object

Wendell Lewis Willkie, an Indiana University law graduate, was the Republican presidential nominee in the 1940 election.The pins were manufactured around the time he was campaigning. During this time, World War II was beginning to concern America and there was growth in popularity of globalism. There was a serious lack of potential candidates in the Republican party that Republican constituents were pleased with, as other potential candidates were too concerned with domestic policy instead of foreign policy. Although Willkie started as a popular choice, the enthusiam began to die down. He inadvertently presented himself as Franklin Roosevelt, but with a few adjustments. In an effort to win, he changed campaign tactics to attack Roosevelt, which worked well enough to convince Roosevelt to begin campaigning much more heavily. Ultimately, Willkie lost the presidential election to Roosevelt. [More information about Willkie’s campaign is in the article “Politics in an Age of Crisis: America, and Indiana, in the Election of 1940”(https://www.jstor.org/stable/27791398?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents).

Why this object matters

The change in Willkie’s political tactics are reflected in the political pins that were produced during his campaign. The popularity of the political buttons that ridiculed Roosevelt for running for a third term showed how the population received Willkie’s change in political tactics, as well as what specifically was negative about running for a third term.