Harry Truman never thought much of Adlai Stevenson. The button shown here depicts a buttoned-up Harry Truman, showing support for Adlai Stevenson for President. In 1956, the ever-popular Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower was up for re-election. Although Ike was popular for his role in WWII, he hadn’t been as exciting as a Chief Executive. Republicans had lost ground in the mid-term elections, and the President had suffered a heart attack in 1955. Adlai Stevenson, who had unsuccessfully run against Eisenhower in 1952, thought he had a real chance, the second time around. Truman thought otherwise.
The former President cast his lot with New York Governor W. Averell Harriman as his pick for the Democratic nomination. Truman was very vocal about his support for Harriman, calling Stevenson a “defeatist candidate.” Stevenson’s people were incensed, and the Democrats looked like they might further fracture their party.
Ultimately, Stevenson was able to successfully out-maneuver Harriman with some well-timed endorsements and by promising to put a Southerner on the ticket. Stevenson successfully obtained his re-nomination, out-dueling both Truman and Harriman and further marginalizing the former President from his party. In the end, Stevenson lost once more to Ike. It wasn’t even close. And Truman was able to say the four words he’d been dying to say since Stevenson’s second nomination: “I told you so!”
The 1950s belonged to the “Hero of D-Day,” General, then President Dwight David Eisenhower. “Ike” was unstoppable, first as head of the allied WWII armies and then as Commander in Chief during the beginning of the Cold War. However, a popular and academically minded Governor of Illinois, Adlai Stevenson, tried twice to unseat him. In 1956, still lagging in the polls, the Democrats held a televised fund-raising campaign. Donors received the button below as a “thank you.” Still, “Ike & Dick” bested Stevenson and Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee with a thorough thrashing. People happily “backed” Eisenhower and Nixon.