1952 Republican National Convention

• 
  General of the Army
  Dwight D. Eisenhower
  of New York
• 
  Senator
  Robert A. Taft
  of Ohio
• 
  Governor
  Earl Warren
  of California
• 
  Former Governor
  Harold Stassen
  of Minnesota
• 
  General of the Army
  Douglas MacArthur
  of New York

• Businessman Riley A. Bender of Illinois
• Former Governor George T. Mickelson of South Dakota
• Representative Thomas H. Werdel of California
• Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon

Attendees at the 1952 convention

The contest for the presidential nomination was expected to be a battle between the party's moderate to liberal and conservative wings.[4] Moderate and liberal Republicans (the "Eastern Establishment"), led by New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the party's unsuccessful presidential nominee in 1944 and 1948, were largely supporters of Eisenhower or Warren.[4] The conservative wing was led by Taft, who had unsuccessfully tried for the presidential nomination in 1940 and 1948.[4]

In a pre-convention fight over the seating of delegates, Eisenhower supporters charged the Taft campaign with improperly seeking to obtain delegates from Texas, Georgia and Louisiana, states that were part of the Democratic Party's "Solid South" where Republicans had little or no organization because they traditionally did not do well in general elections.[4] The Taft-dominated Republican National Committee supported Taft in the dispute.[4] When delegate committees met to consider the issue before the convention convened, they sustained Eisenhower's position.[4] Stripped of 42 delegates from the disputed states, Taft's backers realized their chances of beating Eisenhower were slim.[4]

In his remarks during the delegate fight, Taft supporter Everett Dirksen harshly criticized Dewey and the moderate to liberal wing of the party, which had dominated it since 1940.[5] In describing the party's failed presidential campaigns of 1940, 1944 and 1948, he pointed at Dewey, who was seated with the New York delegation, and shouted "We followed you before and you took us down the road to defeat!"[5][6] Dirksen's condemnation of Dewey touched off sustained anti-Dewey and pro-Taft demonstrations.[5]

Dirksen nominated Taft.[5] Eisenhower was nominated by Maryland Governor Theodore McKeldin, who made obvious overtures to the conservative wing by mentioning Eisenhower's Midwestern Kansas roots and the fact that he had begun attendance at the United States Military Academy during the presidential administration of Robert Taft's father, William Howard Taft.[7] McKeldin described Eisenhower's career at the highest levels of the military as evidence that he was able to assume the responsibilities of the presidency immediately and his international renown as an asset that would enable the party to unify its disparate wings and make inroads among Democratic and independent voters.[7] McKeldin's nomination was seconded by Kansas Governor Edward F. Arn, Oregon Republican Party Chairman Robert A. Elliott, Mrs. Alberta Green, a delegate from West Plains, Missouri, and Hobson R. Reynolds, a state legislator from Philadelphia.[8]

After the nominations were completed, including speeches on behalf of Earl Warren, Harold Stassen, and Douglas MacArthur, the delegates proceeded to vote.[4] After the first ballot, Eisenhower had 595 votes, nine short of the nomination, which required 604.[4] Taft had 500, Warren 81, Stassen 20, and MacArthur 10.[4] Warren's backers refused to change their votes to Eisenhower because they still hoped for a deadlock that might enable Warren to obtain the nomination as a compromise choice.[4] Stassen had not received 10 percent of the vote, which freed his home state Minnesota delegates from their pledge to support him.[4] Most of the Stassen delegates, led by Warren E. Burger, changed their votes to Eisenhower, which gave him 614 votes and the presidential nomination.[4] Other delegations then began to switch to Eisenhower, and the revised first ballot total was:

Presidential Balloting / 5th Day of Convention (July 11, 1952)

• 
  1st Presidential Ballot
  (Before Shifts)
• 
  1st Presidential Ballot
  (After Shifts)

After the revised totals were announced, Taft and Warren supporters moved to unanimously nominate Eisenhower, which the delegates did.[4] As soon as Eisenhower was nominated, he visited Taft personally to request his endorsement and obtain a promise that Taft would support the Republican ticket.[4] Taft immediately agreed, and loyally backed Eisenhower during the general election campaign.[4]

• 
  Senator
  Richard Nixon
  of California
• 
  Senator
  William Knowland
  of California
• 
  Governor
  Arthur B. Langlie
  of Washington
• 
  Governor
  Daniel I. J. Thornton
  of Colorado
• 
  Senator
  Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
  of Massachusetts
• 
  Representative
  Walter Judd
  of Minnesota
• 
  Representative
  Charles A. Halleck
  of Indiana

Senator Richard M. Nixon's speech at a state Republican Party fundraiser in New York City on May 8, 1952 impressed Governor Thomas E. Dewey, who was an Eisenhower supporter and had formed a pro-Eisenhower delegation from New York to attend the national convention.[9] In a private meeting after the speech, Dewey suggested to Nixon that he would make a suitable vice presidential candidate on the ticket with Eisenhower.[10]

A piece of literature for the Eisenhower–Nixon campaign, 1952

Nixon attended the convention as a delegate pledged to Earl Warren and represented California on the convention's platform committee.[11] In pre-convention remarks to reporters, Nixon touted Warren as the most prominent dark horse and suggested that if Warren was not the presidential nominee, Nixon's Senate colleague William Knowland would be a good choice for vice president.[12] As the convention proceedings continued, Warren became concerned that Nixon was working for Eisenhower while ostensibly pledged to Warren.[13] Warren asked Paul H. Davis of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, who had been a vice president at Columbia University while Eisenhower was the school's president, to tell Eisenhower that Warren resented such actions and wanted them to stop.[11] Eisenhower informed Davis that he did not oppose Warren, because if Taft and Eisenhower deadlocked, then Warren would be his first choice for the nomination.[14] In the same conversation, Eisenhower indicated that if he won the nomination, Nixon would be his first choice for the vice presidency, because Eisenhower believed the party needed to promote leaders who were aggressive, capable, and young.[15] Eisenhower later developed a list of seven potential candidates, with Nixon's name at the top.[16]

After Eisenhower was nominated, his key supporters met to discuss vice presidential possibilities.[17] Eisenhower informed the group's chairman, Herbert Brownell Jr. that he did not wish to appear to dictate to the convention by formally sponsoring a single candidate, so the group reviewed several, including Taft, Everett Dirksen, and Alfred E. Driscoll, all of whom they quickly rejected.[17] Dewey then raised Nixon's name; the group quickly concurred.[18] Brownell checked with Eisenhower, who indicated his approval.[19] Brownell then called Nixon to inform him that he was Eisenhower's choice.[18] Nixon accepted, then departed for Eisenhower's hotel room to discuss the details of the campaign and Eisenhower's plans for his vice president if the ticket was successful in the general election.[19]

The delegates soon assembled to formalize the selection.[20] Nixon asked Knowland to nominate him, and Knowland agreed.[20] After Taft supporter John W. Bricker declined Nixon's request to second the nomination, Driscoll agreed to do so.[21] There were no other candidates, and Nixon was nominated by acclamation.[22]