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Ohio: Portrait of a Swing State . . . Seven Decades Ago

3 minute read

In so many national elections — and certainly in presidential contests — it often seems that it all comes down to Ohio. Pundits and pollsters are forever declaring to anyone who will listen that voters in the Buckeye State will likely determine — or at least play an integral, outsized role in determining — the next president of the United States, the direction of the country for the next several years, yadda yadda.

But it might surprise the casual political observer to learn that Ohio’s reputation as a critical win for any presidential hopoeful is hardly new. In fact, America’s 17th state has been considered a harbinger of things to come for so long that the phrase, “As Ohio goes, so goes the nation,” has been a commonplace in politics for decades.

In its June 12, 1944, issue, for example, in the midst of the campaign between President Franklin Roosevelt and New York’s Republican governor Thomas Dewey, LIFE magazine devoted several pages to a feature titled, simply, “Political Ohio,” paying tribute to the state’s place at the very heart of each and every national election.

Here, as the amorphous field of candidates for the White House in 2016 begins to shape up, LIFE.com looks back at the mood of the nation seven long decades ago, as seen through the singularly complex lens of Ohio politics:

Politics has long traditions and high stakes in Ohio [LIFE wrote]. Like Virginia, Ohio has great families and leaders who have made national politics a notable career. Like Virginia, Ohio has mothered many presidents — seven Republicans from Grant to Harding. This year Ohio’s politics are once more the nation’s politics.

Ohio joins the agricultural Middle West with the industrial East, and is part of both… A few weeks ago most political dopesters would have said that Ohio was sure to go Republican, but recent events have made them less certain. It is in Ohio that Democrats have uncovered their newest, most promising vote getter [Cleveland mayor Frank Lausche.].

Lausche is the hottest political news in Ohio this year. In Cleveland, where he has twice been elected mayor by landlside votes, he is popualr with workers and employers. He has a shy, earnest manner and a rugged look that apealso city and rural folks alike. Now he is running for the governorship against Cincinnati’s Mayor James Garfield Steward and many Republicans are supporting him.

[NOTE: Lausche won the race that year, serving as the state’s 55th, and again as its 57th, governor.]

Ohio has voted three times for Franklin Roosevelt, but it has a Republican governor, two Republican senators, and 20 (out of 23) Republican representatives.

As it turned out, Dewey actually won Ohio in 1944 — albeit by a measly 12,000 votes. Roosevelt, however, won 53 percent of the popular vote and, despite losing the Buckeye State, tallied a resounding 432 electoral votes to Dewey’s 99 — proof, if anyone needed it, that in the mercurial world of American politics, even a bellwether as reliable as Ohio can sometimes be utterly, unaccountably wrong.

Frank Lausche, Democratic mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, 1944.
Frank Lausche (left), Democratic mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, campaigning for governor in 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Statue of Marcus "Mark" Hanna, 19th-century GOP power broker — a "huge, roaring man," according to LIFE, "who hated greed and stubbornness in his own economic class."
Statue of Marcus "Mark" Hanna, 19th-century GOP power broker — a "huge, roaring man," according to LIFE, "who hated greed and stubbornness in his own economic class."Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Warren G. Harding memorial, Marion, Ohio.
Warren G. Harding memorial, Marion, Ohio.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Democrat Frank Lausche (seated on platform) waits to talk to a crowd during the 1944 race for the Ohio governorship.
Democrat Frank Lausche (seated on platform) waits to talk to a crowd during the 1944 race for the Ohio governorship.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Ohio political heavyweights, 1944. Left to right: Thomas J. Herbert, Martin L. Sweeney, Frank Dye, James W. Huffman, Frazier Reams, Paul M. Herbert, Frank J. Lausche, James Garfield Stewart, Albert E. Payne.
Ohio political heavyweights, 1944. Left to right: Thomas J. Herbert, Martin L. Sweeney, Frank Dye, James W. Huffman, Frazier Reams, Paul M. Herbert, Frank J. Lausche, James Garfield Stewart, Albert E. Payne.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Two Republican judges and a Democratic sheriff in Mansfield, Ohio, 1944.
Two Republican judges, a Democratic sheriff and a newspaperman in Mansfield, Ohio, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Senator Robert A. Taft, "the intellectual leader of the Republican Party in Ohio."
Senator Robert A. Taft, "the intellectual leader of the Republican Party in Ohio" (LIFE).Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Law partners Marvin Harrison (Democrat) and Howard Marshman (Republican), Ohio, 1944.
Law partners Marvin Harrison (Democrat) and Howard Marshman (Republican), Ohio, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Cleveland mayor and gubernatorial candidate Frank Lausche with farmers at a downstate Ohio auction, 1944.
Cleveland mayor and gubernatorial candidate Frank Lausche with farmers at a downstate Ohio auction, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Louis Bromfield (left), a farmer, novelist and outspoken GOP critic of FDR's policies, with a friend on his farm near Mansfield, Ohio, 1944.
Louis Bromfield (left), a farmer, novelist and occasionally outspoken critic of FDR's policies, with a friend on his farm near Mansfield, Ohio, 1944. Bromfield was an early proponent of what would come to be called "organic" farming, banning pesticides on his crops far earlier than many other farmers.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Cincinnati mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate James Garfield Stewart, 1944.
Cincinnati mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate James Garfield Stewart, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Cincinnati mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate James Garfield Stewart on the campaign trail, 1944.
Cincinnati mayor and GOP gubernatorial candidate James Garfield Stewart on the campaign trail, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Governor John W. Bricker in the Ohio State House in Columbus, 1944.
Governor John W. Bricker in the Ohio State House in Columbus, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
President of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) Phil Murray -- at head of table, left, above -- with other labor leaders, Ohio, 1944.
President of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) Phil Murray -- at head of table, left, above -- with other labor leaders, Ohio, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Republican congresswoman Mrs. Chester C. Bolton, Ohio's first and (at the time) only woman representative, stands in front of her great grandfather's Euclid Avenue mansion, Cleveland, Ohio, 1944.
Republican congresswoman Mrs. Chester C. Bolton, Ohio's first and (at the time) only woman representative, stands in front of her great grandfather's Euclid Avenue mansion, Cleveland, Ohio, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Steel worker, Ohio, 1944.
Steel worker, Ohio, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Publisher W. R. Conway of the Monroe County Union Register, which put out three weeklies -- one Democrat, one Republican and one "liberal" -- chats over his counter with Mt. Gilead, Ohio, mayor Ray Booker, 1944. The Union Register was the one Democratic paper in the largely Republican county.
Publisher W. R. Conway of the Monroe County Union Register, which put out three weeklies -- one Democrat, one Republican and one "liberal" -- chats over his counter with Mt. Gilead, Ohio, mayor Ray Booker, 1944. The Union Register was the one Democratic paper in the largely Republican county.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
The home of the Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper, 1944.
The home of the Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Novelist, farmer and outspoken FDR critic Louis Bromfield, Mansfield, Ohio, 1944.
Louis Bromfield, a farmer, novelist and occasionally outspoken critic of FDR's policies, in Mansfield, Ohio, 1944. Bromfield was an early proponent of what would come to be called "organic" farming, banning pesticides on his crops far earlier than many other farmers.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Citizens of New Richmond, Ohio, 1944.
Citizens of New Richmond, Ohio, 1944.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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