--- description: LIFE looks back at the mood of the nation in the midst of a long-ago presidential race, seen through the singular lens of Ohio politics. title: Ohio: Portrait of a Swing State . . . Seven Decades Ago image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2a45621268896871/6988489735ba6f507bc0c779/09.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [politics](/tag/politics/) ## politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Ohio: Portrait of a Swing State . . . Seven Decades Ago by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 1, 2014 8:23 PM CUT  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 by [Ben Cosgrove](/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 1, 2014 8:23 PM CUT 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: --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- 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 (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." Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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. 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. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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" (LIFE). Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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. 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. 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. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  The home of the Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper, 1944. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  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. Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/27656/ohio-portrait-of-a-swing-state-seven-decades-ago/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/27656/ohio-portrait-of-a-swing-state-seven-decades-ago/"},"headline":"Ohio: Portrait of a Swing State . . . 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