James Wolfenden - 7th Term

7th Term

What occurred at the 1940 GOP presidential convention was remarkable in its time and totally unimaginable in today's times. In the Pennsylvania Republican primary of April 23, New York City District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey, a young (only 38 years old), attractive major contender for the nomination, who gained a national reputation as a racket-buster, had won with over 66% of the vote.

Dewey's only competition in Pennsylvania was, believe it or not, President Roosevelt, who scored a large 10.5% as a write-in candidate and Pennsylvania Governor Arthur H. James, a "favorite son" candidate, with 10.3% of the vote.

In July, Philadelphia played host to the GOP National Convention, which was held at the Convention Center. On the first ballot, no candidate had received the 501 votes needed to be nominated. The tally was Dewey, 360 votes; conservative Ohio Senator Robert Taft, 189; Indiana businessman Wendell L. Wilkie, a political "dark horse", 105; Governor James, 74; conservative Michigan Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg, 76; and former president Herbert Hoover, 17.

With the exception of Wilkie, all of the candidates were isolationists and had various degrees of political experience. By the fourth ballot, Wilkie had catapulted to first place, mostly at Dewey's expense, and by the fifth ballot, Wilkie had captured over 400 delegate votes, while Dewey dropped to only 57. By the sixth ballot, Governor James swung Pennsylvania's 72 votes to Wilkie, putting him over the top, with 659. It was reported that at 1:50 a.m. the crowd of more than 16,000 marched out of Convention Hall, their job done, and shouted Wilkie's name to the night.

The Republicans' shouting would be to no avail, as the Democrats, due to the deepening international crisis, renominated Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term. FDR, it appeared, was genuinely undecided about another term until France fell to the Nazis in May 1940. Voters, in keeping with tradition and not wishing to change national leadership in the midst of a crisis, reelected Roosevelt to an unprecedented third term, with a decisive 54% majority.

This time, he increased his margin in Chester, winning by 11,900 to 9,600. Congressman Wolfenden won another term, with 69,649 to 46,960 for his Democratic opponent, E. Adele Scott Saul. It would not be again until 1994, that a female would run in the general election under the banner of either major party for this office in this congressional district.

In the congressional redistricting following the 1940 census, the boundaries of the Seventh District were unchanged, although Pennsylvania's representation in the House was lowered by one seat to thirty-three and Philadelphia, likewise, lost one seat, retaining six. The ideal population for a congressional district in Pennsylvania in 1940 was 300,005. With Delaware County's congressional district representing 310,756 persons and each of Philadelphia's districts averaging 321,889, both the county and city were slightly short-changed in representation.

In December 1941, both houses of Congress voted without dissension, except for Republican Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin of Montana, to declare war on Germany and Japan. Wolfenden voted on December 8 to declare war on Japan, but missed the vote on December 11 to declare war on Germany and Italy.