A Different America: 1948 Presidential election General election thread

[Cabbage]

Gerald O'Connor elected not to run for office this year, instead focusing on doing whatever he could to help President Truman have any hope of winning re-election. He campaigned heavily for Truman across Chicago, rallying laborers to get out to vote, invoking the New Deal and how it "saved this great nation from a fate not unlike to Germany's." He also moved to appeal to ethnic minorities, reminding them how the CFL had fought racism under John Fitzpatrick and how the Republicans in Chicago had previously supported the Klan. The goal of O'Connor was to do his level best to run up Truman's margin in Cook County to the point where, combined with his popularity downstate, he should be able to capture Illinois's 28 electoral votes in a walk, allowing him to focus on other key races against Governor Warren.

O'Connor, however, was not idle in his own ambitions during this time. He spoke with numerous leaders of ethnic communities in Chicago about potentially allowing him to represent their interests in Congress, should one of their own Representatives die or retire. Several, seeing the charisma of the young Irishman, agreed to this proposal (mostly with the caveat that he would not remain in the seat for a particularly long period). He also gained the blessing of Mayor Martin H. Kennedy to move in this way, setting him up for a likely candidacy in the early 1950s.

[Cabbage]

Gerald O'Connor, while disappointed by President Truman's loss in his home state, managed to bounce back quickly when he learned that Adolph J. Sabath, of IL-07 (just going off the list of Rep's at the time; feel free to correct me on this), was planning to retire, and gladly supported O'Connor's bid to succeed him. Sabath joined the CFL and numerous local and industry-specific unions in championing O'Connor, effectively making him a lock for the Democratic nomination, and an easy winner in the strongly Democratic, strongly immigrant-based district. Regardless, O'Connor campaigned fiercely for his seat, proudly touting his union support and accusing his opponent, Henry Hayes (again, willing to fix if necessary), of being in favor of the conditions the nation lived under prior to the New Deal, "or perhaps prior to TR's trust busts." Hayes denied this, but O'Connor's backers made sure the claim stuck, and so O'Connor felt confident heading into Election Day.

At the same time, O'Connor was constantly campaigning for the Democratic challengers to Richard B. Vail (IL-02) and Fred Busbey (IL-03). He touted Barratt O'Hara and Neil Linehan as "proud sons of Ireland, proud sons of America, and proud sons of labor!" He also slammed Vail as "a man of the party of Hoover, both Herbert and J. Edgar!" (this was a reference to Vail's time in the FBI), as well as Busbey's time in HUAC ("Is there anything more un-American than to undermine the freedom of speech that is the foundation of the very first amendment to our Constitution?").

However, perhaps the most iconic moment of O'Connor's campaign came when a Republican agitator called him "a God-d---ed Red!" He responded quickly: "And tell me, sir, your Un-American Committee [a personal favorite nickname for HUAC] seeks to take away the common man's freedom of speech! It seeks to subject him to the iron will of the state, in wages and in rights to organize to have them raised! It seeks to tax him in cartload lots, that the rich might be less 'burdened'! Tell me, sir, does that not mean they are the 'God-d---ed Reds'?" The CFL's publications proudly trumpeted this, and the Republicans never called O'Connor a Red again (at least, publicly).

[Cabbage]

So here's the 1948 infobox.