To the chagrin of many Republicans, Willkie spoke out for controversial Roosevelt initiatives such as Lend-Lease, and campaigned against isolationism.

Willkie spoke often of the need to uplift blacks and addressed a convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) in 1942, one of the most prominent politicians to do so up to that time.

Miller spoke of Willkie saying, " Shortly before Willkie died, he told a friend, that if he could write his own epitaph and had to choose between ' here lies a president ' or ' here lies one who contributed to saving freedom ,' he would prefer the latter.

Kinnick, himself the grandson of a Governor, spoke before the Young Republicans and introduced 1940 presidential candidate Wendell Willkie at a campaign rally.

Willkie also discusses the need for some sort of world government.

Furthermore, unlike the leading Republican candidates, Willkie was a forceful and outspoken advocate of aid to the Allies, especially Britain.

As a result, many Republicans switched to Wendell Willkie, who was a decade older and supported aid to the Allies fighting Germany.

An attempt to influence Roosevelt's special emissary, Wendell Willkie, on a visit to Great Britain and Ireland January 1941, failed.

He had worked on Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential campaigns, including the 1940 presidential election against Wendell Willkie.

In April 1933, Willkie testified against the TVA legislation before the Military Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives.

Willkie then began to claim that Roosevelt was secretly planning to take the U. S. into the European war against Germany.

The surprise Republican candidate was maverick businessman Wendell Willkie, a dark horse who crusaded against Roosevelt's perceived failure to end the Depression and his supposed eagerness for war.

Willkie argued that the government had unfair advantages over private corporations, and should thus avoid competing directly against them.

During that campaign, however, with the war in Europe intensifying, he was widely considered too young and inexperienced for the presidency and lost the nomination to Wendell Willkie, who strongly disliked him and considered endorsing Roosevelt against Dewey at the time of his death in 1944.

Perhaps only Hoover and Willkie bore a lasting grudge against him.

This idea was not new to Willkie ; in 1930 he had said publicly that it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to enter the utility business.

Dewey led the first ballot, but was far short of a majority ; Taft was second, and Willkie was a surprisingly strong third.

On the fourth ballot Willkie surged into first place, with Taft close behind ; other candidates began to drop out in favor of the two frontrunners.

Even so, Willkie remained a long-shot candidate ; the May 8 Gallup Poll showed Dewey at 67 % support among Republicans, followed by Vandenberg and Taft, with Willkie at only 3 %.

Willkie was shut out in the Wisconsin primary ; he did not win a single delegate.

Dewey alienated former president and fellow Republican Herbert Hoover during the campaign by ignoring him at the funeral of Wendell Willkie ; according to historian William Leuchtenburg, Hoover confided to a friend that " Dewey has no inner reservoir of knowledge on which to draw for his thinking ," elaborating that " A man couldn't wear a mustache like that without having it affect his mind.

Especially emphasized is the position of China in the world after World War II ; involved in a civil war between Nationalists and Communists, Willkie prophesies that whichever power achieves victory will make China a force to be reckoned with.

In 1939 he endorsed isolationism — staying out of World War II ; he endorsed Wendell Willkie the Republican candidate in the 1940 presidential election.

He proposed that Willkie begin by running for Mayor of New York City in 1945 ; Willkie, however, died before the plan could get off the ground.

In 1940 he attempted to win the Republican nomination for President ; the nomination was eventually won by Wendell Willkie.

He proposed that Willkie begin by running for Mayor of New York City in 1945 ; Willkie, however, died before the plan could get off the ground.

At 4am, Cowles noted " a very buoyant Willkie appeared, cocky as a young college student after a successful night with a girl.

" But the next day, Willkie had Cowles tell Madame she could not travel to Washington with him after all.

Afterward, Roosevelt found Willkie to be compatible politically with his plans and brought him aboard as an informal ambassador-at-large.

This caused Willkie to become an active critic of the TVA, as well as other New Deal agencies that directly competed with private corporations.

Willkie made a highly publicized appearance on the popular Town Hall nationwide radio program, where he debated the merits of the private-enterprise system with Robert H. Jackson.

A May 8 Gallup poll showed Dewey at 67 % support among Republicans, followed by Vandenberg and Taft, with Willkie at a mere 3 %.

In mid-June, little over one week before the convention opened, Gallup reported that Willkie had surged to second place with 17 %, and that Dewey was slipping.

On the second and third ballots Dewey's support dwindled, as his delegates went to either Taft or Willkie, with most favoring Willkie.

Willkie asked Martin to take on the task of Republican National Committee chairman, a post that Martin held simultaneously with his House leadership role from 1940 – 1942.

In giving his acceptance speech, Willkie used a full text of the speech which was typewritten with double spacing in ordinary pica type, whereas experienced politicians used triple space in large letters as notes for giving speeches.

Willkie claimed that he would keep most of FDR's New Deal welfare and regulatory programs, but that he would make them more efficient and effective, and that he would work more closely with business leaders to end the Great Depression.

Willkie received 22. 3 million votes ( more than any previous Republican candidate ), but was outpolled by Roosevelt with 27. 3 million.

In 1941, Willkie joined with Eleanor Roosevelt to found Freedom House.

" During this time, Willkie also worked with Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, to try to convince Hollywood to change its portrayal of blacks in the movies.

Willkie was considered a favorite in the Wisconsin primary, but finished a distant fourth, behind General Douglas MacArthur, Dewey, and Stassen, with only 4. 6 %.

Willkie was honored by the United States Postal Service with a 75 ¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

However, the government-run TVA would compete with Willkie's Commonwealth & Southern, and this led Willkie to criticize and oppose the TVA's attempt to compete with private power companies.

By mid-June, little over one week before the Republican Convention opened, the Gallup poll reported that Willkie had moved into second place with 17 %, and that Dewey was slipping.

Humphrey was a Willkie Republican in 1940, but during the postwar mop-up, when old American radicals were kicked out of a newly war-enamored Left, Humphrey busily extirpated Bryanism from the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party so that the populist FL might merge with the Trumanite hawks of the Democratic Party.