How did Eleanor Roosevelt contribute to FDRs four presidential campaigns?
FDR ran for president in 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944. He won all four elections. Each campaign presented ER with different challenges – organizing women voters, tailoring FDR’s campaign message, coordinating campaign publicity, mediating disputes between key campaign staff and between FDR and key supporters, calming angry convention delegates, and taking messages to FDR that he did not want to hear. All of ER’s work was done behind the scenes. She continued to write her columns and to give lectures but she worked hard to keep the columns and lectures focused on issues, rather than candidates. She did not campaign for FDR in 1932 or 1936 because first ladies did not accompany their husbands on the campaign trail. Bowing to pressure from the campaign staff and requests from FDR, ER did campaign at the end of the 1940 campaign. By 1944, her outspoken support for full employment, African Americans, and social justice issues worried campaign manager Robert Hannegan and party political bosses
