Statement of Wendell Willkie Withdrawing from the Presidential Race
April 5, 1944
Broadcast audio (WOR):
If in our foreign policy we deny any worthy aspirations of those who want to be free, as secret power politics inevitably tends to deny them, we shall be laying the groundwork for the third world war.
The American people have faith, infinite faith, in the process of democracy. They want – they demand – a foreign policy that will affirm that faith.
Now my fellow Americans, I have something quite personal that I want to say on this occasion – something that perhaps is of not much importance, but it involves what I have been trying to do, the things I have been fighting for.
As perhaps some of you know from the public press, it is my conviction, and it has been my conviction, that no Republican could be nominated for President of the United States unless he received at the convention the votes of some of the major Midwestern states. For it is in this section of the country that the Republican Party has had its greatest resurgence. Therefore, I quite deliberately entered the Wisconsin primary to test whether the Republican voters of that state would support me in the advocacy of every sacrifice and every cost necessary to winning and shortening the war and in the advocacy of tangible, effective economic and political cooperation among the nations of the world for the preservation of the peace and the rebuilding of humanity.
The result of the primary yesterday is naturally disappointing to me and doubly so since the delegate who led at the poll is known as one active in organizations such as the America First, opposed to the beliefs which I entertain, which I deeply believe.
Now, as I have said on many occasions of late, this country desperately needs new leadership. It is obvious now in view of the results yesterday that I cannot be nominated. I therefore am asking my friends to desist from any activity toward that end and not to present my name at the convention. I earnestly hope that the Republican convention will nominate a candidate and write a platform which really represents the views which I have advocated and which I believe are shared by millions – millions of Americans. I shall continue to work for these principles and policies for which I have been fighting during the last five years.
Thank you very much.