The Pittsburgh Press (August 2, 1944)
America Firsters replace Bricker
Special caucus names ex-Coughlin aide
Detroit, Michigan (UP) –
Gerald L. K. Smith, leader of the America First Party, announced today that his party, in a special caucus, had selected another candidate for Vice President, replacing Ohio’s Governor John Bricker, who indignantly repudiated the nomination yesterday.
The new candidate, Smith said, is Harry Romer, former Ohio leader for Father Charles Coughlin’s Social Justice group.
Smith said of Governor Bricker that “in repudiating the nomination, he has displayed the same weakness as at Chicago when he capitulated to Dewey.”
Answering Governor Thomas E. Dewey’s sharp attack on him, Smith said that:
Dewey has endorsed for Congress against Hamilton Fish the same candidate who is supported by Earl Browder… Dewey’s attack on Hamilton Fish established beyond doubt that Roosevelt, Dewey, Willkie and Browder are in the same bed together.
“I’m not afraid to take them all on at once,” Smith said.