Illinois played a decisive role in the 1948 election. The state's 27 electoral votes (down one from 1948) may be equally significant this year.
Background: Illinois, once considered a Republican state, has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1932. Since 1942 it has gone Republican in off-year congressional elections. In 1946 the Republican vote for the House of Representatives was 56.5% of the major party total, leading to widespread G.O.P. belief that Illinois was safe for Dewey in 1948. He lost it when the normal Republican downstate majority failed to materialize. Truman's statewide plurality was only 33,612 out of 3,984,046 votes...
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