On this day, November 3, 1948, Dewey defeated Truman.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. I wonder if Dewey fell short because he alienated the MAGA of the day

by issuing arrest warrants for Fritz Kuhn, head of the American Bund.

American Fuhrer arrested in Lehigh Valley 76 years ago

On the clear but cool early evening of Thursday, May 25, 1939, few people in Allentown probably noticed the well-dressed but slightly overweight man in a gray suit and wire-rimmed glasses behind the wheel of a Ford V-8 sedan as it zipped rapidly west out of town. And fewer would have spotted him around 10:00 that evening headed east back through town. This time he was in a different car headed east and another driver was at the wheel. It was only the next morning when they opened their newspaper that they knew Fritz Kuhn, want-to-be Nazi Fuhrer of America, and leader of the German American Bund, had been in their midst.

His arrest that evening in Berks County on charges of embezzlement and forgery by New York detectives sent out by District Attorney Thomas Dewey made the wire services. It was just one of the incidents the year that World War II began in Europe that had Kuhn and his followers in the headlines.

From his appearance and background, Kuhn seemed ordinary. Born in Munich, Germany in 1896 he had fought in the German army in World War I and had served well. With war's end Kuhn got involved in the Freikorps, a paramilitary group of rightwing Germans. He joined the Nazi party in 1921, being one of its earliest members.

_________ Bold is my addition. Extensive article at the link.