I Like Ike: Dwight Eisenhower, 1952
The Eisenhower campaign was the first to use television advertisements to communicate with voters. By the 1950s, nearly 40 million Americans had televisions in their homes, offering not just a chance to watch candidates, but for campaigns to reach Americans across the country. This television screen shows Eisenhower’s arrival in New York as a presidential candidate in June 1952 after serving with NATO in Europe. Courtesy of University of Southern California Libraries.
Dwight Eisenhower won the election of 1952 in a landslide and became a widely celebrated president who led the country during an era of economic prosperity. Prior to his presidential candidacy, however, Eisenhower was a political outsider; he had no public party affiliation and had never even voted.
Like Jackson and Taylor, Eisenhower was a military hero, most famous for his service as a five-star general and commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II. In 1948, Eisenhower was courted as a candidate by both the Democratic and Republican parties, but declined to run. In 1952, however, he declared that he was a Republican and agreed to run for president on a platform of opposition to communism, the Korean War, and corruption.
Eisenhower initially resisted pressure to actively campaign, and was still serving as a NATO commander in Europe during the first several months of his candidacy. He returned to campaign during the summer of 1952 and, already a household name, Eisenhower’s heroic, yet down-to-earth demeanor and catchy “I like Ike” slogan propelled him to victory.
