In the 1932 election, Roosevelt defeated incumbent Republican president Herbert Hoover, whose campaign was doomed because the Great Depression began during his administration. Roosevelt won the electoral vote by a margin of 472 to 59.

In the 1936 election, Roosevelt defeated Alf Landon, the governor of Kansas, by another overwhelming margin—523 to 8. In the 1940 election, Roosevelt won over Wendell Wilkie, a Republican from Indiana. Wilkie was an unusual candidate for president, as he had never held elective office. Roosevelt defeated him by a margin of 449 to 82. In the 1944 election, Roosevelt faced Republican Thomas E. Dewey, the governor of New York. Roosevelt beat Dewey by an electoral vote count of 432 to 99.