Replication Data for: Lost in the New Deal Realignment: GI Joe

Military service in World War II produced a generation of Democrats. This finding comes from an examination of Gallup polls (1945-1953) that probed both party identification and wartime service. The 1944 election afforded soldiers an opportunity to vote for their commander in chief, and they did so in a landslide for Franklin Roosevelt—a Democrat. A vote under such circumstances is bound to leave life-long marks on a cohort in its impressionable years, which was the life stage of many World War II soldiers. Further tests rule out the possibility that the Democratic sway of soldiers was simply the result of their youthful age, lower socio-economic status, urban background, union membership, race or southern region, all of which predict partisanship. Nor did the return to civilian life erode the Democratic edge of veterans. GI Joe is an unsung hero of what is widely known as the New Deal realignment.