He was a black Scotch Terrier, given to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by a cousin in 1940. From the moment they met, Fala was FDR’s constant companion. He became well-known, popular in his own right, with a film and books about him widely distributed.
In 1944, Roosevelt was nominated by the Democratic convention to be the party’s presidential candidate for a fourth term — an unprecedented event in American politics. A survivor of polio, FDR had achieved a successful career; before being elected President in 1932, he had served two terms as Governor of New York. But recently he had looked exhausted — understandable for a man in his condition who had led the nation through the Depression and World War II, which was near its end. His supporters wondered if he had the energy to undertake a grueling campaign against his much younger Republican rival, Thomas Dewey.
In September of that year, Roosevelt launched his campaign by addressing a Teamsters’ dinner in New York City. The speech was broadcast nation-wide. After speaking about the economy and the progress of the war, he told his audience of a recent issue involving his dog.
The Republicans, he said, were not content with attacking him, or his wife, or his sons. Neither he nor his family minded the attacks. But now the Republican “fiction writers” had accused him of spending many millions of dollars (20 million in some versions of the story) to bring his dog Fala home from the Aleutian Islands, where he had accidentally been left behind when Roosevelt returned from a conference.
Fala was Scotch, FDR said, and like all Scots, he was thrifty. When he heard the Republicans were slandering him for causing such a huge outlay of taxpayers’ hard-earned money, he was furious. “He hasn’t been the same dog since,” said the President.
The Teamsters roared with laughter. This was the FDR they knew—jaunty, laughing, quick-witted. They gave him an ovation.
The voters across the country laughed, too. And in November, 1944, they elected him to a fourth term.
People said it was Fala who won the election. FDR was just along for the ride.