United States Progressive Party

The United States Progressive Party of 1948 was a political party that ran former Vice President Henry A. Wallace ofIowa for president and U.S. Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho for vice president in 1948.

This incarnation of the Progressive Party (known in some states as the Independent Progressive Party) was formed with an eye toward electing Wallace as president. No connection can be found with the 1912 Progressive Party of Theodore Roosevelt or the 1924 Progressive Party of Robert M. La Follette, Sr. The Wallace/Taylor ticket was also supported by several other small parties, such as the American Labor Party (ALP) of New York. Wallace's platform advocated an end to segregation, full voting rights for blacks, and universal government health insurance. His campaign was unusual for his time in that it included African American candidates campaigning alongside white candidates in the American South, and during the campaign he refused to appear before segregated audiences or eat or stay in segregated establishments.

The Communist Party USA did not field a presidential candidate, and instead endorsed Wallace for President; given that the Cold War was beginning to gain momentum and with it the Red Scare and anti-Communist sentiment, this endorsement was to hinder Wallace far more than it would help him. Wallace had served Franklin D. Roosevelt as Secretary of Agriculture, Vice President, and Secretary of Commerce. He was fired by President Harry S. Truman because he denounced Truman's foreign policy regarding the Cold War. When Wallace refused to expel Communists working in the party during the 1948 election, his campaign was severely criticized by both the rigidly anti-Communist Truman and Dewey camps.