Polk attended the 1844 Democratic Party convention in supporting of President Martin Van
Buren. During this convention he was said to be nominated as a vice-president... but instead he received one delegate vote for presidential nomination during the eighth round. He ended up winning the nomination with 233 votes making him the first "dark horse candidate" to win the party's nomination. Polk's campaign slogan was "Fifty-Four Forty or Fight!" which referred to the latitude coordinates of the disputing territory. He promised that if he was to be elected, then he would not run for a second term.
Polk ran against two big competitors James Birney and Henrey Clay. Polk defeated both of them and then became the eleventh president of the United States. His vice-president was George M. Dallas, a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. He won the popular vote by 39,000 out of 2.6 million, and he took the Electoral College with 170 votes to Clay's 105. Polk won 15 states while Clay won 11.
