Draft Eisenhower movements had emerged ahead of the 1948 election, mostly in the Democratic Party; in July 1947, Truman offered to run as Eisenhower's running mate on the Democratic ticket if Douglas MacArthur won the Republican nomination. Eisenhower rejected all requests to enter politics. He considered making a statement "similar to Sherman's", but did not reject running for the presidency as definitively as William T. Sherman because, as he wrote to Walter Bedell Smith, "I do not believe that you or I or anyone else has the right to state, categorically, that he will not perform any duty that his country might demand of him".