1944 Puerto Rican general election

General elections were held in Puerto Rico on November 7, 1944. These were the last elections before the introduction of direct elections for governor in 1948; incumbent governor Rexford Tugwell had been appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Suffrage was universal; women and men over the age of 21 were eligible to vote.

The Republican Union joined forces with the remnants of the Tripartite Puerto Rican Unification movement, now called the Puerto Rican Progressive Party in the Partido Unión Republicana Progresista (PURP). The PURP and the Socialist Party formed a united front against the Popular Democratic Party (PPD).

Jesús T. Piñero of the PPD was elected Resident Commissioner with 65% of the vote. However, he would later be appointed Governor by President Harry S. Truman in 1946, becoming the only Puerto Rican-born person appointed to the position. He served as governor until Luis Muñoz Marín was elected governor in 1948.

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