1928 United States presidential election in New Mexico
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 County Results
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| Elections in New Mexico |
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The 1928 United States presidential election in New Mexico took place on November 6, 1928. All contemporary forty-eight states were part of the 1928 United States presidential election. State voters chose three electors to represent them in the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.
New Mexico had in its early history as a state shown itself, like all of the West at the time, to be very much a swing state, having backed Woodrow Wilson twice in 1912 and 1916 and then backed Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge in their landslide 1920 and 1924 victories. During this era – and indeed since the 1870s – New Mexico was divided between largely Republican machine-run highland regions and its firmly Southern Democrat Baptist "Little Texas" region in its east.[1]
However, the nomination of Catholic Al Smith on the first ballot after almost all other Democrats sat the election out[2] challenged the status quo. Fear ensued in the South, which had no experience of the Southern and Eastern European Catholic immigrants who were Smith's local constituency. Southern fundamentalist Protestants believed that Smith would allow papal and priestly leadership in the United States, which Protestantism was a reaction against.[3] At the same time, there existed potential for a pro-Catholic swing in the traditional GOP Spanish-American mountain counties of the North. Polls in July regarded New Mexico as "doubtful",[4] although these had taken little account of the religious issues that were to dominate the election.
New Mexico was won by former Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover over New York Governor Al Smith in an 18-point landslide.[5] In traditionally fiercely Democratic "Little Texas", anti-Catholic prejudice was identical to that which turned Texas and Oklahoma to Hoover[6] and Smith retained just one of the eleven counties that had voted for John W. Davis in 1924. In the mountain counties of traditional Republican strength, by contrast, Hoover's losses proved minor, as the Catholic Hispanic areas could not identify with the urban New Yorker Smith.[7]
At this time the Republican Party was widely associated in the minds of many Americans with the economic success of the mid-1920s, although the post-Civil War Democratic stronghold in the Deep South was still evident by the time of this election.[8]
After this election, New Mexico would not vote for a Republican again until 1952. Herbert Hoover was the last Republican to win Grant County until Richard Nixon in 1972 and the last Republican to win Eddy County and Lea County until 1968. Additionally, McKinley County and Rio Arriba County would not vote Republican again until 1956. Hoover was the only Republican between New Mexico's statehood in 1911 and 1952 to carry Chaves County, Curry County, Hidalgo County, Quay County, and Roosevelt County.
Results
[edit]| Party | Pledged to | Elector | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican Party | Herbert Hoover | Thomas D. Burns Jr. | 69,645 | |
| Republican Party | Herbert Hoover | Gretchen Lyon | 69,616 | |
| Republican Party | Herbert Hoover | Jose Gonzales | 69,592 | |
| Democratic Party | Al Smith | Mrs. A. A. Jones | 48,211 | |
| Democratic Party | Al Smith | Robert W. Isaacs | 48,048 | |
| Democratic Party | Al Smith | Emmett Wirt | 48,025 | |
| Workers Party | William Z. Foster | John W. Blackburn | 158 | |
| Workers Party | William Z. Foster | C. M. Calkins | 156 | |
| Workers Party | William Z. Foster | L. R. Graces | 153 | |
| Votes cast[a] | 118,077 | |||
Results by county
[edit]| County | Herbert Hoover Republican |
Al Smith Democratic |
William Z. Foster Workers |
Margin | Total votes cast[b] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Bernalillo | 8,725 | 56.99% | 6,572 | 42.92% | 14 | 0.09% | 2,153 | 14.06% | 15,311 |
| Catron | 774 | 64.77% | 420 | 35.15% | 1 | 0.08% | 354 | 29.62% | 1,195 |
| Chaves | 3,124 | 69.48% | 1,364 | 30.34% | 8 | 0.18% | 1,760 | 39.15% | 4,496 |
| Colfax | 3,904 | 56.29% | 3,022 | 43.57% | 10 | 0.14% | 882 | 12.72% | 6,936 |
| Curry | 1,968 | 56.16% | 1,530 | 43.66% | 6 | 0.17% | 438 | 12.50% | 3,504 |
| De Baca | 474 | 47.83% | 514 | 51.87% | 3 | 0.30% | -40 | -4.04% | 991 |
| Doña Ana | 3,141 | 59.06% | 2,169 | 40.79% | 8 | 0.15% | 972 | 18.28% | 5,318 |
| Eddy | 1,618 | 57.11% | 1,212 | 42.78% | 3 | 0.11% | 406 | 14.33% | 2,833 |
| Grant | 2,058 | 50.69% | 1,994 | 49.11% | 8 | 0.20% | 64 | 1.58% | 4,060 |
| Guadalupe | 1,718 | 61.12% | 1,093 | 38.88% | 0 | 0.00% | 625 | 22.23% | 2,811 |
| Harding | 916 | 55.72% | 726 | 44.16% | 2 | 0.12% | 190 | 11.56% | 1,644 |
| Hidalgo | 561 | 52.38% | 509 | 47.53% | 1 | 0.09% | 52 | 4.86% | 1,071 |
| Lea | 537 | 52.96% | 474 | 46.75% | 3 | 0.30% | 63 | 6.21% | 1,014 |
| Lincoln | 1,489 | 64.32% | 821 | 35.46% | 5 | 0.22% | 668 | 28.86% | 2,315 |
| Luna | 860 | 56.80% | 647 | 42.73% | 7 | 0.46% | 213 | 14.07% | 1,514 |
| McKinley | 2,075 | 62.22% | 1,247 | 37.39% | 13 | 0.39% | 828 | 24.83% | 3,335 |
| Mora | 1,998 | 52.62% | 1,799 | 47.38% | 0 | 0.00% | 199 | 5.24% | 3,797 |
| Otero | 1,250 | 51.91% | 1,148 | 47.67% | 10 | 0.42% | 102 | 4.24% | 2,408 |
| Quay | 1,616 | 50.26% | 1,594 | 49.58% | 5 | 0.16% | 22 | 0.68% | 3,215 |
| Rio Arriba | 4,109 | 62.67% | 2,444 | 37.27% | 4 | 0.06% | 1,665 | 25.39% | 6,557 |
| Roosevelt | 1,157 | 51.10% | 1,098 | 48.50% | 9 | 0.40% | 59 | 2.61% | 2,264 |
| San Juan | 1,436 | 66.36% | 724 | 33.46% | 4 | 0.18% | 712 | 32.90% | 2,164 |
| San Miguel | 5,184 | 59.26% | 3,560 | 40.70% | 4 | 0.05% | 1,624 | 18.56% | 8,748 |
| Sandoval | 1,700 | 59.44% | 1,159 | 40.52% | 1 | 0.03% | 541 | 18.92% | 2,860 |
| Santa Fe | 4,630 | 60.25% | 3,051 | 39.70% | 4 | 0.05% | 1,579 | 20.55% | 7,685 |
| Sierra | 766 | 53.79% | 657 | 46.14% | 1 | 0.07% | 109 | 7.65% | 1,424 |
| Socorro | 1,940 | 55.32% | 1,564 | 44.60% | 3 | 0.09% | 376 | 10.72% | 3,507 |
| Taos | 2,441 | 56.98% | 1,842 | 43.00% | 1 | 0.02% | 599 | 13.98% | 4,284 |
| Torrance | 1,958 | 64.54% | 1,070 | 35.27% | 6 | 0.20% | 888 | 29.27% | 3,034 |
| Union | 2,018 | 59.35% | 1,306 | 38.41% | 13 | 0.38% | 712 | 20.94% | 3,400 |
| Valencia | 3,500 | 79.87% | 881 | 20.10% | 1 | 0.02% | 2,619 | 59.77% | 4,382 |
| Total | 69,645 | 58.98% | 48,211 | 40.83% | 158 | 0.13% | 21,434 | 18.15% | 118,077 |
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Chilton, Lance; New Mexico: A Guide to the Colorful State, p. 95 ISBN 0826307329
- ^ Warren, Kenneth F.; Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, Volume 1, p. 620 ISBN 1412954894
- ^ Whisenhunt, Donald W.; President Herbert Hoover, p. 69 ISBN 1600214762
- ^ 'National Election Possibilities: Sixteen States Classed as Doubtful'; Barron's, July 30, 1928
- ^ "1928 Presidential General Election Results – New Mexico". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
- ^ Garcia, F. Chris and Hain, Paul L.; New Mexico Government, p. 226 ISBN 0826305601
- ^ Hodgson, Illa D. and Garthwaite, Eloyse M.; 'New Mexico's Early Elections: Statehood to New Deal'; New Mexico Historical Review, January 1, 1995; vol. 70, issue 1, pp. 29-46
- ^ Rutland, Robert Allen (1996). The Republicans. University of Missouri Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-8262-1090-6.
- ^ New Mexico Secretary of State. The New Mexico Blue Book, or State Official Register 1929. Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- ^ New Mexico Secretary of State. New Mexico Election Returns 1911-1969. Santa Fe, New Mexico.
