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1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee

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1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee

← 1948 November 4, 1952[1] 1956 →
 
Nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York[2] Illinois
Running mate Richard Nixon John Sparkman
Electoral vote 11 0
Popular vote 446,147 443,710
Percentage 49.99% 49.71%


President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

The 1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the 1952 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 11 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.[3]

For over a century after the Civil War, Tennessee was divided according to political loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the five Western Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne[4] voted Republican — generally by landslide margins — as they saw the Democratic Party as the "war party" who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight.[5] Contrariwise, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state's secession was equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction.[6] After the disfranchisement of the state’s African-American population by a poll tax was largely complete in the 1890s,[7] the Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united,[8] although unlike the Deep South Republicans would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support.

Between 1896 and 1948, the Republicans would win statewide contests three times but only in the second did they receive down-ballot coattails by winning three congressional seats in addition to the rock-ribbed GOP First and Second Districts.[9] In the early 1910s, prohibitionist “Independent Democrats” fled the party and formed a coalition, known as the “Fusionists,” with Republicans to elect Ben W. Hooper Governor,[10] whilst in 1920 the national anti-Wilson and anti-League of Nations tide allowed the GOP to carry a few traditionally Democratic areas in Middle Tennessee and with them the state,[11] and in 1928 anti-Catholicism against Democratic nominee Al Smith gave this powerfully fundamentalist state to Herbert Hoover.[12]

After the beginning of the Great Depression, however, for the next third of a century the Republicans would rarely contest statewide offices seriously despite continuing dominance of East Tennessee and half a dozen Unionist counties in the middle and west of the state.[13] The Crump political machine that dominated state politics for a decade and a half, however, broke down in 1948 after Crump supported Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond but his own subordinates dissented knowing that a Democratic split would hand the state to the Republicans.[14] Even Crump’s long-time ally Senator Kenneth D. McKellar broke with him,[15] and a Middle Tennessee liberal, Estes Kefauver, won the state’s Senate seat. In 1949, after a failed effort six years before,[16] Tennessee would substantially modify its poll tax and entirely abolish it two years later,[16] largely due to the fact that the Crump machine had “block bought” voters’ poll taxes.[17]

The abolition of the poll tax would, if not to the same extent as in South Carolina, substantially increase voter turnout in Tennessee. There was also the issue of the substantial Dixiecrat vote from 1948, especially with Thurmond’s endorsement of Republican nominees former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower and California Senator Richard Nixon.[18]

Predictions

[edit]
Source Ranking As of
Lansing State Journal[19] Likely D September 17, 1952
Lubbock Morning Avalanche[20] Tilt D October 24, 1952
The Greeneville Sun[21] Lean D October 25, 1952
The Modesto Bee[22] Lean D October 27, 1952
The Commercial Appeal[23] Tossup October 31, 1952

Results

[edit]
1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee[3]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower 446,147 49.99%
Democratic Adlai Stevenson 443,710 49.71%
Prohibition Stuart Hamblen 1,432 0.16%
People’s Vincent Hallinan 885 0.10%
Christian Nationalist Douglas MacArthur 379[a] 0.04%
Total votes 892,553 100%

Results by county

[edit]
County[24] Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
Adlai Stevenson
Democratic
Stuart Hamblen
Prohibition
Vincent Hallinan
People's
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Anderson 10,489 53.88% 8,939 45.92% 38 0.20% 0 0.00% 1,550 7.96% 19,466
Bedford 2,611 37.44% 4,362 62.56% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -1,751 -25.12% 6,973
Benton 1,304 34.57% 2,452 65.01% 16 0.42% 0 0.00% -1,148 -30.44% 3,772
Bledsoe 1,229 50.85% 1,158 47.91% 30 1.24% 0 0.00% 71 2.94% 2,417
Blount 11,708 69.22% 5,163 30.53% 24 0.14% 18 0.11% 6,545 38.69% 16,913
Bradley 4,606 63.36% 2,646 36.40% 9 0.12% 8 0.11% 1,960 26.96% 7,269
Campbell 4,557 65.63% 2,346 33.79% 19 0.27% 21 0.30% 2,211 31.84% 6,943
Cannon 930 37.97% 1,491 60.88% 6 0.24% 22 0.90% -561 -22.91% 2,449
Carroll 3,741 56.46% 2,841 42.88% 23 0.35% 21 0.32% 900 13.58% 6,626
Carter 9,019 76.15% 2,707 22.86% 118 1.00% 0 0.00% 6,312 53.29% 11,844
Cheatham 536 19.31% 2,222 80.04% 5 0.18% 13 0.47% -1,686 -60.73% 2,776
Chester 1,674 53.01% 1,484 46.99% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 190 6.02% 3,158
Claiborne 3,221 59.62% 2,182 40.38% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,039 19.24% 5,403
Clay 842 46.24% 968 53.16% 11 0.60% 0 0.00% -126 -6.92% 1,821
Cocke 5,688 82.02% 1,247 17.98% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 4,441 64.04% 6,935
Coffee 2,110 37.25% 3,537 62.44% 7 0.12% 11 0.19% -1,427 -25.19% 5,665
Crockett 1,343 38.27% 2,155 61.41% 7 0.20% 4 0.11% -812 -23.14% 3,509
Cumberland 3,282 59.75% 2,059 37.48% 81 1.47% 71 1.29% 1,223 22.27% 5,493
Davidson 35,916 40.99% 51,562 58.84% 81 0.09% 71 0.08% -15,646 -17.85% 87,630
Decatur 1,406 45.35% 1,681 54.23% 13 0.42% 0 0.00% -275 -8.88% 3,100
DeKalb 1,814 48.21% 1,949 51.79% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -135 -3.58% 3,763
Dickson 1,415 25.22% 4,196 74.78% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -2,781 -49.56% 5,611
Dyer 3,231 41.30% 4,531 57.92% 61 0.78% 0 0.00% -1,300 -16.62% 7,823
Fayette 1,029 46.73% 1,173 53.27% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -144 -6.54% 2,202
Fentress 2,143 69.65% 934 30.35% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,209 39.30% 3,077
Franklin 2,015 29.48% 4,786 70.03% 29 0.42% 4 0.06% -2,771 -40.55% 6,834
Gibson 3,766 35.90% 6,687 63.74% 26 0.25% 12 0.11% -2,921 -27.84% 10,491
Giles 1,649 25.98% 4,640 73.11% 29 0.46% 29 0.46% -2,991 -47.13% 6,347
Grainger 3,030 76.28% 937 23.59% 2 0.05% 3 0.08% 2,093 52.69% 3,972
Greene 6,864 64.98% 3,656 34.61% 18 0.17% 25 0.24% 3,208 30.37% 10,563
Grundy 709 21.47% 2,583 78.23% 7 0.21% 3 0.09% -1,874 -56.76% 3,302
Hamblen 5,031 67.19% 2,395 31.98% 62 0.83% 0 0.00% 2,636 35.21% 7,488
Hamilton 29,681 55.14% 23,832 44.27% 139 0.26% 178 0.33% 5,849 10.87% 53,830
Hancock 1,830 79.50% 458 19.90% 14 0.61% 0 0.00% 1,372 59.60% 2,302
Hardeman 1,256 31.17% 2,747 68.18% 8 0.20% 18 0.45% -1,491 -37.01% 4,029
Hardin 2,459 59.28% 1,677 40.43% 12 0.29% 0 0.00% 782 18.85% 4,148
Hawkins 5,295 68.19% 2,404 30.96% 13 0.17% 53 0.68% 2,891 37.23% 7,765
Haywood 940 27.80% 2,432 71.93% 9 0.27% 0 0.00% -1,492 -44.13% 3,381
Henderson 3,317 67.45% 1,601 32.55% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,716 34.90% 4,918
Henry 2,421 29.77% 5,677 69.81% 12 0.15% 22 0.27% -3,256 -40.04% 8,132
Hickman 1,044 28.38% 2,625 71.35% 4 0.11% 6 0.16% -1,581 -42.97% 3,679
Houston 465 27.45% 1,229 72.55% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -764 -45.10% 1,694
Humphreys 898 25.16% 2,670 74.81% 1 0.03% 0 0.00% -1,772 -49.65% 3,569
Jackson 1,138 40.25% 1,686 59.64% 3 0.11% 0 0.00% -548 -19.39% 2,827
Jefferson 4,622 78.87% 1,228 20.96% 9 0.15% 1 0.02% 3,394 57.91% 5,860
Johnson 3,590 87.65% 506 12.35% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 3,084 75.30% 4,096
Knox 44,358 62.32% 26,681 37.48% 113 0.16% 26 0.04% 17,677 24.84% 71,178
Lake 487 24.66% 1,475 74.68% 6 0.30% 7 0.35% -988 -50.02% 1,975
Lauderdale 1,390 24.26% 4,340 75.74% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -2,950 -51.48% 5,730
Lawrence 4,561 51.07% 4,299 48.14% 71 0.79% 0 0.00% 262 2.93% 8,931
Lewis 540 29.05% 1,308 70.36% 11 0.59% 0 0.00% -768 -41.31% 1,859
Lincoln 1,654 26.78% 4,510 73.01% 8 0.13% 5 0.08% -2,856 -46.23% 6,177
Loudon 4,311 66.52% 2,138 32.99% 17 0.26% 15 0.23% 2,173 33.53% 6,481
Macon 2,602 69.20% 1,158 30.80% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,444 38.40% 3,760
Madison 7,243 45.50% 8,623 54.17% 30 0.19% 23 0.14% -1,380 -8.67% 15,919
Marion 2,227 42.91% 2,938 56.61% 12 0.23% 13 0.25% -711 -13.70% 5,190
Marshall 1,525 28.44% 3,837 71.56% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -2,312 -43.12% 5,362
Maury 3,582 32.58% 7,377 67.09% 36 0.33% 0 0.00% -3,795 -34.51% 10,995
McMinn 5,778 62.39% 3,440 37.15% 18 0.19% 25 0.27% 2,338 25.24% 9,261
McNairy 3,426 55.94% 2,698 44.06% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 728 11.88% 6,124
Meigs 850 52.31% 754 46.40% 2 0.12% 19 1.17% 96 5.91% 1,625
Monroe 4,581 55.11% 3,693 44.42% 39 0.47% 0 0.00% 888 10.69% 8,313
Montgomery 2,573 30.78% 5,759 68.90% 17 0.20% 10 0.12% -3,186 -38.12% 8,359
Moore 354 30.00% 826 70.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -472 -40.00% 1,180
Morgan 2,565 63.22% 1,492 36.78% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,073 26.44% 4,057
Obion 2,682 36.51% 4,623 62.94% 32 0.44% 8 0.11% -1,941 -26.43% 7,345
Overton 1,453 39.47% 2,209 60.01% 6 0.16% 13 0.35% -756 -20.54% 3,681
Perry 762 39.00% 1,192 61.00% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -430 -22.00% 1,954
Pickett 1,003 64.71% 547 35.29% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 456 29.42% 1,550
Polk 2,283 55.63% 1,821 44.37% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 462 11.26% 4,104
Putnam 3,183 43.73% 4,096 56.27% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -913 -12.54% 7,279
Rhea 2,520 54.46% 2,090 45.17% 14 0.30% 3 0.06% 430 9.29% 4,627
Roane 5,583 60.13% 3,702 39.87% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,881 20.26% 9,285
Robertson 1,834 26.59% 5,063 73.41% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -3,229 -46.82% 6,897
Rutherford 3,196 31.77% 6,793 67.52% 24 0.24% 48 0.48% -3,597 -35.75% 10,061
Scott 3,274 73.82% 1,161 26.18% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 2,113 47.64% 4,435
Sequatchie 535 37.57% 882 61.94% 7 0.49% 0 0.00% -347 -24.37% 1,424
Sevier 7,244 87.17% 1,066 12.83% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 6,178 74.34% 8,310
Shelby 65,170 47.53% 71,779 52.36% 112 0.08% 36 0.03% -6,609 -4.83% 137,099[b]
Smith 1,412 34.80% 2,622 64.61% 15 0.37% 9 0.22% -1,210 -29.81% 4,058
Stewart 641 22.71% 2,170 76.87% 1 0.04% 11 0.39% -1,529 -54.16% 2,823
Sullivan 15,596 56.58% 11,849 42.99% 71 0.26% 47 0.17% 3,747 13.59% 27,563
Sumner 2,233 28.10% 5,674 71.40% 40 0.50% 0 0.00% -3,441 -43.30% 7,947
Tipton 1,312 19.54% 5,351 79.68% 34 0.51% 19 0.28% -4,039 -60.14% 6,716
Trousdale 261 17.43% 1,236 82.57% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -975 -65.14% 1,497
Unicoi 3,453 74.81% 1,163 25.19% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 2,290 49.62% 4,616
Union 2,087 75.78% 667 24.22% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,420 51.56% 2,754
Van Buren 393 36.12% 674 61.95% 10 0.92% 11 1.01% -281 -25.83% 1,088
Warren 1,912 34.68% 3,568 64.72% 21 0.38% 12 0.22% -1,656 -30.04% 5,513
Washington 12,023 69.31% 5,245 30.24% 43 0.25% 36 0.21% 6,778 39.07% 17,347
Wayne 2,439 70.63% 1,008 29.19% 4 0.12% 2 0.06% 1,431 41.44% 3,453
Weakley 3,043 41.83% 4,198 57.70% 34 0.47% 0 0.00% -1,155 -15.87% 7,275
White 1,374 37.00% 2,319 62.44% 13 0.35% 8 0.22% -945 -25.44% 3,714
Williamson 2,326 36.17% 4,085 63.53% 19 0.30% 0 0.00% -1,759 -27.36% 6,430
Wilson 2,449 32.57% 5,070 67.43% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% -2,621 -34.86% 7,519
Totals 446,147 49.99% 443,710 49.71% 1,432 0.16% 885 0.10% 2,437 0.28% 892,553[c]

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

[edit]

Counties that flipped from Dixiecrat to Democratic

[edit]

Analysis

[edit]

Despite expectations that Democratic nominees Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and running mate Alabama Senator John Sparkman had a slightly better chance of carrying the state, Tennessee would be won by Eisenhower with 49.99 percent of the popular vote, against Stevenson’s 49.71 percent. Eisenhower’s 0.28 percentage point victory was the first of three consecutive Republican victories in the state, as Tennessee would not vote Democratic again until Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964. The result deviated little from long-established partisan patterns, with Chester County — where Eisenhower was the first-ever Republican victor[25] – the only county Eisenhower carried that neither Harding nor Hoover won. Nonetheless, whereas Harding’s and Hoover’s victories were based upon gains in Middle Tennessee, gains in the pro-Dixiecrat cotton counties of West Tennessee were most critical for Eisenhower: fifteen of the top twenty-four Thurmond counties were also amongst the top twenty-four in terms of Democratic loss since 1936.[26]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Except for two votes in Shelby County, votes for the Christian Nationalist Party were listed as a state-wide total and not by counties.[24]
  2. ^ The total for this county includes two votes for Christian Nationalist candidate Douglas Macarthur.
  3. ^ This total includes 377 votes for Christian Nationalist candidate Douglas Macarthur that were not separated by county.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "United States Presidential election of 1952 — Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  2. ^ "U.S. presidential election, 1952". Facts on File. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013. Eisenhower, born in Texas, considered a resident of New York, and headquartered at the time in Paris, finally decided to run for the Republican nomination
  3. ^ a b "1952 Presidential Election Results – Tennessee". Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  4. ^ Wright, John K. (October 1932). "Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps". Geographical Review. 22 (4): 666–672. Bibcode:1932GeoRv..22..666W. doi:10.2307/208821. JSTOR 208821.
  5. ^ Key (Jr.), Valdimer Orlando; Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York, 1949), pp. 282-283
  6. ^ Lyons, William; Scheb (II), John M.; Stair, Billy (2001). Government and Politics in Tennessee. Univ. of Tennessee Press. pp. 183–184. ISBN 1572331410.
  7. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
  8. ^ Grantham, Dewey W. (Fall 1995). "Tennessee and Twentieth-Century American Politics". Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 54 (3): 210–229.
  9. ^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 287
  10. ^ Langsdon, Phillip (2000). Tennessee: A Political History. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillsboro Press. pp. 287–295.
  11. ^ Reichard, Gary W. (February 1970). "The Aberration of 1920: An Analysis of Harding's Victory in Tennessee". The Journal of Southern History. 36 (1): 33–49. doi:10.2307/2206601. JSTOR 2206601.
  12. ^ Larson, Edward J. (October 3, 2006). Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465075102.
  13. ^ Majors, William R. (1986). Change and continuity: Tennessee politics since the Civil War. Mercer University Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780865542099.
  14. ^ Guthrie, Paul Daniel (1955). The Dixiecrat Movement of 1948 (Thesis). Bowling Green State University. pp. 181–182. Docket 144207.
  15. ^ Langsdon, Phillip Royal (2000). Tennessee: A Political History. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillsboro Press. pp. 336–343. ISBN 9781577361251.
  16. ^ a b Ogden, Frederic D. (1958). The poll tax in the South. University of Alabama Press. p. 193.
  17. ^ Ogden, The poll tax in the South, pp. 97-99
  18. ^ Mayer, Michael S. (2009). The Eisenhower Years. Infobase. p. 767. ISBN 978-1438119083.
  19. ^ Cornell, Douglas B. (September 17, 1952). "Ike Given 50–50 Chance To Break into Solid South". Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan. pp. 7, 16.
  20. ^ Cornell, Douglas B. (October 24, 1952). "Most Southern States Continue to Back Demos Despite Sizeable Republican Inroads — GOP Has Even Chance to Carry Virginia, Texas, Florida". Lubbock Morning Avalanche. Lubbock, Texas. p. 11.
  21. ^ "US Poll Shows — Eisenhower Leading Stevenson in Electoral Votes, but Governor Has More States in His Column". The Greeneville Sun. Greeneville, Tennessee. Princeton Research Service. October 25, 1952. pp. 1, 8.
  22. ^ "NY Times Survey Indicates Close Election Tuesday". The Modesto Bee. Modesto, California. October 27, 1952. p. 8.
  23. ^ "The Importance of You". The Commercial Appeal. Memphis, Tennessee. October 31, 1952. p. 6.
  24. ^ a b "TN US President, November 04, 1952". Our Campaigns.
  25. ^ Menendez, Albert J. (2005). The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. McFarland. pp. 298–303. ISBN 0786422173.
  26. ^ Strong, Donald S. (August 1955). "The Presidential Election in the South, 1952". The Journal of Politics. 17 (3). The University of Chicago Press: 343–389. doi:10.1017/S0022381600091064.