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1940 United States presidential election in Maine

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1940 United States presidential election in Maine

← 1936 November 5, 1940 1944 →
 
Nominee Wendell Willkie Franklin D. Roosevelt
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York New York
Running mate Charles L. McNary Henry A. Wallace
Electoral vote 5 0
Popular vote 163,951 156,478
Percentage 51.10% 48.77%

County Results

President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

The 1940 United States presidential election in Maine took place on November 5, 1940. All contemporary 48 states were part of the 1940 United States presidential election. State voters chose five electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president. Maine was won by Republican businessman Wendell Willkie of New York, who was running against incumbent Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York. Willkie ran with Senator Charles L. McNary of Oregon while Roosevelt ran with Henry A. Wallace of Iowa.

Willkie won Maine by a narrow margin of 2.33%. This was a swing of 11.66% to Roosevelt during an election where he lost eight states and almost 700 counties that had supported him four years earlier, mostly because of Midwestern German-American opposition to increasing "tension" with Nazi Germany.[1] However, the Atlanticist tendencies of Yankee and French-Canadian Maine and support for aid to the United Kingdom and France in World War II led to substantial gains for Roosevelt in the state.[2] Maine was one of six states that swung more Democratic compared to 1936, alongside Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and North Carolina.

This was the first time that Kennebec County (home of Augusta, the state capital) had ever voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[3]

Results

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1940 United States presidential election in Maine[4]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Republican Wendell Willkie of New York Charles Linza McNary of Oregon 163,951 51.10% 5 100.00%
Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York Henry Agard Wallace of Iowa 156,478 48.77% 0 0.00%
Communist Earl Russell Browder of Kansas James W. Ford of New York 411 0.13% 0 0.00%
Total 320,840 100.00% 5 100.00%

Results by county

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County Wendell Lewis Willkie
Republican
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Earl Russell Browder
Communist
Margin Total votes cast[5]
# % # % # % # %
Androscoggin 10,394 34.99% 19,273 64.88% 40 0.13% -8,879 -29.89% 29,707
Aroostook 13,888 58.34% 9,877 41.49% 39 0.16% 4,011 16.85% 23,804
Cumberland 29,795 52.47% 26,911 47.39% 76 0.13% 2,884 5.08% 56,782
Franklin 4,548 58.47% 3,224 41.44% 7 0.09% 1,324 17.02% 7,779
Hancock 8,539 66.36% 4,315 33.54% 13 0.10% 4,224 32.83% 12,867
Kennebec 14,877 48.36% 15,861 51.56% 27 0.09% -984 -3.20% 30,765
Knox 6,530 60.76% 4,197 39.05% 20 0.19% 2,333 21.71% 10,747
Lincoln 5,244 68.42% 2,415 31.51% 5 0.07% 2,829 36.91% 7,664
Oxford 8,656 53.49% 7,502 46.36% 25 0.15% 1,154 7.13% 16,183
Penobscot 18,674 55.79% 14,757 44.09% 40 0.12% 3,917 11.70% 33,471
Piscataquis 3,806 52.05% 3,499 47.85% 7 0.10% 307 4.20% 7,312
Sagadahoc 3,504 43.30% 4,575 56.54% 13 0.16% -1,071 -13.24% 8,092
Somerset 7,526 53.42% 6,534 46.38% 28 0.20% 992 7.04% 14,088
Waldo 5,170 61.56% 3,214 38.27% 14 0.17% 1,956 23.29% 8,398
Washington 6,253 43.65% 8,048 56.18% 25 0.17% -1,795 -12.53% 14,326
York 16,547 42.59% 22,276 57.33% 32 0.08% -5,729 -14.74% 38,855
Totals 163,951 51.10% 156,478 48.77% 411 0.13% 7,473 2.33% 320,840

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Dunn, Susan; 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler–the Election Amid the Storm, p. 107 ISBN 0300190867
  2. ^ Phillips, Kevin; The Emerging Republican Majority; p. 93 ISBN 1400852293
  3. ^ Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 68 ISBN 0786422173
  4. ^ "1940 Presidential General Election Results – Maine". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  5. ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 203 ISBN 0405077114