1928 United States presidential election in Virginia

none June 2025 September 2023 1928 United States presidential election 1928 United States presidential election in Virginia Virginia 1917 presidential no 1924 United States presidential election in Virginia 1924 1932 United States presidential election in Virginia 1932 November 6, 1928 x200px Herbert Hoover - NARA - 532049.jpg Herbert Hoover Republican Party (United States) California Charles Curtis 12 164,609 53.91% Unsuccessful 1928.jpg Al Smith Democratic Party (United States) New York Joseph T. Robinson 0 140,146 45.90% 435px 435px County and independent city results Hoover #e27f90 50–60% #cc2f4a 60–70% #d40000 70–80% #aa0000 80–90% Smith #86b6f2 50–60% #4389e3 60–70% #1666cb 70–80% President Calvin Coolidge Republican Party (United States) Herbert Hoover Republican Party (United States) The 1928 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 6, 1928. Voters chose 12 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Like all former Confederate States, early twentieth-century Virginia almost completely disenfranchised its black and poor white populations through the use of a cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.Kousser J. Morgan The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880-1910 1974 Yale University Press 178–181 0-300-01696-4 So severe was the disenfranchising effect of the new 1902 Constitution that it has been calculated that a third of the electorate during the first half of the twentieth century comprised state employees and officeholders. This limited electorate meant Virginian politics was controlled by political machines based in Southside Virginia — the 1920s would see the building of the Byrd Organization which would control the state's politics until the Voting Rights Act. Progressive “antiorganization” factions were rendered impotent by the inability of almost all their potential electorate to vote.Key Valdimer Orlando Southern Politics in State and Nation 1949 20–25 Unlike the Deep South, historical fusion with the “Readjuster” Democrats,Heersink Boris Jenkins Jeffrey A. Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968 March 19, 2020 217–221 Cambridge University Press 978-1107158436 defection over free silver of substantial proportions of the Northeast-aligned white electorate of the Shenandoah Valley and Southwest Virginia,Moger Allen The Rift in Virginia Democracy in 1896 The Journal of Southern History 4 3 295–317 10.2307/2191291 2191291 and an early move towards a “lily white” Jim Crow party meant that in general elections the Republicans retained around one-third of the small statewide electorate,Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 210, 242 978-0-691-16324-6 with the majority of GOP support located in the western part of the state. However — like in Tennessee during the same era — the parties avoided competition in many areas by an agreed division over local offices. Virginia was less affected than Oklahoma, Tennessee or North Carolina by the upheavals of World War I and the Nineteenth Amendment, although there was an unsuccessful challenge to lily-white control of the state's Republican Party in 1921. During the 1920 and 1924 national Republican landslides, the party did not equal its performances during the first four “System of 1896” presidential elections. Additionally, in 1927 an effort to reduce the cumulative property of the state's poll tax from three years to two was defeated in committee.Jaffe Louis I. The Democracy and Al Smith The Virginia Quarterly Review July 1927 3 3 321–341 University of Virginia At the beginning of the campaign, prohibitionist Reverend David Hepburn, Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of Virginia, predicted a bolt by Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina due to the religion and Prohibition issues.Bonney Hal James The election of 1928 in Virginia 39 Master of Arts July 1, 1953 https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1076&context=masters-theses April 21, 2023 University of Richmond Governor Byrd would ultimately endorse Smith in August,Hawkes Robert T. Jr. The Emergence of a Leader: Harry Flood Byrd, Governor of Virginia, 1926-1930 July 1974 82 3 The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 259–281 but the first poll taken in the second week of October had Hoover ahead of Smith by about seven percent.Shreveport Journal Shreveport, Louisiana 11 October 13, 1928 Smith Cuts Down Hoover's Lead in Magazine Poll: With Nearly 2,000,000 Ballots in New York, Governor Reduces Hoover's Lead to 63% However, around the time of Smith's tour of the state in the middle of the month, when he alleged strong links between the state Republicans and the Ku Klux Klan, other pundits said Smith was sure of carrying Virginia.Klan Tie-Up Laid to G.O.P. Chairman: Virginia Incident Regarded as Rebounding to the Benefit of Smith The Evening Star Washington, D.C. October 14, 1928 24 At the end of October, the consensus was that Smith would carry the state,Week In Politics: Summary of National Developments Based on Reports of the Star's Correspondence and Staff Writers The Evening Star Washington, D.C. October 28, 1928 25 but Hoover ultimately gained 53.91 percent of Virginia's vote. This was only the second occasion when Virginia voted for a Republican president, the first being in 1872 during the Reconstruction era. As in all of the former Confederacy, Hoover gained most in the strongly white counties least concerned with black political power,Key Valdimer Orlando Jr. Southern Politics in State and Nation 1984 323–324 University of Tennessee Press 087049435X although in the Tidewater and Virginia Peninsula a number of majority-black counties swung unusually strongly against Smith – Charles City County, indeed, gave Hoover two-thirds of its ballots. Unlike Florida, Texas, or Alabama, Virginia's swing to the Republicans also saw the GOP gain three House of Representatives seats, including the home district of Byrd. Results 1928 United States presidential election in VirginiaStatistics of the Congressional and Presidential election of November 6, 1928 https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1928election.pdf Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives 33PartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Republican Herbert Hoover 164,609 53.91% 12 Democratic Al Smith 140,146 45.90% 0 Socialist Norman Thomas 250 0.08% 0 Socialist Labor Verne L. Reynolds 180 0.06% 0 Workers William Z. Foster 173 0.06% 0 Totals 305,358 100.00% 12 Results by county 1928 United States presidential election in Virginia by counties and independent citiesRobinson Edgar Eugene The Presidential Vote 1896-1932 354-361 9780804716963County orcity Herbert HooverRepublican Al SmithDemocratic Other candidatesVarious parties Margin Total votescast # % # % # % # % Accomack County 1,367 42.79% 1,826 57.15% 2 0.06% -459 -14.37% 3,195 Albemarle County 846 34.97% 1,571 64.94% 2 0.08% -725 -29.97% 2,419 Alleghany County 1,642 72.53% 622 27.47% 0 0.00% 1,020 45.05% 2,264 Amelia County 277 35.70% 498 64.18% 1 0.13% -221 -28.48% 776 Amherst County 447 23.53% 1,442 75.89% 11 0.58% -995 -52.37% 1,900 Appomattox County 446 33.43% 885 66.34% 3 0.22% -439 -32.91% 1,334 Arlington County 4,274 74.41% 1,444 25.14% 26 0.45% 2,830 49.27% 5,744 Augusta County 2,679 63.82% 1,507 35.90% 12 0.29% 1,172 27.92% 4,198 Bath County 731 63.90% 409 35.75% 4 0.35% 322 28.15% 1,144 Bedford County 1,118 43.64% 1,436 56.05% 8 0.31% -318 -12.41% 2,562 Bland County 826 58.92% 575 41.01% 1 0.07% 251 17.90% 1,402 Botetourt County 1,575 56.70% 1,200 43.20% 3 0.11% 375 13.50% 2,778 Brunswick County 245 20.98% 922 78.94% 1 0.09% -677 -57.96% 1,168 Buchanan County 1,333 49.24% 1,365 50.42% 9 0.33% -32 -1.18% 2,707 Buckingham County 579 49.15% 599 50.85% 0 0.00% -20 -1.70% 1,178 Campbell County 801 45.10% 967 54.45% 8 0.45% -166 -9.35% 1,776 Caroline County 638 49.84% 639 49.92% 3 0.23% -1 -0.08% 1,280 Carroll County 2,459 68.51% 1,117 31.12% 13 0.36% 1,342 37.39% 3,589 Charles City County 207 66.35% 105 33.65% 0 0.00% 102 32.69% 312 Charlotte County 403 26.58% 1,112 73.35% 1 0.07% -709 -46.77% 1,516 Chesterfield County 1,325 54.89% 1,082 44.82% 7 0.29% 243 10.07% 2,414 Clarke County 248 25.08% 740 74.82% 1 0.10% -492 -49.75% 989 Craig County 451 47.88% 489 51.91% 2 0.21% -38 -4.03% 942 Culpeper County 753 47.36% 836 52.58% 1 0.06% -83 -5.22% 1,590 Cumberland County 213 32.32% 442 67.07% 4 0.61% -229 -34.75% 659 Dickenson County 1,868 49.76% 1,879 50.05% 7 0.19% -11 -0.29% 3,754 Dinwiddie County 332 25.94% 945 73.83% 3 0.23% -613 -47.89% 1,280 Elizabeth City County 1,122 57.78% 807 41.56% 13 0.67% 315 16.22% 1,942 Essex County 195 37.79% 321 62.21% 0 0.00% -126 -24.42% 516 Fairfax County 2,507 66.98% 1,229 32.83% 7 0.19% 1,278 34.14% 3,743 Fauquier County 972 38.79% 1,531 61.09% 3 0.12% -559 -22.31% 2,506 Floyd County 1,481 77.34% 433 22.61% 1 0.05% 1,048 54.73% 1,915 Fluvanna County 327 42.03% 447 57.46% 4 0.51% -120 -15.42% 778 Franklin County 1,529 45.05% 1,861 54.83% 4 0.12% -332 -9.78% 3,394 Frederick County 1,006 46.77% 1,140 53.00% 5 0.23% -134 -6.23% 2,151 Giles County 1,313 50.23% 1,293 49.46% 8 0.31% 20 0.77% 2,614 Gloucester County 614 51.12% 587 48.88% 0 0.00% 27 2.25% 1,201 Goochland County 318 42.18% 431 57.16% 5 0.66% -113 -14.99% 754 Grayson County 2,728 61.25% 1,713 38.46% 13 0.29% 1,015 22.79% 4,454 Greene County 423 61.93% 259 37.92% 1 0.15% 164 24.01% 683 Greensville County 318 37.90% 519 61.86% 2 0.24% -201 -23.96% 839 Halifax County 1,091 28.37% 2,742 71.31% 12 0.31% -1,651 -42.94% 3,845 Hanover County 592 41.60% 831 58.40% 0 0.00% -239 -16.80% 1,423 Henrico County 1,887 57.87% 1,349 41.37% 25 0.77% 538 16.50% 3,261 Henry County 1,139 47.28% 1,267 52.59% 3 0.12% -128 -5.31% 2,409 Highland County 623 62.36% 371 37.14% 5 0.50% 252 25.23% 999 Isle of Wight County 555 51.10% 531 48.90% 0 0.00% 24 2.21% 1,086 James City County 204 50.12% 201 49.39% 2 0.49% 3 0.74% 407 King and Queen County 319 52.90% 280 46.43% 4 0.66% 39 6.47% 603 King George County 413 57.04% 309 42.68% 2 0.28% 104 14.36% 724 King William County 329 43.06% 431 56.41% 4 0.52% -102 -13.35% 764 Lancaster County 520 62.28% 315 37.72% 0 0.00% 205 24.55% 835 Lee County 3,337 58.23% 2,383 41.58% 11 0.19% 954 16.65% 5,731 Loudoun County 1,325 40.84% 1,915 59.03% 4 0.12% -590 -18.19% 3,244 Louisa County 772 51.23% 734 48.71% 1 0.07% 38 2.52% 1,507 Lunenburg County 314 20.75% 1,199 79.25% 0 0.00% -885 -58.49% 1,513 Madison County 772 56.97% 580 42.80% 3 0.22% 192 14.17% 1,355 Mathews County 855 66.43% 431 33.49% 1 0.08% 424 32.94% 1,287 Mecklenburg County 784 30.90% 1,752 69.06% 1 0.04% -968 -38.16% 2,537 Middlesex County 318 44.35% 397 55.37% 2 0.28% -79 -11.02% 717 Montgomery County 1,861 65.64% 967 34.11% 7 0.25% 894 31.53% 2,835 Nansemond County 649 46.79% 737 53.14% 1 0.07% -88 -6.34% 1,387 Nelson County 618 33.68% 1,216 66.27% 1 0.05% -598 -32.59% 1,835 New Kent County 217 54.66% 178 44.84% 2 0.50% 39 9.82% 397 Norfolk County 1,922 57.39% 1,418 42.34% 9 0.27% 504 15.05% 3,349 Northampton County 688 42.39% 935 57.61% 0 0.00% -247 -15.22% 1,623 Northumberland County 744 72.09% 286 27.71% 2 0.19% 458 44.38% 1,032 Nottoway County 667 40.33% 986 59.61% 1 0.06% -319 -19.29% 1,654 Orange County 732 46.39% 846 53.61% 0 0.00% -114 -7.22% 1,578 Page County 1,580 60.65% 1,025 39.35% 0 0.00% 555 21.31% 2,605 Patrick County 1,191 57.26% 883 42.45% 6 0.29% 308 14.81% 2,080 Pittsylvania County 2,598 60.52% 1,688 39.32% 7 0.16% 910 21.20% 4,293 Powhatan County 189 39.71% 287 60.29% 0 0.00% -98 -20.59% 476 Prince Edward County 494 41.24% 699 58.35% 5 0.42% -205 -17.11% 1,198 Prince George County 235 35.34% 428 64.36% 2 0.30% -193 -29.02% 665 Prince William County 817 49.73% 826 50.27% 0 0.00% -9 -0.55% 1,643 Princess Anne County 1,040 55.23% 841 44.66% 2 0.11% 199 10.57% 1,883 Pulaski County 1,998 52.32% 1,821 47.68% 0 0.00% 177 4.63% 3,819 Rappahannock County 329 39.07% 513 60.93% 0 0.00% -184 -21.85% 842 Richmond County 467 61.53% 292 38.47% 0 0.00% 175 23.06% 759 Roanoke County 2,675 67.53% 1,284 32.42% 2 0.05% 1,391 35.12% 3,961 Rockbridge County 1,206 47.78% 1,311 51.94% 7 0.28% -105 -4.16% 2,524 Rockingham County 3,822 73.06% 1,402 26.80% 7 0.13% 2,420 46.26% 5,231 Russell County 2,006 44.38% 2,511 55.55% 3 0.07% -505 -11.17% 4,520 Scott County 2,916 55.28% 2,355 44.64% 4 0.08% 561 10.64% 5,275 Shenandoah County 3,420 68.01% 1,589 31.60% 20 0.40% 1,831 36.41% 5,029 Smyth County 2,751 58.53% 1,937 41.21% 12 0.26% 814 17.32% 4,700 Southampton County 648 43.40% 844 56.53% 1 0.07% -196 -13.13% 1,493 Spotsylvania County 654 59.78% 439 40.13% 1 0.09% 215 19.65% 1,094 Stafford County 797 64.27% 441 35.56% 2 0.16% 356 28.71% 1,240 Surry County 157 22.43% 541 77.29% 2 0.29% -384 -54.86% 700 Sussex County 385 41.31% 547 58.69% 0 0.00% -162 -17.38% 932 Tazewell County 3,072 60.65% 1,979 39.07% 14 0.28% 1,093 21.58% 5,065 Warren County 564 44.20% 710 55.64% 2 0.16% -146 -11.44% 1,276 Warwick County 465 60.78% 298 38.95% 2 0.26% 167 21.83% 765 Washington County 3,449 56.25% 2,666 43.48% 17 0.28% 783 12.77% 6,132 Westmoreland County 554 58.50% 393 41.50% 0 0.00% 161 17.00% 947 Wise County 4,504 49.63% 4,559 50.24% 12 0.13% -55 -0.61% 9,075 Wythe County 2,540 62.56% 1,516 37.34% 4 0.10% 1,024 25.22% 4,060 York County 642 76.70% 194 23.18% 1 0.12% 448 53.52% 837 Alexandria City 1,617 55.26% 1,307 44.67% 2 0.07% 310 10.59% 2,926 Bristol City 630 40.49% 922 59.25% 4 0.26% -292 -18.77% 1,556 Buena Vista City 267 60.68% 172 39.09% 1 0.23% 95 21.59% 440 Charlottesville City 708 41.57% 992 58.25% 3 0.18% -284 -16.68% 1,703 Clifton Forge City 781 56.92% 591 43.08% 0 0.00% 190 13.85% 1,372 Danville City 2,360 66.27% 1,196 33.59% 5 0.14% 1,164 32.69% 3,561 Fredericksburg City 697 53.91% 594 45.94% 2 0.15% 103 7.97% 1,293 Hampton City 544 46.90% 615 53.02% 1 0.09% -71 -6.12% 1,160 Harrisonburg City 1,037 62.66% 616 37.22% 2 0.12% 421 25.44% 1,655 Hopewell City 505 51.11% 482 48.79% 1 0.10% 23 2.33% 988 Lynchburg City 2,730 57.88% 1,987 42.12% 0 0.00% 743 15.75% 4,717 Newport News City 3,118 61.34% 1,951 38.38% 14 0.28% 1,167 22.96% 5,083 Norfolk City 8,392 58.65% 5,888 41.15% 29 0.20% 2,504 17.50% 14,309 Petersburg City 909 39.69% 1,379 60.22% 2 0.09% -470 -20.52% 2,290 Portsmouth City 3,474 57.04% 2,587 42.48% 29 0.48% 887 14.56% 6,090 Radford City 524 58.29% 373 41.49% 2 0.22% 151 16.80% 899 Richmond City 10,767 51.20% 10,213 48.57% 49 0.23% 554 2.63% 21,029 Roanoke City 6,471 61.62% 4,018 38.26% 12 0.11% 2,453 23.36% 10,501 South Norfolk City 865 84.56% 158 15.44% 0 0.00% 707 69.11% 1,023 Staunton City 1,026 58.13% 733 41.53% 6 0.34% 293 16.60% 1,765 Suffolk City 573 47.28% 637 52.56% 2 0.17% -64 -5.28% 1,212 Williamsburg City 98 24.02% 310 75.98% 0 0.00% -212 -51.96% 408 Winchester City 1,168 59.35% 794 40.35% 6 0.30% 374 19.00% 1,968Totals164,60953.91%140,14645.89%6090.20%24,4638.01%305,364 Analysis With all other prominent Democrats sitting the election out,Warren Kenneth F. Encyclopedia of U.S. campaigns, elections, and electoral behavior: A-M, Volume 1 April 4, 2008 620 978-1412954891 the party nominated Alfred E. Smith, four-term Governor of New York as its nominee for 1928, with little opposition. Smith had been the favorite for the 1924 nomination, but had lost due to opposition to his Catholic faith and "wet" views on Prohibition: he wished to repeal or modify the Volstead Act. In Virginia – which had little to no experience of the Catholic immigrants from southern and eastern Europe who were Smith's local constituency – Methodist Episcopal Bishop James Cannon Jr., a former ally of Senator Thomas S. Martin, immediately turned sharply against Smith.Sweeney James R. Rum, Romanism, and Virginia Democrats: The Party Leaders and the Campaign of 1928 The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography October 1982 90 4 403–431 In 1925, a Catholic, John M. Purcell, who had served a long and loyal apprenticeship in the state party, was nominated by the Democratic Party for state treasurer and won the general election by fewer than twenty-six thousand votes while Harry F. Byrd was winning the governorship by almost seventy thousand. Many prohibitionists in Virginia quickly felt that it would be preferable to vote for the dry Republican nominee, former United States Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, over the wet Catholic Democrat Smith.Bonney The election of 1928 in Virginia 27-28 Senator Claude A. Swanson was the first major state politician to oppose Smith, announcing his opposition on June 22.Bonney The election of 1928 in Virginia 36 However, most major newspapers, such as the Staunton News-Leader and Daily-News, Lynchburg News, Winchester Evening-Star and The Free-Lance Star, would endorse Smith from early in the campaign. Despite Smith's attempt to mollify the South by nominating dry Southern Democrat and Arkansas Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson as his running mate early in July, Cannon would step up his campaign against Smith during that month via a widely publicised speech in Asheville.Bauman Mark K. Prohibition and Politics: Warren Candler and Al Smith's 1928 Campaign The Mississippi Quarterly 31 1 Winter 1977–78 109–117 At the beginning of the campaign, however, the Republican National Convention largely wrote off Virginia and campaigned elsewhere in the former Confederacy; however, former Ninth District Congressman Campbell Bascom Slemp thought Hoover had a chance and worked strenuously to build support in the state.Heersink Jenkins Republican Party Politics and the American South 223 According to one analysis of the Virginia 1928 presidential election:The voting of 1928 was not so much pro-Hoover as it was anti-Smith. Smith was defeated for reasons that no platform could touch – his Roman Catholicism and immigrant, urban background.Loyalists and rebels: the election of 1928 in Virginia Susan Parker May 5, 1969 University of Richmond References Virginia 1928 Category:1928 Virginia elections