1928 United States presidential election in Alabama

none June 2025 September 2023 1928 United States presidential election in Alabama Alabama presidential no 1924 United States presidential election in Alabama 1924 1932 United States presidential election in Alabama 1932 November 6, 1928 x200px Unsuccessful 1928.jpg Al Smith Democratic Party (United States) New York Joseph T. Robinson 12 127,797 51.33% Herbert Hoover - NARA - 532049.jpg Herbert Hoover Republican Party (United States) California Charles Curtis 0 120,753 48.50% 1928 United States presidential election in Alabama results map by county.svg 300px County results Smith #86b6f2 50–60% #4389e3 60–70% #1666cb 70–80% #0645B4 80–90% #002b84 90–100% Hoover #e27f90 50–60% #cc2f4a 60–70% #d40000 70–80% President Calvin Coolidge Republican Party (United States) Herbert Hoover Republican Party (United States) 1928 United States presidential election The 1928 United States presidential election in Alabama took place on November 6, 1928, as part of the 1928 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary forty-eight states. Voters chose twelve representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. This was the last election in which Alabama had twelve electoral votes: the Great Migration caused the state to lose congressional districts after the 1930 Census produced the first Congressional redistricting since 1911. Alabama voted narrowly for the Democratic nominee, Governor Alfred E. "Al" Smith of New York, over the Republican nominee, former Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover of California. Smith's running mate was Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson of Arkansas, while Hoover's running mate was Senate Majority Leader Charles Curtis of Kansas. The only other candidate on the ballot was Socialist Norman Thomas, who received a mere 460 votes.Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections; 1928 Presidential General Election Results – Alabama Since the 1890s, Alabama had become a one-party state ruled by the Democratic Party. Disenfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and a large proportion of poor whites via poll taxes, literacy testsPerman, Michael, Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888–1908, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001, Introduction. and informal harassment had essentially eliminated opposition parties outside of presidential campaigns in a few northern hill counties. The only competitive statewide elections became Democratic Party primaries, and ever since 1900 the Democratic Party won over two-thirds of the limited number of votes cast even in presidential elections. Between 1900 and 1924, the southern bloc had been able to veto presidential nominations by extralimital branches of the Democratic Party. This changed before the 1928 election, as most Democrats decided to sit out the convention due to their belief the party had no chance of winning the November election.Paulson, Arthur C.; Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American Democracy; p. 61 1555536670 Consequently, Al Smith, a four-term Governor of New York, was able to win the party's nomination on the first ballot of the 1928 Democratic National Convention. Four characteristics of Smith made him anything but an ideal candidate for Southern Democrats: he was a devout Catholic, opposed to Prohibition, linked with New York City's Tammany Hall political machine, and the son of Irish and Italian immigrants. Although it is generally thought that the South would have accepted a man possessing one of those characteristics,Kennedy; David M. and Cohen, Lizabeth; The American Pageant, Volume 2, p. 739 1111831432 the combination proved a bitter dose for many of Alabama's loyal Democrats. It was also thought by some, including those close to the revived Ku Klux Klan, that Smith was too friendly with blacksRappleye; Charles; Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency, p. 39 1451648677 and some Alabama whites unsubtly called Smith "nigger, nigger, nigger."Feldman, Glenn; Before Brown: Civil Rights and White Backlash in the Modern South; p. 270 0817351345 These people did not think Hoover any "safer" on the race issue, although they did prefer Hoover's view on Prohibition.Feldman, Glenn; Politics, Society, and the Klan in Alabama, 1915-1949; p. 190 0817309845 The conflict between disapproval of Smith's faith and policies on one hand and extreme traditional hostility towards the Republican Party in almost all of Alabama (the only exceptions being the historically anti-secession counties of Winston and a few populist strongholds like Chilton) produced an exceptionally bitter campaign.Feldman; Politics, Society and the Klan in Alabama; p. 168. Black Belt whites – who had controlled the state government since the disenfranchisement of blacks and poor whites – also felt Smith's social views obnoxious, especially his opposition to the Ku Klux Klan. Consequently, many of Alabama's voters swore to vote for Hoover without declaring themselves Republicans, instead calling themselves "Hoovercrats". Defections were particularly pronounced in North Alabama, where a contiguous block of counties from Birmingham northeastwards to the Tennessee border uniformly gave majorities for Hoover. Hoover also won several counties in the far southern coastal regions, whose soils had always proved unsuitable for cotton plantations.Key, V.O. junior; Southern Politics in State and Nation; p. 328 087049435X On the other hand, the whites of the black belt, who were like Al Smith "wet" (opposed to prohibition of alcohol), did not bolt from the Democratic Party because of this alcohol issue and their strong view that the Democrats were the best safeguard for white supremacy.Key; Southern Politics in State and Nation; pp. 234, 319. Results 1928 United States presidential election in AlabamaPartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Democratic Al Smith 127,797 51.33% 12 Republican Herbert Hoover 120,753 48.50% 0 Socialist Norman Thomas 460 0.18% 0 Voter turnout (voting age) 18.8%Gans, Curtis and Mulling, Matthew; Voter Turnout in the United States, 1788-2009, p. 383 9781604265958 Results by county CountyAl SmithDemocraticHerbert HooverRepublicanNorman ThomasSocialistMarginTotal votes castScammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 27–28 0405077114#%#%#%#%Autauga88356.39%68343.61%00.00%200 12.78% 1,566Baldwin1,31748.44%1,38851.05%140.51% -71 -2.61%2,719Barbour1,50763.48%84535.59%230.97%662 27.89% 2374Bibb1,18854.02%1,00345.61%80.36%185 8.41% 2,199Blount1,60747.94%1,74552.06%00.00% -138 -4.12%3,352Bullock69973.73%24926.27%00.00%450 47.46% 948Butler1,23563.86%69936.14%00.00%536 27.72% 1,934Calhoun2,11745.48%2,53754.50%10.02% -420 -9.02%4,655Chambers99936.58%1,73263.42%00.00% -733 -26.84%2,731Cherokee89437.05%1,51562.78%40.17% -621 -25.73%2,413Chilton1,40230.52%3,18669.37%50.11% -1,784 -38.85%4,593Choctaw1,24274.33%42925.67%00.00%813 48.66% 1671Clarke1,66263.97%93636.03%00.00%726 27.94% 2,598Clay97834.10%1,88965.86%10.03% -911 -31.76%2,868Cleburne79441.75%1,10858.25%00.00% -314 -16.50%1,902Coffee1,60960.83%1,03639.17%00.00%573 21.66% 2,645Colbert2,59665.75%1,24931.64%1032.61%1,347 34.11% 3,948Conecuh85843.53%1,11356.47%00.00% -255 -12.94%1,971Coosa69939.31%1,07860.63%10.06% -379 -21.32%1,778Covington2,00054.26%1,68145.60%50.14%319 8.66% 3,686Crenshaw1,31457.33%97842.67%00.00%336 14.66% 2,292Cullman1,57434.72%2,95965.28%00.00% -1,385 -30.56%4,533Dale1,23355.19%1,00044.76%10.04%233 10.43% 2,234Dallas1,90572.96%70527.00%10.04%1,200 45.96% 2,611DeKalb3,95740.71%5,76159.27%20.02% -1,804 -18.56%9,720Elmore1,30942.49%1,77057.45%20.06% -461 -14.96%3,081Escambia1,07738.03%1,75461.94%10.04% -677 -23.91%2,832Etowah2,48443.70%3,16255.63%380.67% -678 -11.93%5,684Fayette1,13140.13%1,68659.83%10.04% -555 -19.70%2818Franklin2,27943.64%2,93756.24%60.11% -658 -12.60%5,222Geneva1,48549.20%1,53350.80%00.00% -48 -1.60%3,018Greene60193.91%396.09%00.00%562 87.82% 640Hale1,04872.23%40327.77%00.00%645 44.46% 1,451Henry81550.53%79649.35%20.12%19 1.18% 1,613Houston2,29053.81%1,96346.12%30.07%327 7.69% 4,256Jackson2,15341.03%3,08158.72%130.25% -928 -17.69%5,247Jefferson16,73547.94%18,06051.74%1120.32% -1,325 -3.80%34,907Lamar1,41263.72%80436.28%00.00%608 27.44% 2,216Lauderdale2,76367.82%1,41034.61%10.02%1,353 33.21% 4,074Lawrence1,03550.59%1,00849.27%30.15%27 1.32% 2,046Lee1,43658.97%1,01641.72%30.12%420 17.25% 2,435Limestone1,68980.58%40719.42%00.00%1,282 61.16% 2,096Lowndes70379.61%18020.39%00.00%523 59.22% 883Macon52659.98%34839.68%30.34%178 20.30% 877Madison2,68149.85%2,69550.11%20.04% -14 -0.26%5,378Marengo1,89871.62%75228.38%00.00%1,146 43.24% 2,650Marion1,54150.87%1,48849.13%00.00%53 1.74% 3,029Marshall2,32247.94%2,51151.84%110.23% -189 -3.90%4,844Mobile5,96554.07%5,05845.84%100.09%907 8.23% 11,033Monroe1,34357.22%1,07445.76%00.00%269 11.46% 2,347Montgomery6,34767.06%3,11432.90%30.03%3,233 34.16% 9,464Morgan3,36645.12%4,08554.76%90.12% -719 -9.64%7,460Perry1,24272.97%45926.97%10.06%783 46.00% 1,702Pickens1,02861.85%63438.15%00.00%394 23.70% 1,662Pike1,81976.59%55223.24%40.17%1,267 53.35% 2,375Randolph1,25740.89%1,81559.04%20.07% -558 -18.15%3,074Russell84670.68%33327.82%181.50%513 42.86% 1,197St. Clair1,31333.70%2,58166.25%20.05% -1,268 -32.55%3,896Shelby1,67939.95%2,50259.53%220.52% -823 -19.58%4,203Sumter1,01584.16%19115.84%00.00%824 68.32% 1,206Talladega1,69351.18%1,60248.43%130.39%91 2.75% 3,308Tallapoosa1,84959.51%1,25740.46%10.03%592 19.05% 3,107Tuscaloosa2,76969.56%1,21030.39%20.05%1,559 39.17% 3,981Walker4,22853.77%3,63546.23%00.00%593 7.54% 7,863Washington71858.18%51541.73%10.08%203 16.45% 1,234Wilcox97978.57%26621.35%10.08%713 57.22% 1,246Winston65924.01%2,08575.96%10.04% -1,426 -51.95%2,745Totals127,79651.33%120,72548.49%4600.18%7,0712.84%248,981 Analysis Overall, Smith held the state by just over seven thousand votes, although opponents of Smith believed that electoral fraud was widespread in the Black Belt. State judges Hugh Locke, Horace Wilkinson and Ira Champion argued that up to seventeen thousand ballots for Hoover had been rejected.Helm, William P. (junior); 'Smith Foes Want Alabama Recount: Assert Southern "Stronghold" Went for Hoover; To Ask Congressional Action – Fraud Evidence Claimed'; The Washington Post, December 12, 1928, p. 2. No recount, however, was ever contemplated by authorities. This result constitutes the third-closest presidential election in Alabama's history after that of 1980, another Republican landslide (this time affected by the personal vote in the South for President Jimmy Carter, a lifelong Georgian), and that of 1848, when Democratic nominee Lewis Cass won the state by 1.12 percentage points while narrowly losing the presidency to Southern Whig nominee Zachary Taylor, who was living in Louisiana. A strong correlation was revealed between the percentage of blacks in the population and (white) voter loyalty to the Democratic Party (with the r-value equaling 0.7268): of the twenty-six counties won by Hoover, only five had a population over thirty percent Negro, and most of these were urban areas less attached to the traditions of black belt politics, while Chambers County was the home of Hoovercrat senator J. Thomas Heflin.Key; Southern Politics in State and Nation; p. 324. At the other extreme, of the ten counties possessing populations under ten percent African American in 1930,Bunche, Ralph J.; The Political Status of the Negro in the Age of FDR, p. 65 0226080285Alabama counties with a 1930 population less than ten percent Negro were Blount, Cherokee, Cleburne, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Marion, Marshall and Winston. Calvin Coolidge had won Cleburne, DeKalb, Franklin, and Winston in 1924, whilst Warren G. Harding won all these four plus Cullman in 1920. only Marion County stayed loyal to Smith and only by a very narrow margin. See also United States presidential elections in Alabama Notes References 2 expanded Alabama 1928 Category:1928 Alabama elections