1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina

none June 2025 September 2023 1956 United States presidential election 1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina South Carolina presidential no 1952 United States presidential election in South Carolina 1952 1960 United States presidential election in South Carolina 1960 All 8 South Carolina votes to the Electoral College November 6, 1956https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1956 United States Presidential election of 1956 – Encyclopædia Britannica June 10, 2017 x160px Adlai Stevenson close-up.jpg Adlai Stevenson Democratic Party (United States) Illinois Estes Kefauver 8 136,372 45.37% 3x4.svg Unpledged electors “Nominated by Petition” 0 88,509 29.45% Dwight David Eisenhower 1952 crop.jpg Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Party (United States) PennsylvaniaAlthough he was born in Texas and grew up in Kansas before his military career, at the time of the 1952 election Eisenhower was president of Columbia University and was, officially, a resident of New York. During his first term as president, he moved his private residence to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and officially changed his residency to Pennsylvania.http://www.uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/INFORMATION/presidents.php The Presidents September 27, 2017 David Leip Eisenhower's home state for the 1956 Election was Pennsylvania Richard Nixon 0 75,700 25.18% File:1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina results map by county.svg 325px County results Stevenson #b9d7ff 40–50% #86b6f2 50–60% #4389e3 60–70% #1666cb 70–80% #0645b4 80–90% Unpledged #ffeeaa 30–40% #ffe680 40–50% #ffdc43 50–60% #f4c200 60–70% #daae00 70–80% Eisenhower #ffccd0 30–40% #e27f90 50–60% President Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Party (United States) Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Party (United States) The 1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the 1956 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose eighthttps://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/votes/1953_1957.html#1956 1956 Election for the Forty-Fourth Term (1961-65) June 10, 2017 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. For six decades up to 1950 South Carolina had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whites opposed to secession.Phillips Kevin P. The Emerging Republican Majority November 23, 2014 9780691163246 208, 210 Princeton University Press Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential voteMickey Robert Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972 2015 978-0691149639 440 Princeton University Press – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age populationMickey. Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27 (or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population). This absolute loyalty began to break down during World War II when Vice-presidents Henry A. Wallace and Harry Truman began to realize that a legacy of discrimination against blacks was a threat to the United States' image abroad and its ability to win the Cold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric of Communism.Fredericksen Karl A. The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South 2001 0807849103 52 Univ of North Carolina Press In the 1948 presidential election, Truman was backed by only 24 percent of South Carolina's limited electorate – most of that from the relatively few upcountry poor whites able to meet rigorous voting requirements – and state Governor Strom Thurmond won 71 percent, carrying every county except Anderson and Spartanburg. Despite Truman announcing as early as May 1950 that he would not run again for president in 1952,Truman Harry S. President Harry S. Truman's Office Files, 1945-1953 1556551533 30 it had already become clear that South Carolina's rulers remained severely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party.Bedingfield Sid Beating Down the Fear: The Civil Sphere and Political Change in South Carolina, 1940-1962 University of South Carolina Dissertations 2014 139 2793 Both Thurmond and former Governor James F. Byrnes would endorse national Republican nominee Dwight D. EisenhowerMayer Michael S. The Eisenhower Years 2009 978-1438119083 767 Infobase – who ran under an independent label in South Carolina – and Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson II only won narrowly due to two- and three-to-one majorities in the poor white counties that had given substantial opposition to Thurmond in 1948.Strong Donald S. August 1955 The Presidential Election in the South, 1952 The Journal of Politics University of Chicago Press 17 3 343–389 10.1017/S0022381600091064 During the first Eisenhower term, South Carolina's whites who had supported him became extremely critical because Eisenhower was blamed for Brown v. Board of Education, whose requirement of desegregating the state's schools was intolerable. Consequently, state leaders like Thurmond argued that the GOP could not be a useful tool for opposing civil rights, and most of the state's Democrats endorsed Stevenson for his rematch with Eisenhower.Mickey. Paths Out of Dixie, p. 233 Byrnes, however, obtained 35,000 petitions for an alternative slate of unpledged electors, whom he naturally endorsed when ballot access was obtained for that slate.September 12, 1956 South Carolina Democratic Party Split 6 The Decatur Daily Review In mid-October, the consensus among pollsters was that the state's vote would be sharply split between the three slates,See Association with Youth Can Furnish New Confidence in future of America Florence Morning News October 17, 1956 4 although polls just before election day suggested that Stevenson was likely to carry the state.November 6, 1956 Southern Negroes Seen Casting Heaviest Vote Since Reconstruction Days 9 Tampa Tribune Results 1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina Adlai Stevenson Democratic Party (United States) 136,372 45.37% Unpledged electors “Nominated by Petition” 88,509 29.45% Dwight D. Eisenhower (inc.) Republican Party (United States) 75,700 25.18% Write-in 2 0.00% 300,583 100% Results by county County Adlai StevensonDemocratic Unpledged ElectorsNominated by Petition Dwight D. EisenhowerRepublican Margin Total votes cast # % # % # % # % Abbeville 2,985 83.36% 257 7.18% 339 9.47% 2,646"EisenhowerdUnpledged" In this county where Eisenhower did run ahead of the unpledged slate, margin given is Stevenson vote minus Eisenhower vote and percentage margin Stevenson percentage minus Eisenhower percentage. 73.89% 3,581 Aiken 4,280 34.81% 1,821 14.81% 6,195 50.38% -1,915"EisenhowerdUnpledged" -15.57% 12,296 Allendale 380 28.85% 675 51.25% 262 19.89% -295 -22.40% 1,317 Anderson 11,344 76.80% 1,241 8.40% 2,186 14.80% 9,158"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 62.00% 14,771 Bamberg 430 22.95% 1,118 59.66% 326 17.40% -688 -36.71% 1,874 Barnwell 1,914 63.61% 575 19.11% 520 17.28% 1,339 44.50% 3,009 Beaufort 710 25.57% 1,016 36.59% 1,051 37.85% 35"EisenhowerdStevenson" In this county where Stevenson ran third behind both Eisenhower and the unpledged slate, margin given is Eisenhower vote minus unpledged vote and percentage margin Eisenhower percentage minus unpledged slate percentage. 1.26% 2,777 Berkeley 902 24.14% 1,779 47.62% 1,055 28.24% -724"EisenhowerdStevenson" -19.38% 3,736 Calhoun 341 28.90% 693 58.73% 146 12.37% -352 -29.83% 1,180 Charleston 4,028 16.07% 13,558 54.07% 7,487 29.86% -6,071"EisenhowerdStevenson" -24.21% 25,073 Cherokee 3,687 75.21% 308 6.28% 907 18.50% 2,780"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 56.71% 4,902 Chester 2,951 62.80% 741 15.77% 1,007 21.43% 1,944"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 41.37% 4,699 Chesterfield 3,559 71.35% 634 12.71% 795 15.94% 2,764"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 55.41% 4,988 Clarendon 661 24.74% 1,787 66.88% 224 8.38% -1,126 -42.14% 2,672 Colleton 1,463 36.14% 1,950 48.17% 635 15.69% -487 -12.03% 4,048 Darlington 2,908 40.91% 2,603 36.62% 1,597 22.47% 305 4.29% 7,108 Dillon 1,879 62.97% 792 26.54% 313 10.49% 1,087 36.43% 2,984 Dorchester 862 26.80% 1,851 57.54% 504 15.67% -989 -30.74% 3,217 Edgefield 525 25.71% 1,001 49.02% 516 25.27% -476 -23.31% 2,042 Fairfield 961 36.29% 1,168 44.11% 519 19.60% -207 -7.82% 2,648 Florence 3,463 35.46% 4,447 45.54% 1,855 19.00% -984 -10.08% 9,765 Georgetown 1,020 23.39% 2,284 52.37% 1,057 24.24% -1,227"EisenhowerdStevenson" -28.13% 4,361 Greenville 11,819 43.46% 4,622 17.00% 10,752 39.54% 1,067"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 3.92% 27,193 Greenwood 4,386 64.95% 1,247 18.47% 1,120 16.59% 3,139 46.48% 6,753 Hampton 564 27.43% 1,133 55.11% 359 17.46% -569 -27.68% 2,056 Horry 4,835 59.17% 2,244 27.46% 1,092 13.36% 2,591 31.71% 8,171 Jasper 210 16.52% 658 51.77% 403 31.71% -255"EisenhowerdStevenson" -20.06% 1,271 Kershaw 1,875 34.79% 1,996 37.04% 1,518 28.17% -121 -2.25% 5,389 Lancaster 4,398 66.26% 629 9.48% 1,610 24.26% 2,788"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 42.00% 6,637 Laurens 3,726 56.05% 1,545 23.24% 1,377 20.71% 2,181 32.81% 6,648 Lee 943 38.26% 1,272 51.60% 250 10.14% -329 -13.34% 2,465 Lexington 2,094 36.50% 2,455 42.79% 1,188 20.71% -361 -6.29% 5,737 Marion 1,390 43.99% 1,353 42.82% 417 13.20% 37 1.17% 3,160 Marlboro 1,769 63.22% 522 18.66% 507 18.12% 1,247 44.56% 2,798 McCormick 485 55.81% 282 32.45% 102 11.74% 203 23.36% 869 Newberry 2,671 52.07% 1,398 27.25% 1,061 20.68% 1,273 24.82% 5,130 Oconee 3,510 73.17% 376 7.84% 911 18.99% 2,599"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 54.18% 4,797 Orangeburg 2,511 36.28% 2,943 42.52% 1,467 21.20% -432 -6.24% 6,921 Pickens 1,847 43.17% 684 15.99% 1,747 40.84% 100"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 2.33% 4,278 Richland 6,154 27.49% 9,516 42.51% 6,714 29.99% -2,802"EisenhowerdStevenson" -12.52% 22,384 Saluda 1,080 47.24% 865 37.84% 341 14.92% 215 9.40% 2,286 Spartanburg 16,637 65.03% 2,124 8.30% 6,822 26.67% 9,815"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 38.36% 25,583 Sumter 937 15.53% 3,741 62.00% 1,356 22.47% -2,385"EisenhowerdStevenson" -39.53% 6,034 Union 3,760 66.10% 676 11.88% 1,252 22.01% 2,508"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 44.09% 5,688 Williamsburg 683 18.20% 2,739 73.00% 330 8.80% -2,056 -54.80% 3,752 York 6,835 59.25% 1,192 10.33% 3,508 30.41% 3,327"EisenhowerdUnpledged" 28.84% 11,535Totals136,37245.37%88,50929.45%75,70025.18%47,86315.92%300,583 Counties that flipped from Democratic to Unpledged Florence Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic Greenville Marion Newberry Pickens Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican Aiken Counties that flipped from Republican to Unpledged 20em Berkeley Allendale Bamberg Calhoun Charleston Clarendon Colleton Dorchester Edgefield Hampton Jasper Kershaw Georgetown Lee Lexington Orangeburg Richland Sumter Williasburg Analysis Ultimately South Carolina was won by Adlai Stevenson II (D–Illinois), running with Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver by a more decisive margin than polls predicted.http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/showelection.php?year=1956 The American Presidency Project – Election of 1956 June 10, 2017 Stevenson gained 45.37 percent of the popular vote thanks to his continued dominance of the upcountry, whilst Eisenhower and the unpledged slate divided the lowcountry vote, with the unpledged slate finishing second with 29.45 percent and Eisenhower – this time running under the “Republican” banner – with 25.18 percenthttp://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=45&year=1956 1956 Presidential General Election Results – South Carolina June 10, 2017 Wealthier whites left Eisenhower for the unpledged slate in large numbers, but unlike in 1952 when the small number of black voters strongly supported Stevenson, Eisenhower gained substantial, even majority, support from blacks able to vote in Charleston and Columbia. The 1956 election in South Carolina marks the second of only three times in the 20th century that an incumbent president has finished third in any state.The other cases are William Howard Taft, who finished third overall in 1912, and George H. W. Bush, who finished third in Maine in 1992. Harry S. Truman in 1948 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, however, were not even on the ballot in Alabama due to intractable opposition to those presidents’ civil rights policies by Alabama’s ruling politicians. 2020 11 As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last time that a Republican has been elected president without carrying South Carolina, and the last time that Greenville County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. It is also the last time that Lexington County was not carried by the Republican candidate.Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016 Notes References South Carolina 1956 Category:1956 South Carolina elections