1948 United States presidential election in Alabama

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United States presidential election in Alabama, 1948

← 1944 November 2, 1948 1952 →
  StromThurmond.png ThomasDewey.png
Nominee Strom Thurmond Thomas E. Dewey
Party Democratic Republican
Home state South Carolina New York
Running mate Fielding L. Wright Earl Warren
Electoral vote 11 0
Popular vote 171,443 40,930
Percentage 79.75% 19.04%

200px
County Results

President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. In the United States presidential election of 1948, Alabama was the only state in which the National Democratic Party candidate, incumbent president Harry S. Truman, did not appear on the ballot. The state Supreme Court ruled that any statute requiring party presidential electors to vote for that party's national nominee was void.[1] A "Loyalist" group did petition governor "Big Jim" Folsom to allow Truman electors, but Senator John Sparkman, fearing popular defeat at the hands of the Dixiecrats and a hostile state legislature, decided against placing Truman electors on the ballot.[2]

In other Southern states where he was on the ballot,[lower-alpha 1] Thurmond was forced to run under the label of the States' Rights Democratic Party.

Thurmond overwhelmingly won Alabama by a margin of 60.71%, or 130,513 votes, against his closest opponent, New York governor Thomas E. Dewey.[3] Two third-party candidates, Henry A. Wallace of the Progressive Party and Claude Watson of the Prohibition Party, appeared on the ballot in Alabama, though neither had any impact on the election.

Analysis

Southern Democrats walked out at the party's national convention in Philadelphia because of Truman's endorsement of civil rights for African Americans. This segregationist faction met on July 17, 1948, in Birmingham, Alabama, nominating South Carolina governor James Strom Thurmond as its nominee for president. Mississippi governor Fielding L. Wright was nominated for vice president.

Thurmond won 66 of Alabama's 67 counties, with the sole holdout being in the northern part of the state where Winston County gave Dewey over sixty percent of the vote.

Results

United States presidential election in Alabama, 1948[3]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Democratic J. Strom Thurmond 171,443 79.75% 11
Republican Thomas E. Dewey 40,930 19.04% 0
Progressive Henry A. Wallace 1,522 0.71% 0
Prohibition Claude Watson 1,085 0.50% 0
Voter turnout (Voting age) 12.5%[4]

Results by county

County Thurmond#[5] Thurmond% Dewey#[6] Dewey% Wallace#[7] Wallace% Watson# Watson% Total votes cast
Autauga 1,160 90.20% 110 8.55% 2 0.16% 14 1.09% 1,286
Baldwin 2,577 74.80% 767 22.26% 67 1.94% 34 0.99% 3,445
Barbour 1,679 93.90% 101 5.65% 2 0.11% 6 0.34% 1,788
Bibb 1,188 88.46% 123 9.16% 8 0.60% 24 1.79% 1,343
Blount 1,768 68.98% 771 30.08% 2 0.08% 22 0.86% 2,563
Bullock 799 98.76% 10 1.24% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 809
Butler 1,313 93.19% 91 6.46% 2 0.14% 3 0.21% 1,409
Calhoun 3,236 77.40% 856 20.47% 60 1.44% 29 0.69% 4,181
Chambers 1,520 86.02% 218 12.34% 11 0.62% 18 1.02% 1,767
Cherokee 1,055 81.59% 217 16.78% 3 0.23% 18 1.39% 1,293
Chilton 1,966 55.09% 1,584 44.38% 5 0.14% 14 0.39% 3,569
Choctaw 1,440 98.83% 16 1.10% 0 0.00% 1 0.07% 1,457
Clarke 2,059 97.58% 47 2.23% 0 0.00% 4 0.19% 2,110
Clay 1,106 73.64% 387 25.77% 2 0.13% 7 0.47% 1,502
Cleburne 700 68.16% 317 30.87% 7 0.68% 3 0.29% 1,027
Coffee 2,031 94.38% 113 5.25% 7 0.33% 1 0.05% 2,152
Colbert 2,609 83.49% 488 15.62% 14 0.45% 14 0.45% 3,125
Conecuh 1,339 95.03% 64 4.54% 2 0.14% 4 0.28% 1,409
Coosa 840 74.73% 275 24.47% 3 0.27% 6 0.53% 1,124
Covington 2,764 94.14% 154 5.25% 6 0.20% 12 0.41% 2,936
Crenshaw 1,386 96.79% 38 2.65% 1 0.07% 7 0.49% 1,432
Cullman 3,587 66.87% 1,755 32.72% 6 0.11% 16 0.30% 5,364
Dale 1,352 84.39% 230 14.36% 7 0.44% 13 0.81% 1,602
Dallas 2,720 94.77% 132 4.60% 9 0.31% 9 0.31% 2,870
DeKalb 3,573 56.42% 2,743 43.31% 7 0.11% 10 0.16% 6,333
Elmore 2,387 92.88% 167 6.50% 6 0.23% 10 0.39% 2,570
Escambia 1,681 89.32% 188 9.99% 11 0.58% 2 0.11% 1,882
Etowah 5,895 76.95% 1,615 21.08% 107 1.40% 44 0.57% 7,661
Fayette 1,023 63.07% 580 35.76% 7 0.43% 12 0.74% 1,622
Franklin 3,226 55.68% 2,555 44.10% 5 0.09% 8 0.14% 5,794
Geneva 1,823 85.87% 286 13.47% 5 0.24% 9 0.42% 2,123
Greene 621 94.66% 31 4.73% 0 0.00% 4 0.61% 656
Hale 1,041 95.77% 43 3.96% 2 0.18% 1 0.09% 1,087
Henry 1,040 95.59% 47 4.32% 0 0.00% 1 0.09% 1,088
Houston 2,715 85.78% 426 13.46% 18 0.57% 6 0.19% 3,165
Jackson 1,726 73.54% 603 25.69% 3 0.13% 15 0.64% 2,347
Jefferson 30,043 79.35% 7,261 19.18% 361 0.95% 196 0.52% 37,861
Lamar 1,434 88.41% 180 11.10% 2 0.12% 6 0.37% 1,622
Lauderdale 3,258 85.24% 546 14.29% 6 0.16% 12 0.31% 3,822
Lawrence 1,436 79.51% 357 19.77% 3 0.17% 10 0.55% 1,806
Lee 1,731 86.25% 258 12.86% 5 0.25% 13 0.65% 2,007
Limestone 1,853 93.49% 112 5.65% 4 0.20% 13 0.66% 1,982
Lowndes 752 94.95% 13 1.64% 25 3.16% 2 0.25% 792
Macon 1,098 90.67% 110 9.08% 3 0.25% 0 0.00% 1,211
Madison 2,947 83.58% 466 13.22% 39 1.11% 74 2.10% 3,526
Marengo 1,873 96.40% 67 3.45% 3 0.15% 0 0.00% 1,943
Marion 1,646 66.48% 813 32.84% 4 0.16% 13 0.53% 2,476
Marshall 2,500 73.81% 870 25.69% 8 0.24% 9 0.27% 3,387
Mobile 10,831 78.29% 2,685 19.41% 257 1.86% 62 0.45% 13,835
Monroe 1,688 97.86% 31 1.80% 2 0.12% 4 0.23% 1,725
Montgomery 6,196 86.01% 802 11.13% 146 2.03% 60 0.83% 7,204
Morgan 3,841 87.65% 512 11.68% 9 0.21% 20 0.46% 4,382
Perry 1,032 95.47% 30 2.78% 5 0.46% 14 1.30% 1,081
Pickens 1,423 93.37% 91 5.97% 5 0.33% 5 0.33% 1,524
Pike 1,741 94.93% 87 4.74% 3 0.16% 3 0.16% 1,834
Randolph 1,249 72.20% 469 27.11% 7 0.40% 5 0.29% 1,730
Russell 1,666 93.81% 94 5.29% 11 0.62% 5 0.28% 1,776
Shelby 1,903 63.86% 1,063 35.67% 3 0.10% 11 0.37% 2,980
St. Clair 1,878 66.60% 921 32.66% 8 0.28% 13 0.46% 2,820
Sumter 1,058 95.06% 52 4.67% 0 0.00% 3 0.27% 1,113
Talladega 3,077 83.05% 593 16.01% 12 0.32% 23 0.62% 3,705
Tallapoosa 2,309 93.33% 156 6.31% 1 0.04% 8 0.32% 2,474
Tuscaloosa 4,697 86.10% 658 12.06% 50 0.92% 50 0.92% 5,455
Walker 4,007 66.47% 1,852 30.72% 133 2.21% 36 0.60% 6,028
Washington 1,304 97.02% 31 2.31% 6 0.45% 3 0.22% 1,344
Wilcox 1,162 98.81% 14 1.19% 0 0.00% 0 0.00% 1,176
Winston 865 35.05% 1,588 64.34% 4 0.16% 11 0.45% 2,468
Totals 171,443 79.75% 40,930 19.04% 1,522 0.71% 1,085 0.50% 214,980

References

  1. Key, V.O. junior; Southern Politics in State and Nation; p. 340 ISBN 087049435X
  2. Barnard, William D.; Dixiecrats and Democrats: Alabama Politics, p. 123 ISBN 0817302557
  3. 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. Gans, Curtis and Mulling, Matthew; Voter Turnout in the United States, 1788-2009, p. 481 ISBN 9781604265958
  5. Géoelections; Popular Vote for Strom Thurmond (xlsx file for €15)
  6. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 31-32 ISBN 0405077114
  7. Géoelections; Popular Vote for Henry Wallace (xlsx file for €15)

Notes

  1. Thurmond was on the ballot in all former Confederate slave states, in the border slave state of Kentucky and the postbellum state of North Dakota, besides receiving a total of 3,769 write-in votes in New Hampshire, New York, Maryland, Missouri and California.