1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina

Summary

The 1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 7, 1944, as part of the 1944 United States presidential election. State voters chose 8 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina

← 1940 November 7, 1944 1948 →
 
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Unpledged electors
Party Democratic Dixiecrat
Home state New York
Running mate Harry S. Truman
Electoral vote 8 0
Popular vote 90,601 7,799
Percentage 87.64% 7.54%

County Results
Roosevelt
  50-60%
  60-70%
  70-80%
  80-90%
  90-100%


President before election

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

Elected President

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic

For six decades 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.[1] Between 1900 and 1940, no Republican presidential candidate had obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote[2] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6% of the total voting-age population[3] (or approximately 15% of the voting-age white population).

By the time of the 1944 election, however, questions were emerging within the state Democratic Party following the landmark court case of Smith v. Allwright earlier in the year and support for black civil rights by incumbent Vice-President Henry A. Wallace.[4] The liberal drift of the national party on economic issues also worried Southern White Democrats.[5] Although the South did succeed in replacing Wallace on the ticket by border state Democrat Harry S. Truman, for some this was an inadequate compromise, and consequently a slate of “unpledged electors” were placed on the ballot in South Carolina[6] – in the process foreshadowing the Dixiecrat bolt that would begin in the following election to completely transform the state's politics.

Despite fears of what the national Democratic Party might do to the social structure of the South, FDR remained extremely popular in the region. His renomination was supported by over eighty percent of those polled in 1943.[6] Consequently, South Carolina was won by Roosevelt over New York governor Thomas E. Dewey by a landslide margin of 83.18%. The unpledged slate of anti-Roosevelt Southern Democrats received a moderate 7.54% of the vote, doing best among the wealthy planter class in the lowcountry. As of the 2020 presidential election, this constitutes the last election in which Lexington County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. Thus, this is the last time Democrats swept every county in the state.[7] This was also the first time that Dillon County voted less than 90% for any Democratic candidate.

Results edit

1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina[8]
Party Candidate Running mate Popular vote Electoral vote
Count % Count %
Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York Harry S. Truman of Missouri 90,601 87.64% 8 100.00%
N/A Others Others 7,799 7.54% 0 0.00%
Republican Thomas Edmund Dewey of New York John William Bricker of Ohio 4,610 4.46% 0 0.00%
Prohibition Claude A. Watson of California Andrew Nathan Johnson of Kentucky 365 0.35% 0 0.00%
Total 103,375 100.00% 8 100.00%

Results by county edit

1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina by county[9][10]
County Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Thomas Edmund Dewey
Republican
No Candidate
Unpledged Southern Democratic
Claude A. Watson
Prohibition
Margin[a] Total votes cast
# % # % # % # % # %
Abbeville 789 96.34% 19 2.32% 11 1.34% 0 0.00% 770[b] 94.02% 819
Aiken 2,403 91.26% 60 2.28% 167 6.46% 3 0.11% 2,236 84.80% 2,633
Allendale 678 94.43% 8 1.11% 32 4.46% 0 0.00% 646 89.97% 718
Anderson 2,687 90.23% 89 2.99% 201 6.78% 1 0.03% 2,486 83.45% 2,978
Bamberg 737 70.80% 106 10.18% 198 19.02% 0 0.00% 539 51.78% 1,041
Barnwell 1,482 98.41% 8 0.53% 13 1.06% 3 0.20% 1,469 97.35% 1,506
Beaufort 594 74.53% 108 13.55% 95 11.92% 0 0.00% 486[b] 60.98% 797
Berkeley 521 72.77% 32 4.47% 156 22.77% 7 0.98% 365 50.00% 716
Calhoun 602 87.76% 1 0.15% 65 12.10% 18 2.62% 537 75.66% 686
Charleston 6,260 72.95% 1,184 13.80% 1,133 13.25% 4 0.05% 5,076[b] 59.15% 8,581
Cherokee 1,620 94.13% 68 3.95% 31 1.92% 2 0.12% 1,552[b] 90.18% 1,721
Chester 1,441 88.68% 89 5.48% 95 5.85% 0 0.00% 1,346 82.83% 1,625
Chesterfield 3,222 98.77% 15 0.46% 25 0.77% 0 0.00% 3,197 98.00% 3,262
Clarendon 1,053 81.69% 27 2.09% 199 16.21% 10 0.78% 854 65.48% 1,289
Colleton 1,653 82.77% 45 2.25% 289 14.97% 10 0.50% 1,364 67.80% 1,997
Darlington 1,808 91.41% 46 2.33% 119 6.27% 5 0.25% 1,689 85.14% 1,978
Dillon 864 86.06% 27 2.69% 90 11.25% 23 2.29% 774 74.81% 1,004
Dorchester 1,181 70.47% 65 3.88% 422 25.66% 8 0.48% 759 44.81% 1,676
Edgefield 654 92.24% 3 0.42% 52 7.33% 0 0.00% 602 84.91% 709
Fairfield 798 92.47% 21 2.43% 24 5.10% 20 2.32% 774 87.37% 863
Florence 2,822 87.86% 128 3.99% 238 8.16% 24 0.75% 2,584 79.70% 3,212
Georgetown 1,197 85.01% 52 3.69% 159 11.29% 0 0.00% 1,038 73.72% 1,408
Greenville 7,107 87.81% 711 8.78% 265 3.41% 11 0.14% 6,396[b] 79.03% 8,094
Greenwood 2,381 88.64% 71 2.64% 233 8.71% 1 0.04% 2,148 79.93% 2,686
Hampton 575 67.65% 3 0.35% 271 32.00% 1 0.12% 304 35.65% 850
Horry 2,403 88.09% 137 5.02% 183 6.89% 5 0.18% 2,220 81.20% 2,728
Jasper 230 50.66% 18 3.96% 203 45.37% 3 0.66% 27 5.29% 454
Kershaw 1,872 94.98% 21 1.07% 78 3.96% 0 0.00% 1,794 91.02% 1,971
Lancaster 2,383 93.97% 13 0.51% 133 5.52% 7 0.28% 2,250 88.45% 2,536
Laurens 1,924 93.40% 38 1.84% 96 4.76% 2 0.10% 1,828 88.64% 2,060
Lee 764 87.31% 50 5.71% 60 6.97% 1 0.11% 704 80.34% 875
Lexington 1,986 93.68% 20 0.94% 106 5.38% 8 0.38% 1,880 88.30% 2,120
Marion 858 92.86% 9 0.97% 42 6.17% 4 0.44% 816 86.69% 913
Marlboro 874 89.27% 34 3.47% 57 7.25% 0 0.00% 817 82.02% 965
McCormick 307 86.72% 1 0.28% 71 12.99% 0 0.00% 236 73.73% 379
Newberry 1,940 82.80% 70 2.99% 321 14.21% 12 0.51% 1,619 68.59% 2,343
Oconee 1,316 87.85% 106 7.08% 67 5.07% 9 0.60% 1,210[b] 80.77% 1,498
Orangeburg 2,440 90.61% 87 3.23% 159 6.16% 7 0.26% 2,281 84.45% 2,693
Pickens 1,662 67.34% 211 8.55% 505 24.11% 90 3.65% 1,157 43.23% 2,468
Richland 6,590 93.12% 140 1.98% 344 4.90% 3 0.04% 6,246 88.22% 7,077
Saluda 924 85.56% 14 1.30% 141 13.15% 1 0.09% 783 72.41% 1,080
Spartanburg 8,092 92.61% 402 4.60% 205 2.79% 39 0.45% 7,690[b] 88.01% 8,738
Sumter 2,111 87.92% 73 3.04% 217 9.04% 0 0.00% 1,894 78.88% 2,401
Union 3,041 96.48% 33 1.05% 66 2.47% 12 0.38% 2,975 94.01% 3,152
Williamsburg 1,118 86.60% 27 2.09% 142 11.31% 4 0.31% 976 75.29% 1,291
York 2,637 94.48% 127 4.55% 20 0.97% 7 0.25% 2,510[b] 89.93% 2,791
Totals 90,601 87.64% 4,617 4.47% 7,799 7.90% 365 0.35% 82,802 79.74% 103,382

Notes edit

  1. ^ Because the unpledged slate finished second ahead of Dewey in South Carolina as a whole, all margins given are Roosevelt vote minus unpledged vote unless otherwise stated.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h In this county where Dewey did finish ahead of the unpledged Southern Democratic slate, margin given is Roosevelt vote minus Dewey vote and percentage margin Roosevelt percentage minus Dewey percentage.

References edit

  1. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN 9780691163246
  2. ^ Mickey, Robert; Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972, p. 440 ISBN 0691149631
  3. ^ Mickey; Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27
  4. ^ Jordan, David M.; FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944, p. 55 ISBN 0253005620
  5. ^ Escott, Paul D. and Goldfield, David R.; The South for new southerners, p. 124 ISBN 0807842931
  6. ^ a b Bloom, Jack M.; Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, p. 72 ISBN 0253204070
  7. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  8. ^ "1944 Presidential General Election Results - South Carolina". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
  9. ^ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 396 ISBN 0405077114
  10. ^ "1944 Presidential Election Popular Vote". Géoelections. (.xlsx file for €15)