1908 United States presidential election in Georgia explained

See main article: 1908 United States presidential election.

Election Name:1908 United States presidential election in Georgia
Country:Georgia (U.S. state)
Flag Year:1906
Type:presidential
Vote Type:Popular
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1904 United States presidential election in Georgia
Previous Year:1904
Next Election:1912 United States presidential election in Georgia
Next Year:1912
Image1:Unsuccessful 1908.jpg
Nominee1:William Jennings Bryan
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Home State1:Nebraska
Running Mate1:John W. Kern
Electoral Vote1:13
Popular Vote1:72,350
Percentage1:54.60%
Nominee2:William Howard Taft
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Home State2:Ohio
Running Mate2:James S. Sherman
Electoral Vote2:0
Popular Vote2:41,355
Percentage2:31.21%
Image3:Tom E Watson.jpg
Nominee3:Thomas E. Watson
Party3:Populist Party (United States)
Home State3:Georgia
Running Mate3:Samuel Williams
Electoral Vote3:0
Popular Vote3:16,687
Percentage3:12.59%
Map Size:290px
President
Before Election:Theodore Roosevelt
Before Party:Republican Party (United States)
Posttitle:Elected President
After Election:William Howard Taft
After Party:Republican Party (United States)

The 1908 United States presidential election in Georgia took place on November 3, 1908, as part of the wider United States presidential election. Voters chose 13 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Following Reconstruction, Georgia would be the first former Confederate state to substantially disenfranchise its newly enfranchised freedmen, doing so in the early 1870s.[1] This largely limited the Republican Party to a few North Georgia counties with substantial Civil War Unionist sentiment – chiefly Fannin but also to a lesser extent Pickens, Gilmer and Towns.[2] The Democratic Party served as the guardian of white supremacy against a Republican Party historically associated with memories of Reconstruction, and the main competition became Democratic primaries, which state laws restricted to whites on the grounds of the Democratic Party being legally a private club.[3]

However, politics after the first demobilization by a cumulative poll tax was chaotic. Third-party movements, chiefly the Populist Party, gained support amongst poor whites and the remaining black voters in opposition to the planter elite.[4] The fact that Georgia had already substantially reduced its poor white and black electorate two decades ago, alongside pressure from urban elites in Atlanta,[4] meant the Populist movement substantially faded in the late 1890s.[5] Nevertheless, this did not prevent demands for more complete disenfranchisement after the state's politics again turned chaotic as former vice-presidential candidate Thomas E. Watson attempted to revive the Populist Party in 1904, whilst Hoke Smith ran for Governor as a radical reformist in 1906.[6]

Georgia was won by the Democratic nominees, former Nebraska Congressman and two-time prior Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan and his running mate John W. Kern of Indiana. They defeated the Republican candidates, United States Secretary of War William Howard Taft of Ohio and his running mate James S. Sherman of New York. Bryan won the state by a margin of 23.39%.

The aim of co-opting the Populists led Georgia to become the last former Confederate state to initiate a full-scale disenfranchisement plan to largely eliminate the seventy thousand or so blacks who remained on the rolls.[7] The process, involving a literacy test and a grandfather clause in addition to the poll tax, alongside statewide white primaries, was achieved in the next presidential election year, when a transformed Watson ran for the Populist Party on a white supremacist campaign. At the same time the Republican Party aimed to make gains in the South because of opposition by developing manufacturers to William Jennings Bryan’s populism,[8] and by nominee William Howard Taft’s willingness to accept black disfranchisement.[9]

At the beginning of September, Taft spoke of carrying Georgia and other southern states, though this idea was dismissed by Democratic committee members.[10] Polls, when taken in October, always suggested Bryan would win the state, though by a smaller margin than usual.[11] This was indeed the observed result, although anti-populist sentiment[8] resulted in the GOP carrying twelve secessionist upcountry counties that had never gone Republican before.[12] Watson fell substantially from his 1904 performance, and would disband the Populist Party after the election.

Bryan had previously won Georgia against William McKinley in both 1896 and 1900.

Results

1908 United States presidential election in Georgia[13]
PartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes
DemocraticWilliam Jennings Bryan72,35054.60%13
RepublicanWilliam Howard Taft41,35531.21%0
People'sThomas E. Watson16,68712.59%0
ProhibitionEugene W. Chafin1,4521.10%0
SocialistEugene V. Debs5840.44%0
IndependenceThomas L. Hisgen760.06%0

Results by county

CountyWilliam Jennings Bryan[14]
Democratic
William Howard Taft
Republican
Thomas Edward Watson
Populist
Eugene Wilder Chafin
Prohibition
Various candidates
Other parties
MarginTotal votes cast
data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %data-sort-type="number" data-sort-type="number" %
Appling24933.51%25033.65%24432.84%00.00%00.00%-1-0.13%743
Baker14969.63%3616.82%2913.55%00.00%00.00%11352.80%214
Baldwin41759.57%20128.71%7410.57%81.14%00.00%21630.86%700
Banks21136.38%22138.10%14725.34%10.17%00.00%-10-1.72%580
Bartow72645.60%78048.99%734.59%110.69%20.13%-54-3.39%1,592
Ben Hill40741.87%41242.39%495.04%10410.70%00.00%-5-0.51%972
Berrien59566.70%21223.77%647.17%192.13%20.22%38342.94%892
Bibb1,94675.46%56521.91%511.98%140.54%30.12%1,38153.55%2,579
Brooks47249.89%36238.27%10310.89%40.42%50.53%11011.63%946
Bulloch75669.36%11610.64%21820.00%00.00%00.00%53849.36%1,090
Burke51966.37%19324.68%708.95%00.00%00.00%32641.69%782
Butts34853.46%16725.65%13120.12%50.77%00.00%18127.80%651
Calhoun27265.70%10625.60%337.97%00.00%30.72%16640.10%414
Camden18143.20%23355.61%10.24%40.95%00.00%-52-12.41%419
Campbell21045.06%14030.04%11624.89%00.00%00.00%7015.02%466
Carroll91751.32%50528.26%35619.92%40.22%50.28%41223.06%1,787
Catoosa31759.03%21339.66%40.74%30.56%00.00%10419.37%537
Charlton12467.03%5328.65%21.08%63.24%00.00%7138.38%185
Chatham3,30572.54%1,20926.54%170.37%180.40%70.15%2,09646.01%4,556
Chattahoochee11145.12%11847.97%176.91%00.00%00.00%-7-2.85%246
Chattooga43736.39%71659.62%282.33%90.75%110.92%-279-23.23%1,201
Cherokee32629.32%66559.80%1008.99%60.54%151.35%-339-30.49%1,112
Clarke72070.24%20720.20%969.37%20.20%00.00%51350.05%1,025
Clay24254.14%16136.02%429.40%20.45%00.00%8118.12%447
Clayton24842.61%22338.32%9917.01%111.89%10.17%254.30%582
Clinch20254.45%15742.32%112.96%10.27%00.00%4512.13%371
Cobb88954.54%54833.62%17410.67%181.10%10.06%34120.92%1,630
Coffee53454.60%38239.06%545.52%20.20%60.61%15215.54%978
Colquitt39046.10%12514.78%32738.65%00.00%40.47%637.45%846
Columbia14442.11%123.51%18554.09%10.29%00.00%-41-11.99%342
Coweta1,03281.13%22017.30%191.49%10.08%00.00%81263.84%1,272
Crawford28583.58%247.04%329.38%00.00%00.00%25374.19%341
Crisp45265.04%20629.64%365.18%00.00%10.14%24635.40%695
Dade22871.47%7222.57%72.19%00.00%123.76%15648.90%319
Dawson12535.31%21961.86%51.41%51.41%00.00%-94-26.55%354
De Kalb74054.37%35626.16%21816.02%433.16%40.29%38428.21%1,361
Decatur78253.75%53736.91%1319.00%40.27%10.07%24516.84%1,455
Dodge54469.57%17722.63%445.63%10.13%162.05%36746.93%782
Dooly50758.48%27131.26%8710.03%20.23%00.00%23627.22%867
Dougherty58378.05%15821.15%60.80%00.00%00.00%42556.89%747
Douglas15228.95%18134.48%18735.62%40.76%10.19%-6-1.14%525
Early37553.65%17324.75%13619.46%30.43%121.72%20228.90%699
Echols14090.32%159.68%00.00%00.00%00.00%12580.65%155
Effingham30267.56%8919.91%5512.30%10.22%00.00%21347.65%447
Elbert71462.63%1039.04%30526.75%181.58%00.00%40935.88%1,140
Emanuel54935.19%53033.97%47330.32%80.51%00.00%191.22%1,560
Fannin42038.15%68161.85%00.00%00.00%00.00%-261-23.71%1,101
Fayette33851.76%16224.81%15123.12%00.00%20.31%17626.95%653
Floyd1,20458.82%67733.07%1386.74%251.22%30.15%52725.74%2,047
Forsyth15026.04%34559.90%7913.72%10.17%10.17%-195-33.85%576
Franklin37939.07%25326.08%32933.92%90.93%00.00%505.15%970
Fulton4,79058.89%2,90635.73%1902.34%1652.03%831.02%1,88423.16%8,134
Gilmer36040.63%51958.58%40.45%30.34%00.00%-159-17.95%886
Glascock6316.45%5213.58%26468.93%41.04%00.00%-201-52.48%383
Glynn46759.95%29838.25%121.54%20.26%00.00%16921.69%779
Gordon47640.00%61551.68%978.15%10.08%10.08%-139-11.68%1,190
Grady46348.79%23825.08%21522.66%333.48%00.00%22523.71%949
Greene41238.58%42840.07%20118.82%252.34%20.19%-16-1.50%1,068
Gwinnett67741.01%54132.77%39223.74%382.30%30.18%1368.24%1,651
Habersham36452.45%23033.14%7711.10%172.45%60.86%13419.31%694
Hall70747.74%63442.81%946.35%332.23%130.88%734.93%1,481
Hancock45774.80%8013.09%7111.62%20.33%10.16%37761.70%611
Haralson25228.03%50656.28%10611.79%232.56%121.33%-254-28.25%899
Harris55676.37%9412.91%7710.58%10.14%00.00%46263.46%728
Hart40850.43%19223.73%20024.72%50.62%40.49%20825.71%809
Heard20383.88%52.07%3414.05%00.00%00.00%16969.83%242
Henry36957.57%19430.27%274.21%517.96%00.00%17527.30%641
Houston85581.58%272.58%00.00%16615.84%00.00%68965.74%1,048
Irwin38865.54%17429.39%305.07%00.00%00.00%21436.15%592
Jackson73549.70%40627.45%32321.84%120.81%30.20%32922.24%1,479
Jasper55775.27%15520.95%283.78%00.00%00.00%40254.32%740
Jeff Davis17250.74%15646.02%113.24%00.00%00.00%164.72%339
Jefferson37350.54%36148.92%00.00%40.54%00.00%121.63%738
Jenkins18859.31%5316.72%7623.97%00.00%00.00%11235.33%317
Johnson13520.61%16224.73%35554.20%30.46%00.00%-193-29.47%655
Jones38552.38%32243.81%283.81%00.00%00.00%638.57%735
Laurens95741.90%73031.96%59426.01%00.00%30.13%2279.94%2,284
Lee33756.54%25242.28%71.17%00.00%00.00%8514.26%596
Liberty21927.65%41252.02%16020.20%10.13%00.00%-193-24.37%792
Lincoln15738.11%10.24%24960.44%51.21%00.00%-92-22.33%412
Lowndes68173.46%15416.61%586.26%313.34%30.32%52756.85%927
Lumpkin26154.49%21845.51%00.00%00.00%00.00%438.98%479
Macon35051.47%19628.82%13119.26%30.44%00.00%15422.65%680
Madison56068.29%17020.73%8910.85%00.00%10.12%39047.56%820
Marion21747.07%15533.62%8919.31%00.00%00.00%6213.45%461
McDuffie15730.78%254.90%32363.33%50.98%00.00%-166-32.55%510
McIntosh14747.73%16152.27%00.00%00.00%00.00%-14-4.55%308
Meriwether68367.42%21120.83%11511.35%40.39%00.00%47246.59%1,013
Miller16170.61%2310.09%4419.30%00.00%00.00%11751.32%228
Milton18251.41%12033.90%5014.12%20.56%00.00%6217.51%354
Mitchell55557.99%19620.48%20521.42%10.10%00.00%35036.57%957
Monroe45654.55%16219.38%21725.96%00.00%10.12%23928.59%836
Montgomery41446.99%25428.83%21324.18%00.00%00.00%16018.16%881
Morgan46264.44%18726.08%669.21%20.28%00.00%27538.35%717
Murray31234.32%53959.30%202.20%00.00%384.18%-227-24.97%909
Muscogee1,59972.95%45920.94%100.46%00.00%1245.66%1,14052.01%2,192
Newton64363.98%30330.15%484.78%111.09%00.00%34033.83%1,005
Oconee13631.85%5111.94%24056.21%00.00%00.00%-104-24.36%427
Oglethorpe49573.44%679.94%11216.62%00.00%00.00%38356.82%674
Paulding25623.75%63058.44%18817.44%30.28%10.09%-374-34.69%1,078
Pickens18720.22%73179.03%30.32%40.43%00.00%-544-58.81%925
Pierce29557.06%15029.01%7213.93%00.00%00.00%14528.05%517
Pike72767.44%23021.34%12111.22%00.00%00.00%49746.10%1,078
Polk49233.24%90160.88%745.00%100.68%30.20%-409-27.64%1,480
Pulaski65179.20%10713.02%647.79%00.00%00.00%54466.18%822
Putnam41091.93%204.48%163.59%00.00%00.00%39087.44%446
Quitman8747.03%3116.76%6635.68%10.54%00.00%2111.35%185
Rabun23355.88%17141.01%133.12%00.00%00.00%6214.87%417
Randolph52253.65%36637.62%838.53%00.00%20.21%15616.03%973
Richmond1,72770.55%26710.91%34514.09%00.00%1094.45%1,38256.45%2,448
Rockdale35257.52%17228.10%8714.22%00.00%10.16%18029.41%612
Schley21947.82%17337.77%6413.97%20.44%00.00%4610.04%458
Screven35530.90%42837.25%35731.07%90.78%00.00%716.18%1,149
Spalding72573.08%19920.06%292.92%222.22%171.71%52653.02%992
Stephens30651.52%26143.94%274.55%00.00%00.00%457.58%594
Stewart41561.12%24135.49%233.39%00.00%00.00%17425.63%679
Sumter87662.93%47634.20%362.59%40.29%00.00%40028.74%1,392
Talbot40869.39%12921.94%447.48%50.85%20.34%27947.45%588
Taliaferro23540.10%21636.86%13022.18%00.00%50.85%193.24%586
Tattnall53442.82%26321.09%43234.64%181.44%00.00%1028.18%1,247
Taylor25344.00%15927.65%16328.35%00.00%00.00%9015.65%575
Telfair61370.54%293.34%00.00%22726.12%00.00%38644.42%869
Terrell52873.03%14219.64%537.33%00.00%00.00%38653.39%723
Thomas76542.43%72340.10%30817.08%70.39%00.00%422.33%1,803
Tift45068.70%9915.11%10415.88%00.00%20.31%34652.82%655
Toombs28248.37%20034.31%9816.81%30.51%00.00%8214.07%583
Towns19640.08%29159.51%20.41%00.00%00.00%-95-19.43%489
Troup71468.13%454.29%28727.39%20.19%00.00%42740.74%1,048
Turner27650.46%10519.20%13725.05%224.02%71.28%13925.41%547
Twiggs30176.20%7318.48%215.32%00.00%00.00%22857.72%395
Union34444.85%41854.50%50.65%00.00%00.00%-74-9.65%767
Upson36948.36%14519.00%24932.63%00.00%00.00%12015.73%763
Walker75443.61%92553.50%321.85%60.35%120.69%-171-9.89%1,729
Walton72753.93%38928.86%22516.69%60.45%10.07%33825.07%1,348
Ware77176.49%19018.85%121.19%161.59%191.88%58157.64%1,008
Warren15826.92%16628.28%25743.78%40.68%20.34%-91-15.50%587
Washington63045.78%26719.40%47934.81%00.00%00.00%15110.97%1,376
Wayne39465.34%14423.88%345.64%304.98%10.17%25041.46%603
Webster11444.36%11745.53%2610.12%00.00%00.00%-3-1.17%257
White12135.59%18353.82%3610.59%00.00%00.00%-62-18.24%340
Whitfield58640.05%77552.97%362.46%60.41%604.10%-189-12.92%1,463
Wilcox38072.66%12022.94%224.21%10.19%00.00%26049.71%523
Wilkes55765.53%657.65%21625.41%121.41%00.00%34140.12%850
Wilkinson28071.61%5514.07%5514.07%10.26%00.00%22557.54%391
Worth45748.36%23725.08%25126.56%00.00%00.00%20621.80%945
Totals72,35054.60%41,35531.21%16,68712.59%1,4521.10%6600.50%30,99523.39%132,504

See also

Notes and References

  1. Mickey, Robert W.; Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972, p. 76
  2. [Kevin Phillips (political commentator)|Phillips, Kevin P.]
  3. Springer, Melanie Jean; How the States Shaped the Nation: American Electoral Institutions and Voter Turnout, 1920-2000, p. 155
  4. Mickey, Robert W.; ‘The Beginning of the End for Authoritarian Rule in America: Smith v. Allwright and the Abolition of the White Primary in the Deep South, 1944-1948’; Studies in American Political Development, Vol. 22 (Fall 2008), pp. 143-182.
  5. Perman, Michael; Struggle for Mastery: Disfranchisement in the South, 1888-1908; p. 274
  6. Perman; Struggle for Mastery, p. 283
  7. Perman; Struggle for Mastery, p. 297
  8. Tindall, George B.; ‘Southern Strategy: A Historical Perspective’; North Carolina Historical Review; vol. 48, no. 2 (April 1971), pp. 126-141
  9. de Santis, Vincent P.; ‘Republican Efforts to “Crack” the Democratic South’; The Review of Politics, vol. 14, no. 2 (April 1952), pp. 244-264
  10. ‘Just Nonsense, Says Howell: So Georgia Editor Styles Talk of Taft Carrying Georgia’; The Atlanta Constitution, September 8, 1908, p. 2
  11. ‘Situation Complicated: In Georgia and Taft Men Talk Seriously of Carrying the State’; Cincinnati Enquirer; October 18, 1908, p. 27
  12. Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 39
  13. Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas; 1908 Presidential General Election Results – Georgia
  14. Géoelections; Popular Vote at the Presidential Election for 1908 (.xlsx file for €30 including full minor party figures)