1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina explained

See main article: 1944 United States presidential election.

Election Name:1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Country:South Carolina
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1940 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Previous Year:1940
Next Election:1948 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Next Year:1948
Election Date:November 7, 1944
Image1:1944 portrait of FDR (1)(small).jpg
Nominee1:Franklin D. Roosevelt
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Home State1:New York
Running Mate1:Harry S. Truman
Electoral Vote1:8
Popular Vote1:90,601
Percentage1:87.64%
Nominee2:Unpledged electors
Party2:Dixiecrat
Colour2:FF8000
Electoral Vote2:0
Popular Vote2:7,799
Percentage2:7.54%
Map Size:325px
President
Before Election:Franklin D. Roosevelt
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Franklin D. Roosevelt
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

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.

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., 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

Results by county

1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina by county[8] [9]
CountyFranklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Thomas Edmund Dewey
Republican
No Candidate
Unpledged Southern Democratic
Claude A. Watson
Prohibition
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"%
Abbeville78996.34%192.32%111.34%00.00%77094.02%819
Aiken2,40391.26%602.28%1676.46%30.11%2,23684.80%2,633
Allendale67894.43%81.11%324.46%00.00%64689.97%718
Anderson2,68790.23%892.99%2016.78%10.03%2,48683.45%2,978
Bamberg73770.80%10610.18%19819.02%00.00%53951.78%1,041
Barnwell1,48298.41%80.53%131.06%30.20%1,46997.35%1,506
Beaufort59474.53%10813.55%9511.92%00.00%48660.98%797
Berkeley52172.77%324.47%15622.77%70.98%36550.00%716
Calhoun60287.76%10.15%6512.10%182.62%53775.66%686
Charleston6,26072.95%1,18413.80%1,13313.25%40.05%5,07659.15%8,581
Cherokee1,62094.13%683.95%311.92%20.12%1,55290.18%1,721
Chester1,44188.68%895.48%955.85%00.00%1,34682.83%1,625
Chesterfield3,22298.77%150.46%250.77%00.00%3,19798.00%3,262
Clarendon1,05381.69%272.09%19916.21%100.78%85465.48%1,289
Colleton1,65382.77%452.25%28914.97%100.50%1,36467.80%1,997
Darlington1,80891.41%462.33%1196.27%50.25%1,68985.14%1,978
Dillon86486.06%272.69%9011.25%232.29%77474.81%1,004
Dorchester1,18170.47%653.88%42225.66%80.48%75944.81%1,676
Edgefield65492.24%30.42%527.33%00.00%60284.91%709
Fairfield79892.47%212.43%245.10%202.32%77487.37%863
Florence2,82287.86%1283.99%2388.16%240.75%2,58479.70%3,212
Georgetown1,19785.01%523.69%15911.29%00.00%1,03873.72%1,408
Greenville7,10787.81%7118.78%2653.41%110.14%6,39679.03%8,094
Greenwood2,38188.64%712.64%2338.71%10.04%2,14879.93%2,686
Hampton57567.65%30.35%27132.00%10.12%30435.65%850
Horry2,40388.09%1375.02%1836.89%50.18%2,22081.20%2,728
Jasper23050.66%183.96%20345.37%30.66%275.29%454
Kershaw1,87294.98%211.07%783.96%00.00%1,79491.02%1,971
Lancaster2,38393.97%130.51%1335.52%70.28%2,25088.45%2,536
Laurens1,92493.40%381.84%964.76%20.10%1,82888.64%2,060
Lee76487.31%505.71%606.97%10.11%70480.34%875
Lexington1,98693.68%200.94%1065.38%80.38%1,88088.30%2,120
Marion85892.86%90.97%426.17%40.44%81686.69%913
Marlboro87489.27%343.47%577.25%00.00%81782.02%965
McCormick30786.72%10.28%7112.99%00.00%23673.73%379
Newberry1,94082.80%702.99%32114.21%120.51%1,61968.59%2,343
Oconee1,31687.85%1067.08%675.07%90.60%1,21080.77%1,498
Orangeburg2,44090.61%873.23%1596.16%70.26%2,28184.45%2,693
Pickens1,66267.34%2118.55%50524.11%903.65%1,15743.23%2,468
Richland6,59093.12%1401.98%3444.90%30.04%6,24688.22%7,077
Saluda92485.56%141.30%14113.15%10.09%78372.41%1,080
Spartanburg8,09292.61%4024.60%2052.79%390.45%7,69088.01%8,738
Sumter2,11187.92%733.04%2179.04%00.00%1,89478.88%2,401
Union3,04196.48%331.05%662.47%120.38%2,97594.01%3,152
Williamsburg1,11886.60%272.09%14211.31%40.31%97675.29%1,291
York2,63794.48%1274.55%200.97%70.25%2,51089.93%2,791
Totals90,60187.64%4,6174.47%7,7997.90%3650.35%82,80279.74%103,382

Notes and References

  1. Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210
  2. Mickey, Robert; Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972, p. 440
  3. Mickey; Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27
  4. Jordan, David M.; FDR, Dewey, and the Election of 1944, p. 55
  5. Escott, Paul D. and Goldfield, David R.; The South for new southerners, p. 124
  6. Bloom, Jack M.; Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement, p. 72
  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. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 396
  9. Web site: Géoelections. 1944 Presidential Election Popular Vote. (.xlsx file for €15)