1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee explained

See main article: 1952 United States presidential election.

Election Name:1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee
Country:Tennessee
Flag Year:1923
Type:presidential
Ongoing:no
Previous Election:1948 United States presidential election in Tennessee
Previous Year:1948
Next Election:1956 United States presidential election in Tennessee
Next Year:1956
Election Date:November 4, 1952[1]
Image1:Dwight David Eisenhower 1952 crop.jpg
Nominee1:Dwight D. Eisenhower
Party1:Republican Party (United States)
Home State1:New York[2]
Running Mate1:Richard Nixon
Electoral Vote1:11
Popular Vote1:446,147
Percentage1:49.99%
Nominee2:Adlai Stevenson
Party2:Democratic Party (United States)
Home State2:Illinois
Running Mate2:John Sparkman
Electoral Vote2:0
Popular Vote2:443,710
Percentage2:49.71%
Map Size:350px
President
Before Election:Harry S. Truman
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:Dwight D. Eisenhower
After Party:Republican Party (United States)

The 1952 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the 1952 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 11 representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.[3]

For over a century after the Civil War, Tennessee was divided according to political loyalties established in that war. Unionist regions covering almost all of East Tennessee, Kentucky Pennyroyal-allied Macon County, and the five Western Highland Rim counties of Carroll, Henderson, McNairy, Hardin and Wayne[4] voted Republican — generally by landslide margins — as they saw the Democratic Party as the "war party" who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight.[5] Contrariwise, the rest of Middle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state's secession was equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans with Reconstruction.[6] After the disfranchisement of the state’s African-American population by a poll tax was largely complete in the 1890s,[7] the Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united,[8] although unlike the Deep South Republicans would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support.

Between 1896 and 1948, the Republicans would win statewide contests three times but only in the second did they receive down-ballot coattails by winning three congressional seats in addition to the rock-ribbed GOP First and Second Districts.[9] In the early 1910s, prohibitionist “Independent Democrats” fled the party and formed a coalition, known as the “Fusionists,” with Republicans to elect Ben W. Hooper Governor,[10] whilst in 1920 the national anti-Wilson and anti-League of Nations tide allowed the GOP to carry a few traditionally Democratic areas in Middle Tennessee and with them the state,[11] and in 1928 anti-Catholicism against Democratic nominee Al Smith gave this powerfully fundamentalist state to Herbert Hoover.[12]

After the beginning of the Great Depression, however, for the next third of a century the Republicans would rarely contest statewide offices seriously despite continuing dominance of East Tennessee and half a dozen Unionist counties in the middle and west of the state.[13] The Crump political machine that dominated state politics for a decade and a half, however, broke down in 1948 after Crump supported Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond but his own subordinates dissented knowing that a Democratic split would hand the state to the Republicans.[14] Even Crump’s long-time ally Senator Kenneth D. McKellar broke with him,[15] and a Middle Tennessee liberal, Estes Kefauver, won the state’s Senate seat. In 1949, after a failed effort six years before,[16] Tennessee would substantially modify its poll tax and entirely abolish it two years later,[16] largely due to the fact that the Crump machine had “block bought” voters’ poll taxes.[17]

The abolition of the poll tax would, if not to the same extent as in South Carolina, substantially increase voter turnout in Tennessee. There was also the issue of the substantial Dixiecrat vote from 1948, especially with Thurmond’s endorsement of Republican nominees former Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower and California Senator Richard Nixon.[18]

Predictions

SourceRankingAs of
Lansing State Journal[19] September 17, 1952
Lubbock Morning Avalanche[20] October 24, 1952
The Greeneville Sun[21] October 25, 1952
The Modesto Bee[22] October 27, 1952
The Commercial Appeal[23] October 31, 1952

Results

Results by county

County[24] Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
Adlai Stevenson
Democratic
Stuart Hamblen
Prohibition
Vincent Hallinan
People's
MarginTotal votes cast
%%%%%
Anderson10,48953.88%8,93945.92%380.20%00.00%1,5507.96%19,466
Bedford2,61137.44%4,36262.56%00.00%00.00%-1,751-25.12%6,973
Benton1,30434.57%2,45265.01%160.42%00.00%-1,148-30.44%3,772
Bledsoe1,22950.85%1,15847.91%301.24%00.00%712.94%2,417
Blount11,70869.22%5,16330.53%240.14%180.11%6,54538.69%16,913
Bradley4,60663.36%2,64636.40%90.12%80.11%1,96026.96%7,269
Campbell4,55765.63%2,34633.79%190.27%210.30%2,21131.84%6,943
Cannon93037.97%1,49160.88%60.24%220.90%-561-22.91%2,449
Carroll3,74156.46%2,84142.88%230.35%210.32%90013.58%6,626
Carter9,01976.15%2,70722.86%1181.00%00.00%6,31253.29%11,844
Cheatham53619.31%2,22280.04%50.18%130.47%-1,686-60.73%2,776
Chester1,67453.01%1,48446.99%00.00%00.00%1906.02%3,158
Claiborne3,22159.62%2,18240.38%00.00%00.00%1,03919.24%5,403
Clay84246.24%96853.16%110.60%00.00%-126-6.92%1,821
Cocke5,68882.02%1,24717.98%00.00%00.00%4,44164.04%6,935
Coffee2,11037.25%3,53762.44%70.12%110.19%-1,427-25.19%5,665
Crockett1,34338.27%2,15561.41%70.20%40.11%-812-23.14%3,509
Cumberland3,28259.75%2,05937.48%811.47%711.29%1,22322.27%5,493
Davidson35,91640.99%51,56258.84%810.09%710.08%-15,646-17.85%87,630
Decatur1,40645.35%1,68154.23%130.42%00.00%-275-8.88%3,100
DeKalb1,81448.21%1,94951.79%00.00%00.00%-135-3.58%3,763
Dickson1,41525.22%4,19674.78%00.00%00.00%-2,781-49.56%5,611
Dyer3,23141.30%4,53157.92%610.78%00.00%-1,300-16.62%7,823
Fayette1,02946.73%1,17353.27%00.00%00.00%-144-6.54%2,202
Fentress2,14369.65%93430.35%00.00%00.00%1,20939.30%3,077
Franklin2,01529.48%4,78670.03%290.42%40.06%-2,771-40.55%6,834
Gibson3,76635.90%6,68763.74%260.25%120.11%-2,921-27.84%10,491
Giles1,64925.98%4,64073.11%290.46%290.46%-2,991-47.13%6,347
Grainger3,03076.28%93723.59%20.05%30.08%2,09352.69%3,972
Greene6,86464.98%3,65634.61%180.17%250.24%3,20830.37%10,563
Grundy70921.47%2,58378.23%70.21%30.09%-1,874-56.76%3,302
Hamblen5,03167.19%2,39531.98%620.83%00.00%2,63635.21%7,488
Hamilton29,68155.14%23,83244.27%1390.26%1780.33%5,84910.87%53,830
Hancock1,83079.50%45819.90%140.61%00.00%1,37259.60%2,302
Hardeman1,25631.17%2,74768.18%80.20%180.45%-1,491-37.01%4,029
Hardin2,45959.28%1,67740.43%120.29%00.00%78218.85%4,148
Hawkins5,29568.19%2,40430.96%130.17%530.68%2,89137.23%7,765
Haywood94027.80%2,43271.93%90.27%00.00%-1,492-44.13%3,381
Henderson3,31767.45%1,60132.55%00.00%00.00%1,71634.90%4,918
Henry2,42129.77%5,67769.81%120.15%220.27%-3,256-40.04%8,132
Hickman1,04428.38%2,62571.35%40.11%60.16%-1,581-42.97%3,679
Houston46527.45%1,22972.55%00.00%00.00%-764-45.10%1,694
Humphreys89825.16%2,67074.81%10.03%00.00%-1,772-49.65%3,569
Jackson1,13840.25%1,68659.64%30.11%00.00%-548-19.39%2,827
Jefferson4,62278.87%1,22820.96%90.15%10.02%3,39457.91%5,860
Johnson3,59087.65%50612.35%00.00%00.00%3,08475.30%4,096
Knox44,35862.32%26,68137.48%1130.16%260.04%17,67724.84%71,178
Lake48724.66%1,47574.68%60.30%70.35%-988-50.02%1,975
Lauderdale1,39024.26%4,34075.74%00.00%00.00%-2,950-51.48%5,730
Lawrence4,56151.07%4,29948.14%710.79%00.00%2622.93%8,931
Lewis54029.05%1,30870.36%110.59%00.00%-768-41.31%1,859
Lincoln1,65426.78%4,51073.01%80.13%50.08%-2,856-46.23%6,177
Loudon4,31166.52%2,13832.99%170.26%150.23%2,17333.53%6,481
Macon2,60269.20%1,15830.80%00.00%00.00%1,44438.40%3,760
Madison7,24345.50%8,62354.17%300.19%230.14%-1,380-8.67%15,919
Marion2,22742.91%2,93856.61%120.23%130.25%-711-13.70%5,190
Marshall1,52528.44%3,83771.56%00.00%00.00%-2,312-43.12%5,362
Maury3,58232.58%7,37767.09%360.33%00.00%-3,795-34.51%10,995
McMinn5,77862.39%3,44037.15%180.19%250.27%2,33825.24%9,261
McNairy3,42655.94%2,69844.06%00.00%00.00%72811.88%6,124
Meigs85052.31%75446.40%20.12%191.17%965.91%1,625
Monroe4,58155.11%3,69344.42%390.47%00.00%88810.69%8,313
Montgomery2,57330.78%5,75968.90%170.20%100.12%-3,186-38.12%8,359
Moore35430.00%82670.00%00.00%00.00%-472-40.00%1,180
Morgan2,56563.22%1,49236.78%00.00%00.00%1,07326.44%4,057
Obion2,68236.51%4,62362.94%320.44%80.11%-1,941-26.43%7,345
Overton1,45339.47%2,20960.01%60.16%130.35%-756-20.54%3,681
Perry76239.00%1,19261.00%00.00%00.00%-430-22.00%1,954
Pickett1,00364.71%54735.29%00.00%00.00%45629.42%1,550
Polk2,28355.63%1,82144.37%00.00%00.00%46211.26%4,104
Putnam3,18343.73%4,09656.27%00.00%00.00%-913-12.54%7,279
Rhea2,52054.46%2,09045.17%140.30%30.06%4309.29%4,627
Roane5,58360.13%3,70239.87%00.00%00.00%1,88120.26%9,285
Robertson1,83426.59%5,06373.41%00.00%00.00%-3,229-46.82%6,897
Rutherford3,19631.77%6,79367.52%240.24%480.48%-3,597-35.75%10,061
Scott3,27473.82%1,16126.18%00.00%00.00%2,11347.64%4,435
Sequatchie53537.57%88261.94%70.49%00.00%-347-24.37%1,424
Sevier7,24487.17%1,06612.83%00.00%00.00%6,17874.34%8,310
Shelby65,17047.53%71,77952.36%1120.08%360.03%-6,609-4.83%137,099
Smith1,41234.80%2,62264.61%150.37%90.22%-1,210-29.81%4,058
Stewart64122.71%2,17076.87%10.04%110.39%-1,529-54.16%2,823
Sullivan15,59656.58%11,84942.99%710.26%470.17%3,74713.59%27,563
Sumner2,23328.10%5,67471.40%400.50%00.00%-3,441-43.30%7,947
Tipton1,31219.54%5,35179.68%340.51%190.28%-4,039-60.14%6,716
Trousdale26117.43%1,23682.57%00.00%00.00%-975-65.14%1,497
Unicoi3,45374.81%1,16325.19%00.00%00.00%2,29049.62%4,616
Union2,08775.78%66724.22%00.00%00.00%1,42051.56%2,754
Van Buren39336.12%67461.95%100.92%111.01%-281-25.83%1,088
Warren1,91234.68%3,56864.72%210.38%120.22%-1,656-30.04%5,513
Washington12,02369.31%5,24530.24%430.25%360.21%6,77839.07%17,347
Wayne2,43970.63%1,00829.19%40.12%20.06%1,43141.44%3,453
Weakley3,04341.83%4,19857.70%340.47%00.00%-1,155-15.87%7,275
White1,37437.00%2,31962.44%130.35%80.22%-945-25.44%3,714
Williamson2,32636.17%4,08563.53%190.30%00.00%-1,759-27.36%6,430
Wilson2,44932.57%5,07067.43%00.00%00.00%-2,621-34.86%7,519
Totals446,14749.99%443,71049.71%1,4320.16%8850.10%2,4370.28%892,553

Analysis

Despite expectations that Democratic nominees Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson II and running mate Alabama Senator John Sparkman had a slightly better chance of carrying the state, Tennessee would be won by Eisenhower with 49.99 percent of the popular vote, against Stevenson’s 49.71 percent. Eisenhower’s 0.28 percentage point victory was the first of three consecutive Republican victories in the state, as Tennessee would not vote Democratic again until Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964. The result deviated little from long-established partisan patterns, with Chester County — where Eisenhower was the first-ever Republican victor[25] – the only county Eisenhower carried that neither Harding nor Hoover won. Nonetheless, whereas Harding’s and Hoover’s victories were based upon gains in Middle Tennessee, gains in the pro-Dixiecrat cotton counties of West Tennessee were most critical for Eisenhower: fifteen of the top twenty-four Thurmond counties were also amongst the top twenty-four in terms of Democratic loss since 1936.[26]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: United States Presidential election of 1952 — Encyclopædia Britannica. July 25, 2017.
  2. Web site: U.S. presidential election, 1952 . Facts on File . October 24, 2013 . Eisenhower, born in Texas, considered a resident of New York, and headquartered at the time in Paris, finally decided to run for the Republican nomination . https://web.archive.org/web/20131029195323/http://www.fofweb.com/History/HistRefMain.asp?iPin=EAPPE0334&SID=2&DatabaseName=American+History+Online&InputText=%22presidential+election+1952%22&SearchStyle=&dTitle=U.S.+presidential+election%2C+1952&TabRecordType=Subject+Entry&BioCountPass=0&SubCountPass=1&DocCountPass=0&ImgCountPass=0&MapCountPass=0&FedCountPass=&MedCountPass=0&NewsCountPass=0&RecPosition=1&AmericanData=Set . October 29, 2013 . dead .
  3. Web site: 1952 Presidential Election Results – Tennessee. Dave Leip’s U.S. Election Atlas.
  4. Wright. John K.. Voting Habits in the United States: A Note on Two Maps. Geographical Review. 22. 4. October 1932. 666–672.
  5. [Valdimer Orlando Key|Key (Jr.), Valdimer Orlando]
  6. Book: Lyons. William. Scheb (II). John M.. Stair. Billy. Government and Politics in Tennessee. 183–184. 1572331410.
  7. [Kevin Phillips (political commentator)|Phillips, Kevin P.]
  8. Grantham. Dewey W.. Tennessee and Twentieth-Century American Politics. Tennessee Historical Quarterly. 54. 3. Fall 1995. 210–229.
  9. Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 287
  10. Book: Langsdon, Phillip. Tennessee: A Political History. Franklin, Tennessee. Hillsboro Press. 2000. 287–295.
  11. Reichard. Gary W.. The Aberration of 1920: An Analysis of Harding's Victory in Tennessee. The Journal of Southern History. 36. 1. February 1970. 33–49.
  12. Book: Larson, Edward J.. Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion. 9780465075102.
  13. Book: Majors, William R.. Change and continuity: Tennessee politics since the Civil War. 72. 9780865542099. 1986.
  14. Guthrie. Paul Daniel. The Dixiecrat Movement of 1948. 181-182. Bowling Green State University. 144207. 1955.
  15. Book: Langsdon, Phillip Royal. Tennessee: A Political History. Franklin, Tennessee. Hillsboro Press. 2000. 336–343. 9781577361251.
  16. Book: Ogden, Frederic D.. The poll tax in the South. 193. 1958. University of Alabama Press.
  17. Ogden, The poll tax in the South, pp. 97-99
  18. Book: Mayer, Michael S.. The Eisenhower Years. 767. 1438119089.
  19. News: Cornell. Douglas B.. September 17, 1952. Ike Given 50–50 Chance To Break into Solid South. 7, 16. Lansing State Journal. Lansing, Michigan.
  20. News: Cornell. Douglas B.. Most Southern States Continue to Back Demos Despite Sizeable Republican Inroads — GOP Has Even Chance to Carry Virginia, Texas, Florida. Lubbock Morning Avalanche. Lubbock, Texas. 1952-10-24. 11.
  21. News: October 25, 1952 . US Poll Shows — Eisenhower Leading Stevenson in Electoral Votes, but Governor Has More States in His Column. 1, 8. The Greeneville Sun. Greeneville, Tennessee. Princeton Research Service.
  22. News: October 27, 1952. NY Times Survey Indicates Close Election Tuesday. 8. The Modesto Bee. Modesto, California.
  23. News: The Importance of You. The Commercial Appeal. Memphis, Tennessee. 1952-10-31. 6.
  24. Web site: Our Campaigns. TN US President, November 04, 1952.
  25. Book: Menendez, Albert J.. The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. 298–303. 2005. 0786422173.
  26. Strong. Donald S.. The Presidential Election in the South, 1952. The Journal of Politics. August 1955. 17. 3. 343–389. The University of Chicago Press.