1940 United States presidential election in Florida

Main article: 1940 United States presidential election

1940 United States presidential election in Florida

←  1936 November 5, 1940 1944  →

Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Wendell Willkie Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Henry A. Wallace Charles McNary Electoral vote 7 0 Popular vote 359,334 126,158 Percentage 73.99% 25.98%

County Results Roosevelt   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90%   90-100% The 1940 United States presidential election in Florida was held on November 5, 1940, as part of the concurrent United States presidential election. Florida voters chose seven electors, or representatives to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. Florida had been one of the most solid members of the "Solid South" ever since the 1889 poll tax disfranchised almost all blacks and most poor whites. [1] Unlike southern states extending into the Appalachian Mountains or Ozarks, or Texas with its German settlements in the Edwards Plateau, Florida completely lacked upland or German "Forty-Eighter" whites opposed to secession. [2] Thus disfranchisement of blacks left the party moribund – fifty years after disfranchisement, half of all Florida's registered Republicans were still black although a negligible number had ever voted. [3] Immigration of northerners into the previously undeveloped areas of South Florida, along with fierce anti-Catholicism in the northern Piney Woods, did give Herbert Hoover a freakish victory in 1928, [4] but apart from that the Democratic Party had lost only six counties at a presidential level since 1892. [5] Following FDR's second successive sweep of all sixty-seven counties in 1936, Senator Claude Pepper and Miami politicians led a successful push to abolish the poll tax because of the corruption it was causing. [6] Repeal of the poll tax produced significant increases in the total vote cast vis-à-vis that of 1936: the presidential vote increased by around forty-seven percent, and in gubernatorial primaries the absolute increase in percent turnout was over eleven percent of the total voting age white population. [7] Nonetheless, almost all of this new electorate remained white due to the white primary. Aided by considerable sympathy amongst Florida's largely English-descended white population for the United Kingdom's cause in ongoing World War II, [8] Roosevelt was to sweep every county in Florida for the third successive election and for the ninth occasion in thirteen elections since the recently abolished poll tax was originally imposed. Willkie, who improved by over eight percent upon Alf Landon's performance in 1936, gained less than half that amount in Florida. [9] As of 2020, this is the penultimate election that every county in Florida voted Democratic and the last time that every county voted more Democratic than the nation at-large. Results Electoral results Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral vote Running mate Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote Franklin D. Roosevelt Democrat New York 359,334 73.99% 7 Henry A. Wallace Iowa 7 Wendell Willkie Republican New York 126,158 25.98% 0 Charles McNary Oregon 0 Various candidates [lower-alpha 1] Write-ins — 148 [lower-alpha 2] 0.03% 0 — — 0 Total 485,640 100% 7 7 Needed to win 270 270 Results by county County Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic Wendell Lewis Willkie Republican Margin Total votes cast [10] #  % #  % #  % Alachua 6,714 83.03% 1,372 16.97% 5,342 66.06% 8,086 Baker 1,352 92.22% 114 7.78% 1,238 84.44% 1,466 Bay 5,153 88.28% 684 11.72% 4,469 76.56% 5,837 Bradford 1,588 85.88% 261 14.12% 1,327 71.76% 1,849 Brevard 2,995 60.15% 1,984 39.85% 1,011 20.30% 4,979 Broward 6,422 61.69% 3,988 38.31% 2,434 23.38% 10,410 Calhoun 1,722 90.97% 171 9.03% 1,551 81.94% 1,893 Charlotte 910 69.10% 407 30.90% 503 38.20% 1,317 Citrus 1,561 88.95% 194 11.05% 1,367 77.90% 1,755 Clay 1,488 74.92% 498 25.08% 990 49.84% 1,986 Collier 809 83.83% 156 16.17% 653 67.66% 965 Columbia 2,888 86.70% 443 13.30% 2,445 73.40% 3,331 Dade 51,921 67.30% 25,224 32.70% 26,697 34.60% 77,145 De Soto 1,888 78.21% 526 21.79% 1,362 56.42% 2,414 Dixie 1,420 94.41% 84 5.59% 1,336 88.82% 1,504 Duval 41,003 81.71% 9,177 18.29% 31,826 63.42% 50,180 Escambia 16,201 87.81% 2,249 12.19% 13,952 75.62% 18,450 Flagler 553 80.26% 136 19.74% 417 60.52% 689 Franklin 1,400 93.21% 102 6.79% 1,298 86.42% 1,502 Gadsden 3,218 88.53% 417 11.47% 2,801 77.06% 3,635 Gilchrist 1,011 91.99% 88 8.01% 923 83.98% 1,099 Glades 464 72.05% 180 27.95% 284 44.10% 644 Gulf 1,642 93.99% 105 6.01% 1,537 87.98% 1,747 Hamilton 1,424 88.50% 185 11.50% 1,239 77.00% 1,609 Hardee 2,559 78.67% 694 21.33% 1,865 57.34% 3,253 Hendry 1,040 76.64% 317 23.36% 723 53.28% 1,357 Hernando 1,151 75.13% 381 24.87% 770 50.26% 1,532 Highlands 2,215 71.61% 878 28.39% 1,337 43.22% 3,093 Hillsborough 30,738 79.75% 7,805 20.25% 22,933 59.50% 38,543 Holmes 2,684 75.16% 887 24.84% 1,797 50.32% 3,571 Indian River 1,487 62.19% 904 37.81% 583 24.38% 2,391 Jackson 5,607 86.62% 866 13.38% 4,741 73.24% 6,473 Jefferson 1,412 86.79% 215 13.21% 1,197 73.58% 1,627 Lafayette 1,090 89.93% 122 10.07% 968 79.86% 1,212 Lake 5,322 66.68% 2,659 33.32% 2,663 33.36% 7,981 Lee 3,531 68.52% 1,622 31.48% 1,909 37.04% 5,153 Leon 5,459 90.35% 583 9.65% 4,876 80.70% 6,042 Levy 2,527 90.48% 266 9.52% 2,261 80.96% 2,793 Liberty 947 88.84% 119 11.16% 828 77.68% 1,066 Madison 2,421 84.62% 440 15.38% 1,981 69.24% 2,861 Manatee 5,131 72.13% 1,983 27.87% 3,148 44.26% 7,114 Marion 6,127 82.53% 1,297 17.47% 4,830 65.06% 7,424 Martin 1,018 63.07% 596 36.93% 422 26.14% 1,614 Monroe 4,102 89.86% 463 10.14% 3,639 79.72% 4,565 Nassau 1,888 81.77% 421 18.23% 1,467 63.54% 2,309 Okaloosa 3,003 81.32% 690 18.68% 2,313 62.64% 3,693 Okeechobee 822 87.08% 122 12.92% 700 74.16% 944 Orange 12,821 61.00% 8,198 39.00% 4,623 22.00% 21,019 Osceola 2,015 58.52% 1,428 41.48% 587 17.04% 3,443 Palm Beach 11,884 61.72% 7,371 38.28% 4,513 23.44% 19,255 Pasco 3,091 69.41% 1,362 30.59% 1,729 38.82% 4,453 Pinellas 18,941 58.70% 13,327 41.30% 5,614 17.40% 32,268 Polk 17,690 76.07% 5,564 23.93% 12,126 52.14% 23,254 Putnam 3,477 77.53% 1,008 22.47% 2,469 55.06% 4,485 St. John's 4,122 75.98% 1,303 24.02% 2,819 51.96% 5,425 St. Lucie 2,169 69.27% 962 30.73% 1,207 38.54% 3,131 Santa Rosa 2,910 81.60% 656 18.40% 2,254 63.20% 3,566 Sarasota 3,773 69.29% 1,672 30.71% 2,101 38.58% 5,445 Seminole 3,150 69.71% 1,369 30.29% 1,781 39.42% 4,519 Sumter 2,382 90.40% 253 9.60% 2,129 80.80% 2,635 Suwannee 2,866 87.73% 401 12.27% 2,465 75.46% 3,267 Taylor 2,499 92.66% 198 7.34% 2,301 85.32% 2,697 Union 1,024 91.51% 95 8.49% 929 83.02% 1,119 Volusia 10,024 60.63% 6,509 39.37% 3,515 21.26% 16,533 Wakulla 1,336 95.02% 70 4.98% 1,266 90.04% 1,406 Walton 3,217 82.26% 694 17.74% 2,523 64.52% 3,911 Washington 1,915 74.86% 643 25.14% 1,272 49.72% 2,558 Totals 359,334 73.99% 126,158 25.98% 233,176 48.01% 485,640 Notes These votes were listed in America at the Polls state-wide, but not in Dave Leip's Atlas. These write-in votes were listed as a statewide total and not separated by county References Silbey, Joel H. and Bogue, Allan G.; The History of American Electoral Behavior, p. 210 ISBN   140087114X Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, pp. 208, 210 ISBN   9780691163246 See Price, Hugh Douglas; 'The Negro and Florida Politics, 1944-1954'; The Journal of Politics , Vol. 17, No. 2 (May, 1955), pp. 198-220 Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 212-214 Menendez, Albert J.; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004, p. 164-165 ISBN   0786422173 Keyssar, Alexander; The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States, p. 183 ISBN   978-0465005024 Teeples, Ronald K. (1970); The Economics of Voter Turnout, p. 111 Published by University of California Press, Los Angeles Menendez; The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, pp. 67-68 Leip, David. "1940 Presidential General Election Results – Florida". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved February 2, 2018. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; pp. 87-88 ISBN   0405077114 This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.