1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina

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1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina
Flag of South Carolina.svg
  1940 November 7, 1944 1948  
  1944 portrait of FDR (1)(small).jpg 3x4.svg
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Unpledged electors
Party Democratic Dixiecrat
Home state New York
Running mate Harry S. Truman
Electoral vote80
Popular vote90,6017,799
Percentage87.64%7.54%

South Carolina Presidential Election Results 1944.svg
County Results
Roosevelt
  50–60%
  60–70%
  70–80%
  80–90%
  90–100%

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.

Contents

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 2024 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

1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina [8]
PartyCandidateRunning matePopular voteElectoral vote
Count%Count%
Democratic Franklin Delano Roosevelt of New York Harry S. Truman of Missouri 90,60187.64%8100.00%
N/AOthersOthers7,7997.54%00.00%
Republican Thomas Edmund Dewey of New York John William Bricker of Ohio 4,6104.46%00.00%
Prohibition Claude A. Watson of California Andrew Nathan Johnson of Kentucky 3650.35%00.00%
Total103,375100.00%8100.00%

Results by county

1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina by county [9]
CountyFranklin Delano Roosevelt
Democratic
Thomas Edmund Dewey
Republican
No Candidate
Unpledged Southern Democratic
Claude A. Watson
Prohibition
Margin [a] Total votes cast
# %# %# %# %# %
Abbeville 78996.34%192.32%111.34%00.00%770 [b] 94.02%819
Aiken 2,40391.26%602.28%1676.46%30.11%2,23684.80%2,633
Allendale 67894.43%81.11%324.46%00.00%64689.97%718
Anderson 2,68790.23%892.99%2016.78%10.03%2,48683.45%2,978
Bamberg 73770.80%10610.18%19819.02%00.00%53951.78%1,041
Barnwell 1,48298.41%80.53%131.06%30.20%1,46997.35%1,506
Beaufort 59474.53%10813.55%9511.92%00.00%486 [b] 60.98%797
Berkeley 52172.77%324.47%15622.77%70.98%36550.00%716
Calhoun 60287.76%10.15%6512.10%182.62%53775.66%686
Charleston 6,26072.95%1,18413.80%1,13313.25%40.05%5,076 [b] 59.15%8,581
Cherokee 1,62094.13%683.95%311.92%20.12%1,552 [b] 90.18%1,721
Chester 1,44188.68%895.48%955.85%00.00%1,34682.83%1,625
Chesterfield 3,22298.77%150.46%250.77%00.00%3,19798.00%3,262
Clarendon 1,05381.69%272.09%19916.21%100.78%85465.48%1,289
Colleton 1,65382.77%452.25%28914.97%100.50%1,36467.80%1,997
Darlington 1,80891.41%462.33%1196.27%50.25%1,68985.14%1,978
Dillon 86486.06%272.69%9011.25%232.29%77474.81%1,004
Dorchester 1,18170.47%653.88%42225.66%80.48%75944.81%1,676
Edgefield 65492.24%30.42%527.33%00.00%60284.91%709
Fairfield 79892.47%212.43%245.10%202.32%77487.37%863
Florence 2,82287.86%1283.99%2388.16%240.75%2,58479.70%3,212
Georgetown 1,19785.01%523.69%15911.29%00.00%1,03873.72%1,408
Greenville 7,10787.81%7118.78%2653.41%110.14%6,396 [b] 79.03%8,094
Greenwood 2,38188.64%712.64%2338.71%10.04%2,14879.93%2,686
Hampton 57567.65%30.35%27132.00%10.12%30435.65%850
Horry 2,40388.09%1375.02%1836.89%50.18%2,22081.20%2,728
Jasper 23050.66%183.96%20345.37%30.66%275.29%454
Kershaw 1,87294.98%211.07%783.96%00.00%1,79491.02%1,971
Lancaster 2,38393.97%130.51%1335.52%70.28%2,25088.45%2,536
Laurens 1,92493.40%381.84%964.76%20.10%1,82888.64%2,060
Lee 76487.31%505.71%606.97%10.11%70480.34%875
Lexington 1,98693.68%200.94%1065.38%80.38%1,88088.30%2,120
Marion 85892.86%90.97%426.17%40.44%81686.69%913
Marlboro 87489.27%343.47%577.25%00.00%81782.02%965
McCormick 30786.72%10.28%7112.99%00.00%23673.73%379
Newberry 1,94082.80%702.99%32114.21%120.51%1,61968.59%2,343
Oconee 1,31687.85%1067.08%675.07%90.60%1,210 [b] 80.77%1,498
Orangeburg 2,44090.61%873.23%1596.16%70.26%2,28184.45%2,693
Pickens 1,66267.34%2118.55%50524.11%903.65%1,15743.23%2,468
Richland 6,59093.12%1401.98%3444.90%30.04%6,24688.22%7,077
Saluda 92485.56%141.30%14113.15%10.09%78372.41%1,080
Spartanburg 8,09292.61%4024.60%2052.79%390.45%7,690 [b] 88.01%8,738
Sumter 2,11187.92%733.04%2179.04%00.00%1,89478.88%2,401
Union 3,04196.48%331.05%662.47%120.38%2,97594.01%3,152
Williamsburg 1,11886.60%272.09%14211.31%40.31%97675.29%1,291
York 2,63794.48%1274.55%200.97%70.25%2,510 [b] 89.93%2,791
Totals90,60187.64%4,6174.47%7,7997.90%3650.35%82,80279.74%103,382

Notes

  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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 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

  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. 1 2 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. "Report 1942/43-1947/48". HathiTrust. Retrieved May 20, 2025.