1948 United States presidential election in South Carolina

Main article: 1948 United States presidential election

1948 United States presidential election in South Carolina

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Nominee Strom Thurmond Harry S. Truman Party Democratic (South Carolina) [1] Democratic Alliance Dixiecrat Home state South Carolina Missouri Running mate Fielding L. Wright Alben Barkley Electoral vote 8 0 Popular vote 102,607 34,423 Percentage 71.97% 24.14%

County Results Congressional District Results Thurmond   50-60%   60-70%   70-80%   80-90%   90-100% Truman   50-60%   60-70%

President before election Harry Truman Democratic Elected President Harry Truman Democratic

The 1948 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 2, 1948, as part of the 1948 United States presidential election. State voters chose eight electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

South Carolina was won by States' Rights Democratic candidate Strom Thurmond, defeating the Democratic candidate, incumbent President Harry S. Truman, and New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey.

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. ^[2] Between 1900 and 1944, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote ^[3] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population ^[4] (or approximately 15 percent of the voting-age white population).

This absolute loyalty to the Democratic Party – so strong that even Catholic Al Smith in 1928 received over ninety percent of South Carolina's limited vote total at the same time as five former Confederate states voted for Herbert Hoover ^[5] – began to break down with Henry A. Wallace's appointment as Vice President and the 1943 Detroit race riots. ^[6] The northern left wing of the Democratic Party became as a result of this riot committed to restoring black political rights, ^[7] a policy vehemently opposed by most Southern Democrats as an infringement upon "states' rights". Tension widened much further when new President Harry Truman, himself a Southerner from Missouri, had described to him a number of horrifying lynchings and racial violence against black veterans, most crucially the beating and blinding of Isaac Woodard three hours after being discharged from the army. ^[8] Truman, previously viewed as no friend of civil rights, came to believe that racial violence against blacks in the South was a threat to the United States' image abroad and its ability to win the Cold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric of Communism. ^[9]

The result was a major civil rights plan titled To Secure These Rights a year later, and a civil rights plank in the 1948 Democratic platform. Southern Democrats were enraged by these proposals and thus sought to form a "States' Rights" Democratic ticket, which would replace Truman as the official Democratic nominee. ^[10] In South Carolina, Dixiecrats completely controlled the situation and achieved this ^[11] as early as the state's May presidential primary. ^[12] Consequently, Thurmond and Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright were listed as the official "Democratic" nominees.

76% of white voters supported Thurmond. ^[13]

Polls

Source	Ranking	As of
The Herald-Sun [14]	Safe I	September 12, 1948
Chattanooga Daily Times [15]	Safe I	October 15, 1948
The Evening Star [16]	Certain I	October 20, 1948
The Montgomery Advertiser [17]	Certain I	October 24, 1948
Mount Vernon Argus [18]	Certain I	November 1, 1948
Oakland Tribune [19]	Safe I	November 1, 1948

Results

1948 United States presidential election in South Carolina [20]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Popular vote		Electoral vote
				Count	%	Count	%
	Dixiecrat	Strom Thurmond of South Carolina	Fielding Lewis Wright of Mississippi	102,607	71.97%	8	100.00%
	Democratic	Harry S. Truman of Missouri	Alben William Barkley of Kentucky	34,423	24.14%	0	0.00%
	Republican	Thomas Edmund Dewey of New York	Earl Warren of California	5,386	3.78%	0	0.00%
	Progressive	Henry Agard Wallace of Iowa	Glen Hearst Taylor of Idaho	154	0.11%	0	0.00%
	Write-in	Norman Thomas of New York	Tucker Powell Smith of Michigan	1	0.00%	0	0.00%
Total				142,571	100.00%	8	100.00%

Results by county

1948 United States presidential election in South Carolina by county ^{[21] [22]}

County	James Strom Thurmond States’ Rights/Democratic		Thomas Edmund Dewey Republican		Harry S. Truman Democratic		Henry Agard Wallace Progressive		Margin [lower-alpha 1]		Total votes cast
	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%
Abbeville	787	73.97%	23	2.16%	254	23.87%	0	0.00%	533	50.09%	1,064
Aiken	4,607	86.94%	115	2.17%	572	10.79%	5	0.09%	4,035	76.15%	5,299
Allendale	1,041	93.78%	14	1.26%	55	4.95%	0	0.00%	986	88.83%	1,110
Anderson	1,342	33.32%	105	2.61%	2,581	64.08%	0	0.00%	-1,239	-30.76%	4,028
Bamberg	1,714	91.51%	34	1.82%	124	6.62%	1	0.05%	1,590	84.89%	1,873
Barnwell	1,920	93.02%	28	1.36%	115	5.57%	1	0.05%	1,805	87.45%	2,064
Beaufort	850	67.62%	150	11.93%	253	20.13%	4	0.32%	597	47.49%	1,257
Berkeley	1,534	79.94%	58	3.02%	323	16.83%	4	0.21%	1,211	63.11%	1,919
Calhoun	840	95.35%	4	0.45%	36	4.09%	1	0.11%	804	91.26%	881
Charleston	10,603	76.32%	562	4.05%	2,660	19.15%	68	0.49%	7,943	57.17%	13,893
Cherokee	1,075	61.15%	77	4.38%	605	34.41%	1	0.06%	470	26.73%	1,758
Chester	1,527	75.89%	48	2.39%	436	21.67%	1	0.05%	1,091	54.22%	2,012
Chesterfield	1,554	62.21%	31	1.24%	912	36.51%	1	0.04%	642	25.70%	2,498
Clarendon	1,467	92.26%	16	1.01%	107	6.73%	0	0.00%	1,360	85.53%	1,590
Colleton	2,337	89.92%	39	1.50%	223	8.58%	0	0.00%	2,114	81.14%	2,599
Darlington	1,930	69.93%	104	3.77%	726	26.30%	0	0.00%	1,204	43.63%	2,760
Dillon	967	53.72%	24	1.33%	808	44.89%	1	0.06%	159	8.83%	1,800
Dorchester	2,717	92.10%	85	2.88%	143	4.85%	5	0.17%	2,574	87.25%	2,950
Edgefield	1,797	98.20%	6	0.33%	27	1.48%	0	0.00%	1,770	96.72%	1,830
Fairfield	1,073	79.54%	63	4.67%	211	15.64%	2	0.15%	862	63.90%	1,349
Florence	3,729	72.97%	192	3.76%	1,189	23.27%	0	0.00%	2,540	49.71%	5,110
Georgetown	1,943	78.66%	92	3.72%	432	17.49%	3	0.12%	1,511	61.17%	2,470
Greenville	5,922	62.51%	789	8.33%	2,745	28.97%	18	0.19%	3,177	33.53%	9,474
Greenwood	2,508	83.21%	63	2.09%	440	14.60%	3	0.10%	2,068	68.61%	3,014
Hampton	1,530	94.33%	10	0.62%	81	4.99%	1	0.06%	1,449	89.33%	1,622
Horry	3,345	84.45%	113	2.85%	503	12.70%	0	0.00%	2,842	71.75%	3,961
Jasper	715	80.61%	31	3.49%	141	15.90%	0	0.00%	574	64.71%	887
Kershaw	1,615	82.15%	49	2.49%	302	15.36%	0	0.00%	1,313	66.79%	1,966
Lancaster	1,649	65.07%	30	1.18%	855	33.74%	0	0.00%	794	31.33%	2,534
Laurens	2,047	77.86%	69	2.62%	513	19.51%	0	0.00%	1,534	58.35%	2,629
Lee	1,155	86.65%	36	2.70%	142	10.65%	0	0.00%	1,013	75.99%	1,333
Lexington	2,237	78.19%	58	2.03%	566	19.78%	0	0.00%	1,671	58.41%	2,861
Marion	1,219	79.47%	14	0.91%	301	19.62%	0	0.00%	918	59.84%	1,534
Marlboro	1,083	73.23%	41	2.77%	354	23.94%	1	0.07%	729	49.29%	1,479
McCormick	713	95.96%	0	0.00%	30	4.04%	0	0.00%	683	91.92%	743
Newberry	2,758	87.25%	47	1.49%	349	11.04%	7	0.22%	2,409	76.21%	3,161
Oconee	1,155	59.02%	135	6.90%	666	34.03%	1	0.05%	489	24.99%	1,957
Orangeburg	3,160	83.98%	164	4.36%	435	11.56%	4	0.11%	2,725	72.42%	3,763
Pickens	1,344	69.14%	165	8.49%	435	22.38%	0	0.00%	909	46.76%	1,944
Richland	6,096	66.32%	670	7.29%	2,419	26.32%	7	0.08%	3,677	40.00%	9,192
Saluda	1,712	89.45%	15	0.78%	187	9.77%	0	0.00%	1,525	79.68%	1,914
Spartanburg	4,660	38.70%	627	5.21%	6,741	55.98%	13	0.11%	-2,081	-17.28%	12,041
Sumter	2,718	78.17%	154	4.43%	605	17.40%	0	0.00%	2,113	60.77%	3,477
Union	2,090	61.13%	46	1.35%	1,283	37.53%	0	0.00%	807	23.60%	3,419
Williamsburg	1,839	92.46%	23	1.16%	126	6.33%	1	0.05%	1,713	86.12%	1,989
York	1,983	55.67%	167	4.69%	1,412	39.64%	0	0.00%	571	16.03%	3,562
Totals	102,607	71.97%	5,386	3.78%	34,423	24.14%	154	0.11%	68,184	47.82%	142,570

Analysis

Thurmond won his native state by a margin of 47.83 points, making him the first third-party candidate to carry the state since Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge in 1860. This was the first time the state voted against the Democrats since 1876, and Truman was the first Democrat to win without the state since 1836.

Significant opposition to Thurmond came from the poor whites of the industrial upcountry, who rejected the Dixiecrats' opposition to public works and labor regulation. ^[23] Many upcountry county parties and newspapers, especially in the two counties that backed Truman over Thurmond, ^[24] alongside Senator Olin D. Johnston, ^[25] also rejected bolting from the national party.

However, sufficiently few of these poorer whites voted that Thurmond was able to easily carry South Carolina, winning 44 of the state's 46 counties and over 71 percent of the total presidential vote. Thurmond exceeded 72 percent in all but twelve counties, and passed ninety percent in ten. This was the first time any county in South Carolina had voted against the national Democrats since 1900. ^[26]

Notes

1. Because Thurmond was the official Democratic nominee in South Carolina and he and Truman came in the first two places in all counties and the state as a whole, all margins given are Thurmond vote minus Truman vote and all percentage margins Thurmond percentage minus Truman percentage.

References

1. Key; Southern Politics in State and Nation, p. 332
2. Phillips, Kevin P. The Emerging Republican Majority. pp. 208, 210. ISBN   9780691163246.
3. Mickey, Robert. Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944-1972. p. 440. ISBN   0691149631.
4. Mickey; Paths Out of Dixie, p. 27
5. Key junior, V.O. Southern Politics in State and Nation. p. 328. ISBN   087049435X.
6. Scher, Richard K. Politics in the New South: Republicanism, Race and Leadership in the Twentieth Century. p. 95. ISBN   1563248484.
7. Frederickson, Kari A. The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968. p. 39. ISBN   0807849103.
8. Geselbracht, Raymond H. (ed.). The Civil Rights Legacy of Harry S. Truman. p. 53. ISBN   1931112673.
9. Fredericksen. The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, p. 52
10. Sabato, Larry J.; Ernst, Howard R. Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. p. 114. ISBN   9781438141817.
11. Key. Southern Politics in State and Nation, p. 332
12. Mickey. Paths Out of Dixie, pp. 146-149
13. Black & Black 1992, p. 147.
14. Gallup, George (September 12, 1948). "Thurmond's Long South Carolina Lead Highlights Democratic Problem in Dixie". The Herald-Sun . Durham, North Carolina. p. 1.
15. Gallup, George (October 15, 1948). "Only Four States Go to Dixiecrats". Chattanooga Daily Times . Chattanooga, Tennessee. p. 6-A.
16. Lincoln, Gould (October 20, 1948). "States' Rights Party Sews Up South Carolina for Thurmond". The Evening Star . Washington, D.C. p. A—5.
17. Montgomery, John A. (October 24, 1948). "South Carolina". The Montgomery Advertiser . Montgomery, Alabama. p. 16.
18. Tucker, Ray (November 1, 1948). "Truman Whistling in a White House Graveyard, Says Tucker, Predicting It'll Be a Dewey Sweep". Mount Vernon Argus. Mount Vernon, New York. p. 8.
19. Gallup, George (November 1, 1948). "Final Gallup Poll Shows Dewey Winning Election with Wide Electoral Vote Margin". Oakland Tribune . Oakland, California. pp. 1–2.
20. "1948 Presidential General Election Results – South Carolina". U.S. Election Atlas. Retrieved December 23, 2013.
21. Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 395 ISBN   0405077114
22. "Popular Vote for Strom Thurmond". Géoelections. (.xlsx file for €15)
23. Phillips. The Emerging Republican Majority; pp. 262-265
24. "Thurmond Winner: State Out of Demo Column for First Time Since 1876". Anderson Independent-Mail . Anderson, South Carolina. p. 1.
25. "Johnson Openly Bucks Thurmond". The Item . Sumter, South Carolina. p. 11.
26. Menendez, Albert J. (2005). The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868-2004. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 291–293. ISBN   0786422173.

Works cited

• Black, Earl; Black, Merle (1992). The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected. Harvard University Press. ISBN   0674941306.