1952 United States presidential election in North Carolina

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1952 United States presidential election in North Carolina
Flag of North Carolina (1885-1991).svg
  1948 November 4, 1952 [1] 1956  

All 14 North Carolina votes to the Electoral College
  Adlai Stevenson close-up.jpg Dwight David Eisenhower 1952 crop.jpg
Nominee Adlai Stevenson Dwight D. Eisenhower
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois New York [2]
Running mate John Sparkman Richard Nixon
Electoral vote140
Popular vote652,803558,107
Percentage53.91%46.09%

North Carolina Presidential Election Results 1952.svg
1952 United States presidential election in North Carolina results map by congressional district.svg

President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

The 1952 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the 1952 United States presidential election. North Carolina voters chose 14 [3] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Contents

As a former Confederate state, North Carolina had a history of Jim Crow laws, disfranchisement of its African-American population and dominance of the Democratic Party in state politics. However, unlike the Deep South, the Republican Party had sufficient historic Unionist white support from the mountains and northwestern Piedmont to gain one-third of the statewide vote total in most general elections, [4] where turnout was higher than elsewhere in the former Confederacy due substantially to the state's early abolition of the poll tax in 1920. [5] Like Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma, the relative strength of Republican opposition meant that North Carolina did not have statewide white primaries, although certain counties did use the white primary. [6] This persistent local Republican threat from mountain Unionist descendants meant that there was never any question of the state Democratic party bolting to support Strom Thurmond. [7] [8] Additionally, the greatest support for Thurmond was found in middle- and upper-class urban areas of the Piedmont, [9] so that the best Dixiecrat counties correlated strongly with the largest urban areas. [10]

During Truman's second term, there was little satisfaction in North Carolina with the President, due to unresolved Civil Rights struggles, strikes, and evidence of corruption in the Democratic Party. [11] At the beginning of the presidential campaign, though, there was no indication that the state would not back new Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson, and all state Democrats endorsed him. [12] Stevenson began his campaign in North Carolina in late July, [13] but did not return to the state as it was felt by September that Republican nominee and Columbia University President Dwight D. Eisenhower had less chance than in Florida, Texas or the Dixiecrat states of Louisiana and South Carolina. [14] Stevenson was helped by the fact that, much more than in other Southern States, North Carolina's press largely endorsed him over Eisenhower, [14] although in mid-October one of the two largest papers was endorsing the Republican. [15] Nonetheless, polls ten days before the election suggested Stevenson was very likely to carry the state due to the party loyalty created by viable mountain and northwest Piedmont Republican opposition. [16]

Because the Black Belt of the state, unlike the economically conservative Black Belts of the Deep South, was economically more liberal than the Piedmont region where the establishment Democratic faction led since 1929 by O. Max Gardner was based, [17] its entirely white electorate stayed exceedingly loyal to Stevenson – much more so than the Black Belts of other Outer South states. This Democratic loyalty extended to the Outer Banks, which had been a center of anti-Catholic voting when Herbert Hoover carried the state in 1928, [10] so that apart from a seven-vote win in Brunswick County, every county Eisenhower carried was in the urban Piedmont or traditionally GOP mountains. Thus, unlike Texas, Florida and Virginia, urban middle-class Republican voting was inadequate to carry the state for Eisenhower.

North Carolina was ultimately won by Governor Stevenson with 53.91 percent of the popular vote, against Eisenhower with 46.09 percent of the popular vote. [18] [19] Stevenson ran with Alabama Senator John Sparkman and Eisenhower with California Senator Richard Nixon.

Results

1952 United States presidential election in North Carolina
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Adlai Stevenson 652,803 53.91%
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower 558,10746.09%
Total votes1,210,910 100%

Results by county

County [20] Adlai Stevenson
Democratic
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
MarginTotal
# %# %# %
Alamance 13,40254.06%11,38845.94%2,0148.12%24,790
Alexander 2,66542.56%3,59757.44%-932-14.88%6,262
Alleghany 1,80950.28%1,78949.72%200.56%3,598
Anson 4,14369.21%1,84330.79%2,30038.42%5,986
Ashe 4,53649.85%4,56350.15%-27-0.30%9,099
Avery 96420.56%3,72579.44%-2,761-58.88%4,689
Beaufort 5,42969.31%2,40430.69%3,02538.62%7,833
Bertie 3,55790.26%3849.74%3,17380.52%3,941
Bladen 3,50667.22%1,71032.78%1,79634.44%5,216
Brunswick 2,95149.94%2,95850.06%-7-0.12%5,909
Buncombe 22,42547.85%24,44452.15%-2,019-4.30%46,869
Burke 7,73241.03%11,11358.97%-3,381-17.94%18,845
Cabarrus 9,14037.78%15,05362.22%-5,913-24.44%24,193
Caldwell 7,53345.13%9,16054.87%-1,627-9.74%16,693
Camden 99674.55%34025.45%65649.10%1,336
Carteret 4,28059.06%2,96740.94%1,31318.12%7,247
Caswell 2,59772.75%97327.25%1,62445.50%3,570
Catawba 11,55440.73%16,81459.27%-5,260-18.54%28,368
Chatham 4,30354.41%3,60645.59%6978.82%7,909
Cherokee 3,36351.02%3,22848.98%1352.04%6,591
Chowan 1,44872.95%53727.05%91145.90%1,985
Clay 1,43949.93%1,44350.07%-4-0.14%2,882
Cleveland 9,70956.07%7,60643.93%2,10312.14%17,315
Columbus 6,94169.81%3,00130.19%3,94039.62%9,942
Craven 6,09268.34%2,82231.66%3,27036.68%8,914
Cumberland 8,83954.18%7,47445.82%1,3658.36%16,313
Currituck 1,47178.04%41421.96%1,05756.08%1,885
Dare 95955.56%76744.44%19211.12%1,726
Davidson 10,93143.33%14,29956.67%-3,368-13.34%25,230
Davie 2,40637.50%4,01062.50%-1,604-25.00%6,416
Duplin 6,39275.14%2,11524.86%4,27750.28%8,507
Durham 18,89762.58%11,30137.42%7,59625.16%30,198
Edgecombe 8,50481.53%1,92718.47%6,57763.06%10,431
Forsyth 24,53548.14%26,43651.86%-1,901-3.72%50,971
Franklin 5,37687.90%74012.10%4,63675.80%6,116
Gaston 17,78148.14%19,15751.86%-1,376-3.72%36,938
Gates 1,24777.41%36422.59%88354.82%1,611
Graham 1,59053.54%1,38046.46%2107.08%2,970
Granville 4,58379.72%1,16620.28%3,41759.44%5,749
Greene 2,97694.12%1865.88%2,79088.24%3,162
Guilford 29,02846.57%33,31053.43%-4,282-6.86%62,338
Halifax 8,80779.94%2,21020.06%6,59759.88%11,017
Harnett 7,59563.82%4,30636.18%3,28927.64%11,901
Haywood 8,76158.86%6,12441.14%2,63717.72%14,885
Henderson 3,80330.25%8,76869.75%-4,965-39.50%12,571
Hertford 2,85983.16%57916.84%2,28066.32%3,438
Hoke 1,76174.08%61625.92%1,14548.16%2,377
Hyde 91969.36%40630.64%51338.72%1,325
Iredell 8,58042.09%11,80457.91%-3,224-15.82%20,384
Jackson 4,29653.86%3,68046.14%6167.72%7,976
Johnston 9,99764.81%5,42935.19%4,56829.62%15,426
Jones 1,67383.48%33116.52%1,34266.96%2,004
Lee 4,68869.01%2,10530.99%2,58338.02%6,793
Lenoir 6,72375.07%2,23324.93%4,49050.14%8,956
Lincoln 5,38946.39%6,22853.61%-839-7.22%11,617
Macon 3,39650.51%3,32749.49%691.02%6,723
Madison 3,66643.55%4,75156.45%-1,085-12.90%8,417
Martin 5,49392.98%4157.02%5,07885.96%5,908
McDowell 4,75550.24%4,71049.76%450.48%9,465
Mecklenburg 33,04442.70%44,33457.30%-11,290-14.60%77,378
Mitchell 1,23623.57%4,00976.43%-2,773-52.86%5,245
Montgomery 3,17649.96%3,18150.04%-5-0.08%6,357
Moore 5,06648.21%5,44251.79%-376-3.58%10,508
Nash 10,42479.82%2,63620.18%7,78859.64%13,060
New Hanover 10,33052.54%9,33047.46%1,0005.08%19,660
Northampton 4,33488.14%58311.86%3,75176.28%4,917
Onslow 4,27577.22%1,26122.78%3,01454.44%5,536
Orange 5,15657.49%3,81342.51%1,34314.98%8,969
Pamlico 1,42861.26%90338.74%52522.52%2,331
Pasquotank 3,57963.01%2,10136.99%1,47826.02%5,680
Pender 2,02963.78%1,15236.22%87727.56%3,181
Perquimans 1,24565.91%64434.09%60131.82%1,889
Person 4,26675.64%1,37424.36%2,89251.28%5,640
Pitt 11,27183.65%2,20316.35%9,06867.30%13,474
Polk 2,74151.70%2,56148.30%1803.40%5,302
Randolph 8,97541.93%12,42958.07%-3,454-16.14%21,404
Richmond 7,34068.59%3,36131.41%3,97937.18%10,701
Robeson 9,31169.29%4,12730.71%5,18438.58%13,438
Rockingham 12,42364.34%6,88535.66%5,53828.68%19,308
Rowan 11,29639.18%17,53560.82%-6,239-21.64%28,831
Rutherford 7,75548.04%8,38751.96%-632-3.92%16,142
Sampson 6,95651.89%6,44948.11%5073.78%13,405
Scotland 2,91264.68%1,59035.32%1,32229.36%4,502
Stanly 7,20241.64%10,09358.36%-2,891-16.72%17,295
Stokes 4,50454.29%3,79245.71%7128.58%8,296
Surry 8,20651.95%7,59148.05%6153.90%15,797
Swain 1,94953.71%1,68046.29%2697.42%3,629
Transylvania 3,64147.36%4,04752.64%-406-5.28%7,688
Tyrrell 91670.41%38529.59%53140.82%1,301
Union 7,41666.18%3,79033.82%3,62632.36%11,206
Vance 5,69776.80%1,72123.20%3,97653.60%7,418
Wake 23,39360.84%15,05739.16%8,33621.68%38,450
Warren 2,96081.68%66418.32%2,29663.36%3,624
Washington 1,97471.83%77428.17%1,20043.66%2,748
Watauga 3,60044.30%4,52755.70%-927-11.40%8,127
Wayne 7,28160.96%4,66239.04%2,61921.92%11,943
Wilkes 7,14338.43%11,44661.57%-4,303-23.14%18,589
Wilson 8,68477.17%2,56922.83%6,11554.34%11,253
Yadkin 2,78633.46%5,54066.54%-2,754-33.08%8,326
Yancey 3,69355.57%2,95344.43%74011.14%6,646
Totals652,80353.91%558,10746.09%94,6967.82%1,210,910

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References

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  3. "1952 Election for the Forty-Second Term (1953-57)" . Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  4. Phillips, Kevin P. The Emerging Republican Majority. pp. 210, 242. ISBN   978-0-691-16324-6.
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  6. Klarman, Michael J. (2001). "The White Primary Rulings: A Case Study in the Consequences of Supreme Court Decision-Making". Florida State University Law Review. 29: 55–107.
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  10. 1 2 See Strong, Donald S. (August 1955). "The Presidential Election in the South, 1952". The Journal of Politics. 17 (3): 343–389.
  11. Grayson, A.G. (December 1975). "North Carolina and Harry Truman, 1944-1948". Journal of American Studies. 9 (3): 283–300.
  12. "Dixie Sun Smiles on Eisenhower: Ike Could Win 79 Votes in South". Daily Boston Globe . August 3, 1952. p. C41.
  13. "Democrats Expect To Win the South: Leaders Believe Sparkman Will Offset Eisenhower's Appeal to Dixie Bloc". The New York Times . July 27, 1952. p. 38.
  14. 1 2 "South not so Solid, Press Poll Hints: Survey by the A.P. Indicates Eisenhower Might "Pull" 3 to 5 States to G.O.P.". The New York Times . Associated Press. September 18, 1952. p. 19.
  15. "Nominees Share 2 Papers: One in North Carolina Endorses Eisenhower, One Stevenson". The New York Times. October 12, 1952. p. 78.
  16. Popham, John N. (October 24, 1952). "Party Fealty Firm in North Carolina: State Has Remained Regular During Fair Deal and Seems Likely to Do So No". The New York Times (Special to the New York Times ed.). p. 18.
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  19. "The American Presidency Project – Election of 1952" . Retrieved July 25, 2017.
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