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1956 United States presidential election in North Carolina

Main article: 1956 United States presidential election

The 1956 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the 1956 United States presidential election. North Carolina voters chose 14[3] representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

1956 United States presidential election in North Carolina
← 1952 November 6, 1956[1] 1960 →
All 14 North Carolina votes to the Electoral College
 
Nominee Adlai Stevenson Dwight D. Eisenhower
Party Democratic Republican
Home state Illinois Pennsylvania[a][2]
Running mate Estes Kefauver Richard Nixon
Electoral vote 14 0
Popular vote 590,530 575,062
Percentage 50.66% 49.34%
President before election

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

Elected President

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

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 never had statewide white primaries, although certain counties did use a white primary until it was banned by Smith v. Allwright.[6]

Following the banning of white primaries by the Supreme Court, North Carolina in 1948 offered less support to the Dixiecrat bolt than any other former Confederate state, due to the economic liberalism of its Black Belt and solid Democratic party discipline due to consistent Republican opposition.[7] Although there was little satisfaction with Harry S. Truman during his second term,[8] the loyalty of the white voters of the state’s Black Belt and the previously anti-Al Smith Outer Banks meant that unlike Texas, Florida and Virginia, urban middle-class Republican voting was inadequate to carry North Carolina for Eisenhower.[9]

During the 1940s and 1950s, the proportion of blacks registered to vote in the state increased steadily from less than ten percent to around twenty percent by the time of Brown v. Board of Education. Several Piedmont cities had blacks on their councils,[10] although blacks in rural areas generally remained without hope of registering. The state would largely escape the overt “Massive Resistance” seen in neighbouring Virginia,[11] and four of its congressmen did not sign the Southern Manifesto.[12] Nonetheless, although the Greensboro school board voted 6–1 to desegregate within a day of Brown,[13] no serious desegregation would take place until well into the 1960s, while two non-signers would be challenged and defeated in 1956 primaries.[b]

Polls

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Source Rating As of
The Daily Press[14] Safe D September 29, 1956
The Daily Times-News[15] Safe D October 26, 1956
Asheville Citizen-Times[16] Safe D October 28, 1956
Fort Worth Star-Telegram[17] Safe D November 2, 1956
Corpus Christi Times[18] Likely D November 3, 1956
The Philadelphia Inquirer[19] Likely D November 4, 1956
The Salt Lake Tribune[20] Likely D November 4, 1956

Results

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1956 United States presidential election in North Carolina
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Adlai Stevenson 590,530 50.66%
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower (inc.) 575,062 49.34%
Total votes 1,165,592 100%

Results by county

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County[21] Adlai Stevenson
Democratic 		Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican 		Margin Total
# % # % # %
Alamance 11,029 47.64% 12,123 52.36% -1,094 -4.72% 23,152
Alexander 2,710 41.84% 3,767 58.16% -1,057 -16.32% 6,477
Alleghany 1,670 49.57% 1,699 50.43% -29 -0.86% 3,369
Anson 3,598 68.69% 1,640 31.31% 1,958 37.38% 5,238
Ashe 3,982 46.46% 4,588 53.54% -606 -7.08% 8,570
Avery 969 19.47% 4,009 80.53% -3,040 -61.06% 4,978
Beaufort 5,730 71.56% 2,277 28.44% 3,453 43.12% 8,007
Bertie 3,373 87.79% 469 12.21% 2,904 75.58% 3,842
Bladen 4,078 72.56% 1,542 27.44% 2,536 45.12% 5,620
Brunswick 3,297 49.98% 3,299 50.02% -2 -0.04% 6,596
Buncombe 19,044 45.67% 22,655 54.33% -3,611 -8.66% 41,699
Burke 7,999 40.35% 11,823 59.65% -3,824 -19.30% 19,822
Cabarrus 7,173 33.15% 14,462 66.85% -7,289 -33.70% 21,635
Caldwell 6,861 38.78% 10,833 61.22% -3,972 -22.44% 17,694
Camden 813 70.33% 343 29.67% 470 40.66% 1,156
Carteret 3,875 50.46% 3,804 49.54% 71 0.92% 7,679
Caswell 2,468 67.21% 1,204 32.79% 1,264 34.42% 3,672
Catawba 11,424 37.25% 19,246 62.75% -7,822 -25.50% 30,670
Chatham 4,151 52.68% 3,729 47.32% 422 5.36% 7,880
Cherokee 2,843 42.60% 3,830 57.40% -987 -14.80% 6,673
Chowan 1,485 72.76% 556 27.24% 929 45.52% 2,041
Clay 1,287 47.16% 1,442 52.84% -155 -5.68% 2,729
Cleveland 8,408 54.30% 7,076 45.70% 1,332 8.60% 15,484
Columbus 7,805 77.24% 2,300 22.76% 5,505 54.48% 10,105
Craven 6,317 68.12% 2,956 31.88% 3,361 36.24% 9,273
Cumberland 8,862 56.95% 6,699 43.05% 2,163 13.90% 15,561
Currituck 1,425 74.49% 488 25.51% 937 48.98% 1,913
Dare 839 44.94% 1,028 55.06% -189 -10.12% 1,867
Davidson 9,987 38.17% 16,178 61.83% -6,191 -23.66% 26,165
Davie 2,110 31.45% 4,599 68.55% -2,489 -37.10% 6,709
Duplin 6,931 76.66% 2,110 23.34% 4,821 53.32% 9,041
Durham 13,835 51.13% 13,226 48.87% 609 2.26% 27,061
Edgecombe 7,830 80.97% 1,840 19.03% 5,990 61.94% 9,670
Forsyth 15,819 35.01% 29,368 64.99% -13,549 -29.98% 45,187
Franklin 5,298 87.00% 792 13.00% 4,506 74.00% 6,090
Gaston 15,671 46.32% 18,159 53.68% -2,488 -7.36% 33,830
Gates 1,244 78.49% 341 21.51% 903 56.98% 1,585
Graham 1,486 45.75% 1,762 54.25% -276 -8.50% 3,248
Granville 4,013 73.28% 1,463 26.72% 2,550 46.56% 5,476
Greene 3,285 93.67% 222 6.33% 3,063 87.34% 3,507
Guilford 21,948 40.13% 32,751 59.87% -10,803 -19.74% 54,699
Halifax 7,860 77.01% 2,346 22.99% 5,514 54.02% 10,206
Harnett 7,421 64.99% 3,998 35.01% 3,423 29.98% 11,419
Haywood 7,598 52.21% 6,955 47.79% 643 4.42% 14,553
Henderson 4,003 30.22% 9,243 69.78% -5,240 -39.56% 13,246
Hertford 2,708 78.79% 729 21.21% 1,979 57.58% 3,437
Hoke 1,944 79.12% 513 20.88% 1,431 58.24% 2,457
Hyde 1,028 67.68% 491 32.32% 537 35.36% 1,519
Iredell 7,286 39.57% 11,125 60.43% -3,839 -20.86% 18,411
Jackson 3,787 51.95% 3,503 48.05% 284 3.90% 7,290
Johnston 9,852 66.82% 4,893 33.18% 4,959 33.64% 14,745
Jones 1,952 82.47% 415 17.53% 1,537 64.94% 2,367
Lee 4,163 68.12% 1,948 31.88% 2,215 36.24% 6,111
Lenoir 6,847 72.76% 2,564 27.24% 4,283 45.52% 9,411
Lincoln 5,838 46.80% 6,637 53.20% -799 -6.40% 12,475
Macon 3,025 47.02% 3,408 52.98% -383 -5.96% 6,433
Madison 3,693 46.42% 4,263 53.58% -570 -7.16% 7,956
Martin 5,730 92.73% 449 7.27% 5,281 85.46% 6,179
McDowell 4,392 44.54% 5,468 55.46% -1,076 -10.92% 9,860
Mecklenburg 27,227 37.98% 44,469 62.02% -17,242 -24.04% 71,696
Mitchell 1,069 20.03% 4,269 79.97% -3,200 -59.94% 5,338
Montgomery 3,088 47.90% 3,359 52.10% -271 -4.20% 6,447
Moore 4,729 47.45% 5,238 52.55% -509 -5.10% 9,967
Nash 9,969 78.91% 2,665 21.09% 7,304 57.82% 12,634
New Hanover 10,247 51.97% 9,470 48.03% 777 3.94% 19,717
Northampton 4,242 85.03% 747 14.97% 3,495 70.06% 4,989
Onslow 4,692 74.26% 1,626 25.74% 3,066 48.52% 6,318
Orange 4,743 51.90% 4,396 48.10% 347 3.80% 9,139
Pamlico 1,376 59.06% 954 40.94% 422 18.12% 2,330
Pasquotank 2,963 61.86% 1,827 38.14% 1,136 23.72% 4,790
Pender 2,196 68.52% 1,009 31.48% 1,187 37.04% 3,205
Perquimans 1,022 59.04% 709 40.96% 313 18.08% 1,731
Person 3,433 66.36% 1,740 33.64% 1,693 32.72% 5,173
Pitt 11,873 82.52% 2,515 17.48% 9,358 65.04% 14,388
Polk 2,527 47.23% 2,823 52.77% -296 -5.54% 5,350
Randolph 8,404 38.95% 13,174 61.05% -4,770 -22.10% 21,578
Richmond 6,592 69.40% 2,907 30.60% 3,685 38.80% 9,499
Robeson 10,516 79.06% 2,785 20.94% 7,731 58.12% 13,301
Rockingham 8,896 49.73% 8,991 50.27% -95 -0.54% 17,887
Rowan 9,761 35.72% 17,562 64.28% -7,801 -28.56% 27,323
Rutherford 7,208 46.78% 8,200 53.22% -992 -6.44% 15,408
Sampson 7,197 51.84% 6,685 48.16% 512 3.68% 13,882
Scotland 3,042 72.21% 1,171 27.79% 1,871 44.42% 4,213
Stanly 6,693 38.55% 10,667 61.45% -3,974 -22.90% 17,360
Stokes 3,948 47.63% 4,341 52.37% -393 -4.74% 8,289
Surry 7,020 43.82% 9,001 56.18% -1,981 -12.36% 16,021
Swain 1,794 46.96% 2,026 53.04% -232 -6.08% 3,820
Transylvania 3,435 46.82% 3,901 53.18% -466 -6.36% 7,336
Tyrrell 615 59.42% 420 40.58% 195 18.84% 1,035
Union 6,383 65.50% 3,362 34.50% 3,021 31.00% 9,745
Vance 4,922 71.57% 1,955 28.43% 2,967 43.14% 6,877
Wake 22,427 59.61% 15,194 40.39% 7,233 19.22% 37,621
Warren 2,733 79.19% 718 20.81% 2,015 58.38% 3,451
Washington 1,947 65.34% 1,033 34.66% 914 30.68% 2,980
Watauga 3,223 41.01% 4,636 58.99% -1,413 -17.98% 7,859
Wayne 6,756 61.55% 4,220 38.45% 2,536 23.10% 10,976
Wilkes 5,870 33.71% 11,544 66.29% -5,674 -32.58% 17,414
Wilson 8,328 74.64% 2,830 25.36% 5,498 49.28% 11,158
Yadkin 2,361 30.15% 5,469 69.85% -3,108 -39.70% 7,830
Yancey 2,964 51.35% 2,808 48.65% 156 2.70% 5,772
Totals 590,530 50.66% 575,062 49.34% 15,468 1.32% 1,165,592

Analysis

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North Carolina was carried by Democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, with 50.66 percent of the popular vote, over incumbent Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 49.34 percent.[22][23] As in 1952, the key to Stevenson’s victory was the powerful loyalty of Black Belt and Outer Banks white voters. The east–west partisan split seen in 1928 and 1952 became so consistent that Stevenson won only four counties in the western bloc — with Eisenhower’s gain vis-à-vis 1952 of around 6 points concentrated in traditionally Democratic mountain and Piedmont counties[21] — but in the coastal plain Eisenhower won only Dare and Brunswick Counties. Critical help for Stevenson also came from gaining a much larger proportion of the growing urban black electorate than elsewhere in the Confederacy.[c] This was the last time until 1992 that North Carolina would vote for the losing candidate in a presidential election, and is also the last time that a Republican has won the presidency without carrying North Carolina.

Notes

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  1. ^ Although he was born in Texas and grew up in Kansas before his military career, at the time of the 1952 election Eisenhower was president of Columbia University and was, officially, a resident of New York. During his first term as president, he moved his private residence to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and officially changed his residency to Pennsylvania.
  2. ^ These were Charles B. Deane and Richard Thurmond Chatham.[12]
  3. ^ It is estimated that Eisenhower gained under forty percent of black voters in major North Carolina cities, whereas he gained over seventy percent in Atlanta and Richmond and over half in Memphis.[24]

References

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  1. ^ "United States Presidential election of 1956 — Encyclopædia Britannica". Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  2. ^ "The Presidents". David Leip. Retrieved September 27, 2017. Eisenhower's home state for the 1956 Election was Pennsylvania
  3. ^ "1956 Election for the Forty-Fourth Term (1961-65)". Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  4. ^ Phillips, Kevin P. The Emerging Republican Majority. pp. 210, 242. ISBN 978-0-691-16324-6.
  5. ^ Key, Valdimer Orlando (1949). Southern Politics in State and Nation. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 502.
  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.
  7. ^ Guthrie, Paul Daniel (August 1955). The Dixiecrat Movement of 1948 (Thesis). Bowling Green State University. p. 183. Docket 144207.
  8. ^ Grayson, A.G. (December 1975). "North Carolina and Harry Truman, 1944-1948". Journal of American Studies. 9 (3): 283–300.
  9. ^ Strong, Donald S. (August 1955). "The Presidential Election in the South, 1952". The Journal of Politics. 17 (3): 343–389.
  10. ^ Christensen, Rob (2008). The paradox of Tar Heel politics: the personalities, elections, and events that shaped modern North Carolina. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 264–265. ISBN 9780807831892.
  11. ^ Christensen. The paradox of Tar Heel politics, pp. 155-156
  12. ^ a b Badger, Tony (1999). "Southerners Who Refused To Sign the Southern Manifesto". The Historical Journal. 42 (2). Cambridge University Press: 528–532.
  13. ^ Telgen, Diane (2005). Brown v. Board of Education. Detroit, Michigan: Omnigraphics. p. 78. ISBN 9780780807754.
  14. ^ Lawrence, David (September 29, 1956). "Dissension in South Won't Affect Adlai". The Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. p. 4.
  15. ^ "How Do Former Citizens for Eisenhower Stand?". The Daily Times-News. Burlington, North Carolina. October 26, 1956. p. 4.
  16. ^ Robinson, Charles K.; Ramsey, Claude S., eds. (October 28, 1956). "Polls Favor Ike and Democrats". Asheville Citizen-Times. Asheville, North Carolina: Robert Bunelle. p. 28.
  17. ^ "Final Babson Poll Shows Eisenhower Winning Easily". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. CTS. November 2, 1956. p. 22.
  18. ^ Trohan, Walter (November 3, 1956). "Hour of Decision Near: Eisenhower Lead Increasing Daily". Corpus Christi Times. Chicago Tribune Service. p. 4.
  19. ^ "What the Polls Show — Eisenhower Victory Is Indicated across Nation". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 4, 1956. pp. B 1, B 3.
  20. ^ Lawrence, W.H. (November 4, 1956). ""Times Team" Counts Up 20-State GOP Margin". The Salt Lake Tribune. p. A 11.
  21. ^ a b "NC US President Race, November 06, 1956". Our Campaigns.
  22. ^ "1956 Presidential General Election Results — North Carolina". Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  23. ^ "The American Presidency Project — Election of 1956". Retrieved June 10, 2017.
  24. ^ Phillips. The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 299
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