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1952 United States presidential election in Florida

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1952 United States presidential election in Florida

← 1948 November 4, 1952 1956 →
 
Nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson
Party Republican Democratic
Home state New York[1] Illinois
Running mate Richard Nixon John Sparkman
Electoral vote 10 0
Popular vote 544,036 444,950
Percentage 54.99% 44.97%

County Results

President before election

Harry S. Truman
Democratic

Elected President

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican

The 1952 United States presidential election in Florida took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the 1952 United States presidential election. Florida voters chose ten representatives, or electors, to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.[2]

Florida was won by Columbia University President Dwight D. Eisenhower (RKansas), running with Senator Richard Nixon, with 54.99% of the popular vote, against Adlai Stevenson (DIllinois), running with Senator John Sparkman, with 44.97% of the popular vote.

In contrast to Herbert Hoover's anti-Catholicism-driven victory in the state in 1928, Eisenhower's victory was entirely concentrated in the newer and more liberal South Florida counties, which had seen extensive Northern settlement since the war, did not have a history of slave-based plantation farming,[3] and saw Eisenhower as more favourable to business than the Democratic Party.[4] Eisenhower swept the urban areas of Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota and Tampa, but failed to gain much support in the northwestern pineywoods that had been the core of the 1928 "Hoovercrat" bolt. In this region – inhabited by socially exceptionally conservative poor whites who had been voting in increasing numbers since Florida abolished its poll tax – Democratic loyalties dating from the Civil War remained extremely strong and economic populism hostile in general toward urban areas kept voters loyal to Stevenson.[5] Whereas the urban voters who turned to Eisenhower felt wholly disfranchised both locally and nationally by the one-party system and malapportionment, rural poor voters supported the New Deal/Fair Deal status quo.[6]

In contrast to the wholly Deep South states of Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina, where former Thurmond voters turned to Eisenhower,[7] Florida – although akin to those states in entirely lacking traditional Appalachian, Ozark or German "Forty-Eighter" Republicanism[3] – did not see its 1948 Dixiecrat voters or black belt whites turn over to Eisenhower on a large scale, and they were less loyal than in North Carolina, Texas and Virginia, where traditional Republicanism did exist. Florida's Southern Democrat political culture was strong enough that they were the only state that the Southern candidate Richard Russell won in the 1952 Democratic primaries.

Eisenhower's victory was the first of three consecutive Republican victories in the state, as Florida would not vote Democratic again until Lyndon B. Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964. As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Collier County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.[8]

A campaign banner overhanging a street in Key West in support of Adlai Stevenson.

Results

[edit]
Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote
Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral vote
Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican New York 544,036 54.99% 10 Richard Nixon California 10
Adlai Stevenson II Democratic Illinois 444,950 44.97% 0 John Sparkman Alabama 0
Various candidates[a] Write-ins 351[b] 0.04% 0 0
Total 989,337 100% 10 10
Needed to win 270 270

Results by county

[edit]
County Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
Adlai Stevenson
Democratic
Margin Total votes cast
# % # % # %
Alachua 8,432 58.47% 5,990 41.53% 2,442 16.94% 14,422
Baker 419 22.04% 1,482 77.96% -1,063 -55.92% 1,901
Bay 4,812 35.38% 8,789 64.62% -3,977 -29.24% 13,601
Bradford 976 29.68% 2,312 70.32% -1,336 -40.64% 3,288
Brevard 6,756 61.91% 4,157 38.09% 2,599 23.82% 10,913
Broward 26,506 69.10% 11,854 30.90% 14,652 38.20% 38,360
Calhoun 590 24.41% 1,827 75.59% -1,237 -51.18% 2,417
Charlotte 1,134 58.79% 795 41.21% 339 17.58% 1,929
Citrus 1,249 47.85% 1,361 52.15% -112 -4.30% 2,610
Clay 2,116 49.07% 2,196 50.93% -80 -1.86% 4,312
Collier 1,086 49.59% 1,104 50.41% -18 -0.82% 2,190
Columbia 2,041 38.73% 3,229 61.27% -1,188 -22.54% 5,270
DeSoto 1,256 41.21% 1,792 58.79% -536 -17.58% 3,048
Dixie 440 34.81% 824 65.19% -384 -30.38% 1,264
Duval 50,346 48.27% 53,949 51.73% -3,603 -3.46% 104,295
Escambia 12,176 37.27% 20,495 62.73% -8,319 -25.46% 32,671
Flagler 512 51.30% 486 48.70% 26 2.60% 998
Franklin 611 33.04% 1,238 66.96% -627 -33.92% 1,849
Gadsden 1,835 40.41% 2,706 59.59% -871 -19.18% 4,541
Gilchrist 195 16.43% 992 83.57% -797 -67.14% 1,187
Glades 264 39.70% 401 60.30% -137 -20.60% 665
Gulf 490 21.69% 1,769 78.31% -1,279 -56.62% 2,259
Hamilton 658 31.18% 1,452 68.82% -794 -37.64% 2,110
Hardee 1,802 46.55% 2,069 53.45% -267 -6.90% 3,871
Hendry 918 46.60% 1,052 53.40% -134 -6.80% 1,970
Hernando 1,279 53.67% 1,104 46.33% 175 7.34% 2,383
Highlands 2,952 51.90% 2,736 48.10% 216 3.80% 5,688
Hillsborough 36,316 52.20% 33,252 47.80% 3,064 4.40% 69,568
Holmes 1,230 27.67% 3,216 72.33% -1,986 -44.66% 4,446
Indian River 3,055 65.94% 1,578 34.06% 1,477 31.88% 4,633
Jackson 2,398 29.53% 5,722 70.47% -3,324 -40.94% 8,120
Jefferson 665 36.22% 1,171 63.78% -506 -27.56% 1,836
Lafayette 269 21.52% 981 78.48% -712 -56.96% 1,250
Lake 9,132 70.63% 3,797 29.37% 5,335 41.26% 12,929
Lee 5,528 59.09% 3,828 40.91% 1,700 18.18% 9,356
Leon 5,604 41.19% 8,000 58.81% -2,396 -17.62% 13,604
Levy 1,066 34.66% 2,010 65.34% -944 -30.68% 3,076
Liberty 237 18.60% 1,037 81.40% -800 -62.80% 1,274
Madison 1,209 42.66% 1,625 57.34% -416 -14.68% 2,834
Manatee 9,055 66.40% 4,583 33.60% 4,472 32.80% 13,638
Marion 6,134 51.17% 5,854 48.83% 280 2.34% 11,988
Martin 2,308 64.65% 1,262 35.35% 1,046 29.30% 3,570
Miami-Dade 122,174 56.77% 93,022 43.23% 29,152 13.54% 215,196
Monroe 2,943 37.33% 4,941 62.67% -1,998 -25.34% 7,884
Nassau 1,731 40.82% 2,510 59.18% -779 -18.36% 4,241
Okaloosa 2,355 30.47% 5,375 69.53% -3,020 -39.06% 7,730
Okeechobee 539 37.96% 881 62.04% -342 -24.08% 1,420
Orange 29,813 71.06% 12,141 28.94% 17,672 42.12% 41,954
Osceola 3,133 62.25% 1,900 37.75% 1,233 24.50% 5,033
Palm Beach 28,595 67.57% 13,723 32.43% 14,872 35.14% 42,318
Pasco 4,562 56.24% 3,549 43.76% 1,013 12.48% 8,111
Pinellas 55,691 71.35% 22,365 28.65% 33,326 42.70% 78,056
Polk 20,874 51.63% 19,556 48.37% 1,318 3.26% 40,430
Putnam 3,766 51.65% 3,525 48.35% 241 3.30% 7,291
St. Johns 4,702 51.85% 4,366 48.15% 336 3.70% 9,068
St. Lucie 4,667 62.65% 2,782 37.35% 1,885 25.30% 7,449
Santa Rosa 1,744 28.50% 4,375 71.50% -2,631 -43.00% 6,119
Sarasota 9,538 70.74% 3,945 29.26% 5,593 41.48% 13,483
Seminole 4,683 60.02% 3,120 39.98% 1,563 20.04% 7,803
Sumter 1,054 31.64% 2,277 68.36% -1,223 -36.72% 3,331
Suwannee 1,611 36.30% 2,827 63.70% -1,216 -27.40% 4,438
Taylor 744 29.40% 1,787 70.60% -1,043 -41.20% 2,531
Union 268 21.68% 968 78.32% -700 -56.64% 1,236
Volusia 19,815 62.46% 11,910 37.54% 7,905 24.92% 31,725
Wakulla 375 24.24% 1,172 75.76% -797 -51.52% 1,547
Walton 1,502 29.48% 3,593 70.52% -2,091 -41.04% 5,095
Washington 1,100 32.71% 2,263 67.29% -1,163 -34.58% 3,363
Totals 544,036 54.99% 444,950 44.97% 99,086 10.02% 989,337

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

[edit]

Counties that flipped from Dixiecrat to Republican

[edit]

Results by congressional district

[edit]

Eisenhower won 6 of the 8 congressional districts, all of which were held by Democrats.

District[9] Eisenhower Stevenson
1st 61.9% 38.1%
2nd 48.3% 51.7%
3rd 26.7% 73.3%
4th 56.1% 43.9%
5th 63% 37%
6th 65.5% 34.5%
7th 56.7% 43.3%
8th 57.7% 42.3%

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ These votes were listed in America at the Polls state-wide, but not in Dave Leip's Atlas.
  2. ^ These write-in votes were given only as a state-wide total, not separated by county.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "U.S. presidential election, 1952". Facts on File. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 24, 2013. Eisenhower, born in Texas, considered a resident of New York, and headquartered at the time in Paris, finally decided to run for the Republican nomination
  2. ^ "1952 Presidential Election Results Florida". Dave Leip's U.S. Election Atlas.
  3. ^ a b Strong, Donald S.; 'The Presidential Election in the South, 1952'; The Journal of Politics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 343-389
  4. ^ See Doherty, Herbert J. (junior); 'Liberal and Conservative Politics in Florida'; The Journal of Politics, vol. 14, no. 3 (August 1952), pp. 403-417
  5. ^ Phillips, Kevin P.; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 232 ISBN 1400852293
  6. ^ Buchholz, Michael O., The South in Presidential Politics: The End of Democratic Hegemony. Master of Arts (Political Science), August, 1973, p. 43
  7. ^ Phillips; The Emerging Republican Majority, p. 217
  8. ^ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  9. ^ "1952 United States Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District". Western Washington University. Retrieved August 12, 2024.