1932United States presidential election in Virginia

← 1928 November 8, 1932 1936 →

Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Herbert Hoover Party Democratic Republican Home state New York California Running mate John N. Garner Charles Curtis Electoral vote 11 0 Popular vote 203,979 89,637 Percentage 68.46% 30.09%

County and independent city results Roosevelt   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Hoover   50–60%

President before election Herbert Hoover Republican Elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic

The1932 United States presidential election in Virginia took place on November 8, 1932. Voters chose eleven representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

Like all former Confederate States, early twentieth-century Virginia almost completelydisenfranchised its black and poor white populations through the use ofa cumulative poll tax and literacy tests.^[1] So severe was the disenfranchising effect of the new 1902 Constitution that it has been calculated that a third of the electorate during the first half of the twentieth century comprised state employees and officeholders.^[1]

This limited electorate meant Virginian politics was controlled bypolitical machines based inSouthside Virginia—the 1920 would see the building of theByrd Organization which would control the state's politics untilthe Voting Rights Act. Progressive “antiorganization” factions were rendered impotent by the inability of almost all their potential electorate to vote.^[2] Unlike the Deep South, historicalfusion withthe “Readjuster” Democrats,^[3] defection overfree silver of substantial proportions of theNortheast-aligned white electorate of theShenandoah Valley andSouthwest Virginia,^[4] and an early move towards a“lily white”Jim Crow party^[3] meant that in general elections the Republicans retained around one-third of the small statewide electorate,^[5] with the majority of GOP support located in the western part of the state. However—like in Tennessee during the same era—the parties avoided competition in many areas by an agreed division over local offices.^[2]

1928 saw a substantial change, whereby a combination ofanti-Catholicism inthe Tidewater region and growing middle-class Republicanism in the cities saw RepublicanHerbert Hoover carry Virginia's electoral votes^[6] and elect three Congressmen, including the local district of emerging machine leader Byrd.^[7] However, a combination of record drought^[8] and the economic catastrophe of theGreat Depression meant that the trend towards the GOP would be short-lived.^[9] The Depression had extremely severe effects in the South, which had the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and many Southerners blamed this on the North and onWall Street, rejecting Hoover's claim that the Depression's causes were exogenous.^[10]

For some time in 1932, Byrd was seen as a possible compromise candidate between Roosevelt and Al Smith for the Democratic presidential nomination;^[11] however, Southern opposition to Smith meant that Byrd ultimately wavered on seeking the nomination and accepted Roosevelt,^[12] as even delegates from such states as North Carolina rejected him for FDR.

Neither major party candidate campaigned in the state, and no polls were taken early in the campaign. when the state was finally polled in the middle of October, Roosevelt was clearly leading over Hoover by around five-to-two.^[13] A later poll had Roosevelt winning by seventy thousand votes, despite overall being much more favourable to the incumbent president than most other polls.^[14] As it turned out, the earlier poll was more accurate, with Roosevelt winning by over one hundred and fourteen thousand votes. Roosevelt ultimately won the national election with 57.41 percent of the vote, and is to date the last Democrat to carryCarroll,Highland, andShenandoah counties.

• Arlington
• Alleghany
• Augusta
• Bath
• Bland
• Botetourt
• Carroll
• Charles City
• Chesterfield
• Elizabeth City
• Fairfax
• Giles
• Gloucester
• Greene
• Grayson
• Henrico
• Highland
• Isle of Wight
• James City
• King and Queen
• King George
• Lancaster
• Lee
• Louisa
• Madison
• Matthews
• Montgomery
• New Kent
• Norfolk
• Northumberland
• Patrick
• Pittsylvania
• Page
• Princess Anne
• Pulaski
• Richmond
• Roanoke
• Rockingham
• Scott
• Smyth
• Shenandoah
• Spotsylvania
• Stafford
• Tazewell
• Westmoreland
• Warick
• Washington
• Wythe
• York
• Alexandria
• Buena Vista
• Clifton Forge
• Danville
• Fredericksburg
• Harrisonburg
• Hopewell
• Lynchburg
• Norfolk
• Portsmouth
• Newport News
• Radford
• Richmond
• Roanoke
• South Norfolk
• Staunton
• Winchester

Although Roosevelt won Virginia by a margin that exceededWoodrow Wilson’s two victories in the state and was the best Democratic performance sinceAndrew Jackson exactly a century previously, Hoover—despite losing every county exceptFloyd—was still able to maintain a small portion of the urban and Tidewater gains gains made by the Republicans during the 1920s.^[6] In some counties of theVirginia Peninsula andMiddle Peninsula, the incumbent president betteredCalvin Coolidge’s1924 performance even in a depression year.

As of the2024 presidential election^[update], this is the last election in whichCarroll County,Highland County, andShenandoah County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.^[17] This is the closest anyone has come to sweeping every Virginia county since 1820.

• 1932 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Virginia
• 1932 Virginia elections

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