1940 United States presidential election in North Carolina

← 1936 November 5, 1940[1] 1944 →
All 13North Carolina votes to theElectoral College
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Wendell Willkie Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Henry A. Wallace Charles L. McNary Electoral vote 13 0 Popular vote 609,015 213,633 Percentage 74.03% 25.97%
County Results Roosevelt   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Willkie   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%
President before election Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic Elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic

The1940 United States presidential election in North Carolina took place on November 5, 1940, as part of the1940 United States presidential election. North Carolina voters chose 13^[2] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

As a former Confederate state, North Carolina had a history ofJim Crow laws,disfranchisement of itsAfrican-American population and dominance of the Democratic Party in state politics. However, unlike the Deep South, the Republican Party had sufficienthistoric Unionist white support from the mountains and northwestern Piedmont to gain one-third of the statewide vote total in most general elections,^[3] where turnout was higher than elsewhere in the former Confederacy due substantially to the state's early abolition ofthe poll tax in 1920.^[4] LikeVirginia,Tennessee andOklahoma, the relative strength of Republican opposition meant that North Carolina did not have statewidewhite primaries, although certain counties did use the white primary.^[5] North Carolina was one of five states that swung more Democratic compared to 1936, alongside New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Maine.^[6]

In 1928, anti-Catholicism in theOuter Banks and growing middle-class urban Republicanism in Piedmont cities turned North Carolina to GOP nomineeHerbert Hoover,^[7] but this was sharply and severely reversed in the following decade beginning with Hoover's failed nomination ofJohn Johnston Parker to the Supreme Court.^[8] With the South having the highest unemployment in the nation and blaming its fate upon the North andWall Street,^[9] exceptionally heavy support was given to Democratic nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936 everywhere except in a few rock-ribbed Republican mountain bastions.^[7] Nevertheless, there was virtually no change to the state's social structure during theNew Deal,^[10] and the conservative “Shelby Dynasty” was strong enough to prevent any populist challenge so much as developing.^[11] After the 1936 Democratic landslide and Roosevelt's failed “court-packing” plan, the state's leading federal officeholders came to increasingly oppose Roosevelt's policies.^[10]

Although the state's relatively numerous Republicans were highly active in support of nomineesWendell Willkie andSenate Minority LeaderCharles L. McNary, early analysts said Roosevelt remained so popular with the state's voters that there was no chance of the incumbent losing.^[12] A poll in mid-October had Roosevelt carrying the state by a three-to-one margin after having given the incumbent 72 percent during the third week of September.^[13]

• Clay
• Davie

• Sampson
• Watauga

Large portions of the interior of the United States – heavily populated byGerman Americans – opposed increasing "tension" with Nazi dictatorAdolf Hitler and would switch support to Willkie.^[15] North Carolina, however, was historically one of theleast isolationist states, and its almost entirely English and Scotch-Irish descended electorate strongly favored as much aid to Britain's World War II effort as possible.^[16] Thus, North Carolina's electorate did not merely resist the GOP shift in the heartland – in many Appalachian counties with normally substantial Republican support, FDR gained on what he had achieved in his 1932 and 1936 national landslides.^[14]

North Carolina was thus won in a landslide byincumbent President Roosevelt and running mateAgriculture SecretaryHenry A. Wallace, with 74.03 percent of the popular vote, against Willkie's 25.97 percent.^[17][18]

As ofthe 2020 presidential election^[update], this is the last election in whichDavie County andRandolph County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.^[19] This is also the best Democratic performance in the state sinceAndrew Jacksonin 1832.^[20]

• 1940 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in North Carolina
• 1940 North Carolina elections

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