 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 County Results Roosevelt 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% 90–100%
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 7, 1944, as part of the1944 United States presidential election. State voters chose 8 electors to theElectoral College, which selected thepresident andvice president.
For six decades South Carolina had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to the disfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whitesopposed to secession.[1] Between 1900 and 1940, no Republican presidential candidate had obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote[2] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6% of the total voting-age population[3] (or approximately 15% of the voting-agewhite population).
By the time of the 1944 election, however, questions were emerging within the state Democratic Party following the landmark court case ofSmith v. Allwright earlier in the year and support forblack civil rights by incumbent Vice-presidentHenry A. Wallace.[4] The liberal drift of the national party on economic issues also worried Southern White Democrats.[5] Although the South did succeed in replacing Wallace on the ticket byborder state DemocratHarry S. Truman, for some this was an inadequate compromise, and consequently a slate of “unpledged electors” were placed on the ballot in South Carolina[6] – in the process foreshadowing theDixiecrat bolt that would begin in the following election to completely transform the state's politics.
Despite fears of what the national Democratic Party might do to the social structure of the South, FDR remained extremely popular in the region. His renomination was supported by over eighty percent of those polled in 1943.[6] Consequently,South Carolina was won byRoosevelt overNew YorkgovernorThomas E. Dewey by a landslide margin of 83.18%. The unpledged slate of anti-RooseveltSouthern Democrats received a moderate 7.54% of the vote, doing best among the wealthyplanter class inthe lowcountry. As ofthe 2024 presidential election[update], this constitutes the last election in whichLexington County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. Thus, this is the last time Democrats swept every county in the state.[7] This was also the first time thatDillon County voted less than 90% for any Democratic candidate.
| 1944 United States presidential election in South Carolina[8] | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Running mate | Popular vote | Electoral vote | ||||
| Count | % | Count | % | |||||
| Democratic | Franklin Delano Roosevelt ofNew York | Harry S. Truman ofMissouri | 90,601 | 87.64% | 8 | 100.00% | ||
| N/A | Others | Others | 7,799 | 7.54% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Republican | Thomas Edmund Dewey ofNew York | John William Bricker ofOhio | 4,610 | 4.46% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Prohibition | Claude A. Watson ofCalifornia | Andrew Nathan Johnson ofKentucky | 365 | 0.35% | 0 | 0.00% | ||
| Total | 103,375 | 100.00% | 8 | 100.00% | ||||
| County | Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic | Thomas Edmund Dewey Republican | No Candidate Unpledged Southern Democratic | Claude A. Watson Prohibition | Margin[a] | Total votes cast | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Abbeville | 789 | 96.34% | 19 | 2.32% | 11 | 1.34% | 0 | 0.00% | 770[b] | 94.02% | 819 |
| Aiken | 2,403 | 91.26% | 60 | 2.28% | 167 | 6.46% | 3 | 0.11% | 2,236 | 84.80% | 2,633 |
| Allendale | 678 | 94.43% | 8 | 1.11% | 32 | 4.46% | 0 | 0.00% | 646 | 89.97% | 718 |
| Anderson | 2,687 | 90.23% | 89 | 2.99% | 201 | 6.78% | 1 | 0.03% | 2,486 | 83.45% | 2,978 |
| Bamberg | 737 | 70.80% | 106 | 10.18% | 198 | 19.02% | 0 | 0.00% | 539 | 51.78% | 1,041 |
| Barnwell | 1,482 | 98.41% | 8 | 0.53% | 13 | 1.06% | 3 | 0.20% | 1,469 | 97.35% | 1,506 |
| Beaufort | 594 | 74.53% | 108 | 13.55% | 95 | 11.92% | 0 | 0.00% | 486[b] | 60.98% | 797 |
| Berkeley | 521 | 72.77% | 32 | 4.47% | 156 | 22.77% | 7 | 0.98% | 365 | 50.00% | 716 |
| Calhoun | 602 | 87.76% | 1 | 0.15% | 65 | 12.10% | 18 | 2.62% | 537 | 75.66% | 686 |
| Charleston | 6,260 | 72.95% | 1,184 | 13.80% | 1,133 | 13.25% | 4 | 0.05% | 5,076[b] | 59.15% | 8,581 |
| Cherokee | 1,620 | 94.13% | 68 | 3.95% | 31 | 1.92% | 2 | 0.12% | 1,552[b] | 90.18% | 1,721 |
| Chester | 1,441 | 88.68% | 89 | 5.48% | 95 | 5.85% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,346 | 82.83% | 1,625 |
| Chesterfield | 3,222 | 98.77% | 15 | 0.46% | 25 | 0.77% | 0 | 0.00% | 3,197 | 98.00% | 3,262 |
| Clarendon | 1,053 | 81.69% | 27 | 2.09% | 199 | 16.21% | 10 | 0.78% | 854 | 65.48% | 1,289 |
| Colleton | 1,653 | 82.77% | 45 | 2.25% | 289 | 14.97% | 10 | 0.50% | 1,364 | 67.80% | 1,997 |
| Darlington | 1,808 | 91.41% | 46 | 2.33% | 119 | 6.27% | 5 | 0.25% | 1,689 | 85.14% | 1,978 |
| Dillon | 864 | 86.06% | 27 | 2.69% | 90 | 11.25% | 23 | 2.29% | 774 | 74.81% | 1,004 |
| Dorchester | 1,181 | 70.47% | 65 | 3.88% | 422 | 25.66% | 8 | 0.48% | 759 | 44.81% | 1,676 |
| Edgefield | 654 | 92.24% | 3 | 0.42% | 52 | 7.33% | 0 | 0.00% | 602 | 84.91% | 709 |
| Fairfield | 798 | 92.47% | 21 | 2.43% | 24 | 5.10% | 20 | 2.32% | 774 | 87.37% | 863 |
| Florence | 2,822 | 87.86% | 128 | 3.99% | 238 | 8.16% | 24 | 0.75% | 2,584 | 79.70% | 3,212 |
| Georgetown | 1,197 | 85.01% | 52 | 3.69% | 159 | 11.29% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,038 | 73.72% | 1,408 |
| Greenville | 7,107 | 87.81% | 711 | 8.78% | 265 | 3.41% | 11 | 0.14% | 6,396[b] | 79.03% | 8,094 |
| Greenwood | 2,381 | 88.64% | 71 | 2.64% | 233 | 8.71% | 1 | 0.04% | 2,148 | 79.93% | 2,686 |
| Hampton | 575 | 67.65% | 3 | 0.35% | 271 | 32.00% | 1 | 0.12% | 304 | 35.65% | 850 |
| Horry | 2,403 | 88.09% | 137 | 5.02% | 183 | 6.89% | 5 | 0.18% | 2,220 | 81.20% | 2,728 |
| Jasper | 230 | 50.66% | 18 | 3.96% | 203 | 45.37% | 3 | 0.66% | 27 | 5.29% | 454 |
| Kershaw | 1,872 | 94.98% | 21 | 1.07% | 78 | 3.96% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,794 | 91.02% | 1,971 |
| Lancaster | 2,383 | 93.97% | 13 | 0.51% | 133 | 5.52% | 7 | 0.28% | 2,250 | 88.45% | 2,536 |
| Laurens | 1,924 | 93.40% | 38 | 1.84% | 96 | 4.76% | 2 | 0.10% | 1,828 | 88.64% | 2,060 |
| Lee | 764 | 87.31% | 50 | 5.71% | 60 | 6.97% | 1 | 0.11% | 704 | 80.34% | 875 |
| Lexington | 1,986 | 93.68% | 20 | 0.94% | 106 | 5.38% | 8 | 0.38% | 1,880 | 88.30% | 2,120 |
| Marion | 858 | 92.86% | 9 | 0.97% | 42 | 6.17% | 4 | 0.44% | 816 | 86.69% | 913 |
| Marlboro | 874 | 89.27% | 34 | 3.47% | 57 | 7.25% | 0 | 0.00% | 817 | 82.02% | 965 |
| McCormick | 307 | 86.72% | 1 | 0.28% | 71 | 12.99% | 0 | 0.00% | 236 | 73.73% | 379 |
| Newberry | 1,940 | 82.80% | 70 | 2.99% | 321 | 14.21% | 12 | 0.51% | 1,619 | 68.59% | 2,343 |
| Oconee | 1,316 | 87.85% | 106 | 7.08% | 67 | 5.07% | 9 | 0.60% | 1,210[b] | 80.77% | 1,498 |
| Orangeburg | 2,440 | 90.61% | 87 | 3.23% | 159 | 6.16% | 7 | 0.26% | 2,281 | 84.45% | 2,693 |
| Pickens | 1,662 | 67.34% | 211 | 8.55% | 505 | 24.11% | 90 | 3.65% | 1,157 | 43.23% | 2,468 |
| Richland | 6,590 | 93.12% | 140 | 1.98% | 344 | 4.90% | 3 | 0.04% | 6,246 | 88.22% | 7,077 |
| Saluda | 924 | 85.56% | 14 | 1.30% | 141 | 13.15% | 1 | 0.09% | 783 | 72.41% | 1,080 |
| Spartanburg | 8,092 | 92.61% | 402 | 4.60% | 205 | 2.79% | 39 | 0.45% | 7,690[b] | 88.01% | 8,738 |
| Sumter | 2,111 | 87.92% | 73 | 3.04% | 217 | 9.04% | 0 | 0.00% | 1,894 | 78.88% | 2,401 |
| Union | 3,041 | 96.48% | 33 | 1.05% | 66 | 2.47% | 12 | 0.38% | 2,975 | 94.01% | 3,152 |
| Williamsburg | 1,118 | 86.60% | 27 | 2.09% | 142 | 11.31% | 4 | 0.31% | 976 | 75.29% | 1,291 |
| York | 2,637 | 94.48% | 127 | 4.55% | 20 | 0.97% | 7 | 0.25% | 2,510[b] | 89.93% | 2,791 |
| Totals | 90,601 | 87.64% | 4,617 | 4.47% | 7,799 | 7.90% | 365 | 0.35% | 82,802 | 79.74% | 103,382 |
State and district results of the1944 United States presidential election | ||
|---|---|---|
|  | |
(small).jpg)
