1948 United States presidential election in Alabama

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Nominee Strom Thurmond Thomas E. Dewey Party Democratic Republican Alliance States' Rights Democratic Home state South Carolina New York Running mate Fielding L. Wright Earl Warren Electoral vote 11 0 Popular vote 171,443 40,930 Percentage 79.75% 19.04%

County results Thurmond   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Dewey   60–70%

President before election Harry S. Truman Democratic Elected President Harry S. Truman Democratic

The1948 United States presidential election in Alabama was held on November 2, 1948. Alabama voters sent eleven electors tothe Electoral College who voted for president and vice-president. In Alabama, voters voted for electors individually instead of (as in most other states) as a slate.

Since the 1890s, Alabama had been effectively aone-party state ruled by the Democratic Party.Disenfranchisement of almost all African-Americans and a large proportion ofpoor whites viapoll taxes, literacy tests^[1] and informal harassment had essentially eliminated opposition parties outside ofUnionistWinston County and presidential campaigns in a few nearbynorthern hill counties. The only competitive statewide elections during this period were thus Democratic Party primaries — limited to white voters until the landmark court case ofSmith v. Allwright, following which Alabama introduced theBoswell Amendment — ruled unconstitutional inDavis v. Schnellin 1949,^[2] although substantial increases in black voter registration would not occur until after the late 1960sVoting Rights Act.

Unlike other Deep South states, soon after black disenfranchisement Alabama's remaining white Republicans made rapid efforts to expel blacks from the state Republican Party,^[3] and underOscar D. Street, who ironically was appointed state party boss as part of the pro-Taft“black and tan” faction in 1912,^[4] the state GOP would permanently turn“lily-white”, with the last black delegates at anyRepublican National Convention servingin 1920.^[3] However, with two exceptions the Republicans were unable to gain from their hard lily-white policy. The first was when they exceeded forty percent inthe 1920 House of Representatives races for the4th,7th and10th congressional districts,^[5] and the second was 1928 presidential election whenSenatorJames Thomas Heflin embarked on a nationwide speaking tour, partially funded by the Ku Klux Klan, againstRoman Catholic Democratic nomineeAl Smith and supported RepublicanHerbert Hoover,^[6] who went on to lose the state that year by only seven thousand votes.

In 1946 Alabama's one-party Democratic rule was severely challenged not merely by the invalidation of itswhite primary system, but also by the potential effect on the United States' image abroad (and ability to win theCold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric ofCommunism)^[7] from the beating and blinding ofIsaac Woodard three hours after being discharged from the army. Truman then attempted to launch a Civil Rights bill, involving desegregation of the military. Southern Democrats immediately made such cries as "unconstitutional", "Communist inspired," "a blow to the loyal South and its traditions," "unwarranted and harmful," "not the answer," and "does irreparable harm to interracial relations".^[8]

In May 1948, Alabama's Democratic presidential elector primary chose electors who were pledged to not vote for incumbent President Truman,^[9] and thestate Supreme Court ruled that any statute requiring party presidential electors to vote for that party's national nominee was void.^[10] Half of Alabama's delegation then walked out at theparty's national convention in Philadelphia because of Truman's endorsement of civil rights for African Americans.^[11] This segregationist faction met on July 17, 1948, inBirmingham, nominatingSouth Carolina governorStrom Thurmond as its nominee for president.Mississippi governorFielding L. Wright was nominated for vice president.

A "Loyalist" group would petition governor"Big Jim" Folsom to allow Truman electors on the ballot alongside the “Democratic” electors pledged to Thurmond, but SenatorJohn Sparkman, fearing popular defeat at the hands of the Dixiecrats and a hostile state legislature, decided against placing Truman electors on the ballot,^[12] although a Gallup poll in October showed that about a third of state voters would support Truman if they were able to do so.^[a] In other Southern states where Truman wason the ballot,^[b] Thurmond was forced to run under the label of the States' Rights Democratic Party.

• Autauga
• Baldwin
• Barbour
• Bibb
• Blount
• Butler
• Calhoun
• Chambers
• Choctaw
• Clarke
• Clay
• Cleburne
• Coffee
• Conecuh
• Coosa
• Covington
• Crenshaw
• Cullman
• Dale
• DeKalb
• Elmore
• Escambia
• Etowah
• Fayette
• Franklin
• Geneva
• Hale
• Henry
• Houston
• Jefferson
• Lee
• Lawrence
• Madison
• Marengo
• Marion
• Marshall
• Monroe
• Morgan
• Mobile
• Montgomery
• Shelby
• Perry
• Pickens
• Pike
• Randolph
• Russell
• St. Clair
• Talladega
• Tallapoosa
• Tuscaloosa
• Walker
• Washington
• Bullock
• Lowndes
• Wilcox
• Greene
• Sumter
• Macon
• Cherokee
• Colbert
• Jackson
• Lauderdale
• Limestone
• Chilton
• Dallas

Thurmond overwhelmingly won Alabama by a margin of 60.71 percent, or 130,513 votes, against his closest opponent,RepublicanNew York governorThomas E. Dewey.^[19] This was only a slight decline upon Franklin Roosevelt's performance in Alabama four years previously, and it is known that many Thurmond voters thought incorrectly that they were actually voting for Truman. Two third-party candidates,Henry A. Wallace of theProgressive Party andClaude A. Watson of theProhibition Party, appeared on the ballot in Alabama, though neither had any impact. This was the first time ever that a Democrat won the presidency without carrying Alabama, and the first time since 1872 that the state failed to vote for the national Democrats.

Thurmond won 84% of white voters.^[23]

• United States presidential elections in Alabama

• Black, Earl;Black, Merle (1992).The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected.Harvard University Press.ISBN 0674941306.

• United States presidential elections in Alabama
• 1948 United States presidential election by state
• 1948 Alabama elections

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