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All 8South Carolina votes to theElectoral College | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County Results
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The1952 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the1952 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose 8[3] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.DemocratAdlai Stevenson II defeatedDwight D. Eisenhower, the nationalRepublican nominee, who ran in South Carolina as anIndependent candidate.
For six decades up to 1950, South Carolina had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to thedisfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whitesopposed to secession.[4] Between1904 and1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than nine percent of the total presidential vote or even won a single county[5] — a vote which in1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population.[6]
This absolute loyalty began to break down duringWorld War II when Vice-presidentsHenry A. Wallace andHarry S. Truman began to realize that a legacy of discrimination against blacks was a threat to the United States' image abroad and its ability to win theCold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric ofCommunism.[7] In the 1948 presidential election, Truman was backed by only 24 percent of South Carolina's limited electorate — most of that from the relatively fewupcountrypoor whites able to meet rigorous voting requirements — and state Governor Strom Thurmond won 72 percent, carrying every county exceptAnderson andSpartanburg.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Adlai Stevenson | 173,004 | 50.72% | |
| Independent | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 168,082 | 49.28% | |
| Total votes | 341,086 | 100% | ||
| County | Adlai Stevenson Democratic | Dwight D. Eisenhower Nominated by petition | Margin | Total votes cast | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Abbeville | 2,776 | 74.11% | 970 | 25.89% | 1,806 | 48.22% | 3,746 |
| Aiken | 4,346 | 50.37% | 4,282 | 49.63% | 64 | 0.74% | 8,628 |
| Allendale | 440 | 36.94% | 751 | 63.06% | -311 | -26.12% | 1,191 |
| Anderson | 11,664 | 77.75% | 3,338 | 22.25% | 8,326 | 55.50% | 15,002 |
| Bamberg | 750 | 34.77% | 1,407 | 65.23% | -657 | -30.46% | 2,157 |
| Barnwell | 1,598 | 70.86% | 657 | 29.14% | 941 | 41.72% | 2,255 |
| Beaufort | 1,106 | 40.89% | 1,599 | 59.11% | -493 | -18.22% | 2,705 |
| Berkeley | 1,708 | 40.76% | 2,482 | 59.24% | -774 | -18.48% | 4,190 |
| Calhoun | 384 | 25.75% | 1,107 | 74.25% | -723 | -48.50% | 1,491 |
| Charleston | 9,959 | 33.15% | 20,087 | 66.85% | -10,128 | -33.70% | 30,046 |
| Cherokee | 5,545 | 78.39% | 1,529 | 21.61% | 4,016 | 56.78% | 7,074 |
| Chester | 2,843 | 50.59% | 2,777 | 49.41% | 66 | 1.18% | 5,620 |
| Chesterfield | 4,668 | 72.44% | 1,776 | 27.56% | 2,892 | 44.88% | 6,444 |
| Clarendon | 953 | 31.49% | 2,073 | 68.51% | -1,120 | -37.02% | 3,026 |
| Colleton | 1,905 | 40.84% | 2,760 | 59.16% | -855 | -18.32% | 4,665 |
| Darlington | 5,718 | 62.28% | 3,463 | 37.72% | 2,255 | 24.56% | 9,181 |
| Dillon | 1,578 | 51.72% | 1,473 | 48.28% | 105 | 3.44% | 3,051 |
| Dorchester | 852 | 26.87% | 2,319 | 73.13% | -1,467 | -46.26% | 3,171 |
| Edgefield | 753 | 31.14% | 1,665 | 68.86% | -912 | -37.72% | 2,418 |
| Fairfield | 1,590 | 49.73% | 1,607 | 50.27% | -17 | -0.54% | 3,197 |
| Florence | 5,340 | 50.49% | 5,236 | 49.51% | 104 | 0.98% | 10,576 |
| Georgetown | 1,370 | 36.93% | 2,340 | 63.07% | -970 | -26.14% | 3,710 |
| Greenville | 14,863 | 45.58% | 17,743 | 54.42% | -2,880 | -8.84% | 32,606 |
| Greenwood | 3,815 | 52.93% | 3,392 | 47.07% | 423 | 5.86% | 7,207 |
| Hampton | 787 | 32.52% | 1,633 | 67.48% | -846 | -34.96% | 2,420 |
| Horry | 4,489 | 54.71% | 3,716 | 45.29% | 773 | 9.42% | 8,205 |
| Jasper | 636 | 44.29% | 800 | 55.71% | -164 | -11.42% | 1,436 |
| Kershaw | 2,052 | 41.15% | 2,935 | 58.85% | -883 | -17.70% | 4,987 |
| Lancaster | 4,989 | 61.83% | 3,080 | 38.17% | 1,909 | 23.66% | 8,069 |
| Laurens | 3,697 | 52.09% | 3,400 | 47.91% | 297 | 4.18% | 7,097 |
| Lee | 927 | 35.71% | 1,669 | 64.29% | -742 | -28.58% | 2,596 |
| Lexington | 3,513 | 46.65% | 4,018 | 53.35% | -505 | -6.70% | 7,531 |
| Marion | 1,610 | 41.04% | 2,313 | 58.96% | -703 | -17.92% | 3,923 |
| Marlboro | 1,699 | 52.44% | 1,541 | 47.56% | 158 | 4.88% | 3,240 |
| McCormick | 624 | 51.91% | 577 | 48.00% | 47 | 3.91% | 1,202[b] |
| Newberry | 3,418 | 45.31% | 4,126 | 54.69% | -708 | -9.38% | 7,544 |
| Oconee | 3,230 | 66.54% | 1,624 | 33.46% | 1,606 | 33.08% | 4,854 |
| Orangeburg | 2,829 | 37.60% | 4,695 | 62.40% | -1,866 | -24.80% | 7,524 |
| Pickens | 2,865 | 48.06% | 3,096 | 51.94% | -231 | -3.88% | 5,961 |
| Richland | 8,890 | 35.83% | 15,925 | 64.17% | -7,035 | -28.34% | 24,815 |
| Saluda | 1,592 | 53.28% | 1,396 | 46.72% | 196 | 6.56% | 2,988 |
| Spartanburg | 21,883 | 68.58% | 10,028 | 31.42% | 11,855 | 37.16% | 31,911 |
| Sumter | 2,014 | 29.88% | 4,726 | 70.12% | -2,712 | -40.24% | 6,740 |
| Union | 5,921 | 73.87% | 2,094 | 26.13% | 3,827 | 47.74% | 8,015 |
| Williamsburg | 1,320 | 33.88% | 2,576 | 66.12% | -1,256 | -32.24% | 3,896 |
| York | 7,495 | 58.66% | 5,281 | 41.34% | 2,214 | 17.32% | 12,776 |
| Totals | 173,004 | 50.72% | 168,082 | 49.28% | 4,922 | 1.44% | 341,086 |
From the time Eisenhower announced he would run on an independent slate nominated by the many dissident Democrats, he gained substantial support, most especially in the small black-majority rural counties where only whites voted.[8] However, polls always had Stevenson staying ahead of Eisenhower, and in the end he carried the state by a small majority of 5,000 votes. Stevenson's victory was largely due to his ability to maintain two- and three-to-one majorities in thepoor whiteupcountry counties that had given substantial opposition to Thurmond,[9] along with a substantial majority of the 20,000 or so blacks who are believed to have voted.[10]
South Carolina was ultimately won byStevenson and running mateAlabama SenatorJohn Sparkman, with 50.72 percent of the popular vote, againstColumbia University PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower (R–New York) andCalifornia SenatorRichard Nixon, with 49.28 percent of the popular vote.[11][12] This was the first time Republicans won any county in the state since 1900. As of the2020 presidential election[update], this is the last election in whichAiken County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Between the 1948 and 1952 presidential elections, South Carolina's electorate saw the most radical changes in any state since Reconstruction and "Redemption" had expanded and then contracted the electorates of all formerConfederate states. The state became the last to fully adopt thesecret ballot, whose absence had allowed intimidation of those who refused to vote Democratic in general elections,[13] and it also fully abolishedthe poll tax that had further restricted white turnout in presidential elections.[13] There was also some expansion of black voter registration, though as in all areas of the South east of the Mississippi River this was largely an urban phenomenon.
Despite Truman announcing as early as May 1950 that he would not run again for president in 1952,[14] it had already become clear that South Carolina's rulers remained severely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party.[15] Originally it was planned that Eisenhower would run on an independent ticket with former state GovernorJames F. Byrnes,[15] who regainedhis Senate seat in the 1950 primary, with the ultimate goal of the entire South controlling national politics asan unpledged electoral slate.
Despite some criticism of his policies, Byrnes created an organization named "Independents for Eisenhower" which was aimed at allowing white Southerners to leave the Democratic Party without embracing the still-feared "Party ofLincoln".[16] These would join with a small number of remnant Republicans to form a fusion slate for Eisenhower — who by the time this plan was developed in September had already won the Republican nomination. In addition to Byrnes, Dixiecrat candidate Thurmond also endorsed Eisenhower,[17] foreshadowing his switch to the Republican Party to support the much more conservativeBarry Goldwater a dozen years later.
Further sentiment against the national Democratic Party resulted from fears that the Supreme Court would — as it did in the legendaryBrown v. Board of Education case a year and a half after the election — rule South Carolina'sde jure segregated school system a violation ofthe Fourteenth Amendment.[18]
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
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)State and district results of the1952 United States presidential election | ||
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