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| Turnout | 72.0%[1] 3.0pp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 County results Municipality results
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The1956 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the1956 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose 16 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Massachusetts voted decisively for theRepublican nominee, incumbentPresidentDwight D. Eisenhower ofPennsylvania, over theDemocratic nominee, formerGovernorAdlai Stevenson ofIllinois. Eisenhower ran with incumbentVice PresidentRichard Nixon ofCalifornia, while Stevenson's running mate wasSenatorEstes Kefauver ofTennessee.
Eisenhower carried the state with 59.32% of the vote to Stevenson's 40.37%, a Republican victory margin of 18.95%. As Eisenhower won a decisive re-election victory nationwide, Massachusetts weighed in for this election as about 4% more Republican than the national average. This remains the last presidential election in which Massachusetts voted more Republican than the nation,[3] as the state would trend dramatically toward the Democratic Party beginning in1960.
Once a typical Yankee Republican bastion in the wake of theCivil War, Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since1928, when a coalition of Irish Catholic and other ethnic immigrant voters primarily based in urban areas turned Massachusetts and neighboringRhode Island into New England's only reliably Democratic states. Massachusetts voted forAl Smith in 1928, forFranklin Roosevelt 4 times in the 1930s and 1940s, and forHarry S. Truman in1948. However, General Dwight Eisenhower, a war hero and moderate Republican who pledged to support and continue popularNew Deal Democratic policies, was finally able to appeal to a broad enough coalition both to win back the White House and to flip Massachusetts back into the Republican column.
In his initial1952 campaign, Eisenhower won back Massachusetts by a closer 54–45 margin, but the popular incumbent, who governed in a very moderate way that appealed to New England voters, was able to more than double his margin of victory in the state in the 1956 election. Eisenhower carried 13 of the state's 14 counties, Stevenson's only victory coming from urbanSuffolk County, home to the state's capital and largest city,Boston.
No Republican would carry Massachusetts in a presidential election again untilRonald Reagan narrowly won the state in1980. As of the2024 presidential election, this is the last election that a Republican has won the counties ofBristol,Hampshire andMiddlesex.[4] Eisenhower's 1,393,197 votes were also the most votes for a Republican presidential candidate in Massachusetts.
To date, this is the last time that the cities ofEverett,Holyoke,Lynn,Malden,Medford,New Bedford,Newton,North Adams,Northampton,Pittsfield,Randolph,Salem,Somerville,Springfield,Winthrop, andWorcester and the towns ofAdams,Arlington,Brookline,Montague,Provincetown,Sharon,Sunderland, andWatertown voted Republican.
| 1956 United States presidential election in Massachusetts[5] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Dwight D. Eisenhower (incumbent) | 1,393,197 | 59.32% | 16 | |
| Democratic | Adlai Stevenson | 948,190 | 40.37% | 0 | |
| Socialist Labor | Eric Hass | 5,573 | 0.24% | 0 | |
| Prohibition | Enoch A. Holtwick | 1,205 | 0.05% | 0 | |
| Write-ins | Write-ins | 341 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,348,506 | 100.00% | 16 | ||
| County | Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican | Adlai Stevenson Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast[6] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Barnstable | 23,472 | 83.23% | 4,672 | 16.57% | 58 | 0.21% | 18,800 | 66.66% | 28,202 |
| Berkshire | 41,355 | 61.75% | 25,361 | 37.87% | 257 | 0.38% | 15,994 | 23.88% | 66,973 |
| Bristol | 109,542 | 57.85% | 79,357 | 41.91% | 466 | 0.25% | 30,185 | 15.94% | 189,365 |
| Dukes | 2,618 | 82.85% | 541 | 17.12% | 1 | 0.03% | 2,077 | 65.73% | 3,160 |
| Essex | 166,115 | 60.09% | 109,671 | 39.67% | 667 | 0.24% | 56,444 | 20.42% | 276,453 |
| Franklin | 19,779 | 72.09% | 7,574 | 27.61% | 83 | 0.30% | 12,205 | 44.48% | 27,436 |
| Hampden | 104,689 | 55.87% | 81,743 | 43.63% | 935 | 0.50% | 22,946 | 12.24% | 187,367 |
| Hampshire | 26,361 | 61.93% | 16,119 | 37.87% | 84 | 0.20% | 10,242 | 24.06% | 42,564 |
| Middlesex | 343,125 | 61.12% | 216,668 | 38.60% | 1,580 | 0.28% | 126,457 | 22.52% | 561,373 |
| Nantucket | 1,582 | 83.26% | 317 | 16.68% | 1 | 0.05% | 1,265 | 66.58% | 1,900 |
| Norfolk | 152,747 | 66.41% | 76,656 | 33.33% | 593 | 0.26% | 76,091 | 33.08% | 229,996 |
| Plymouth | 75,575 | 71.19% | 30,377 | 28.61% | 209 | 0.20% | 45,198 | 42.58% | 106,161 |
| Suffolk | 162,836 | 45.78% | 191,245 | 53.77% | 1,605 | 0.45% | -28,409 | -7.99% | 355,686 |
| Worcester | 163,401 | 60.10% | 107,889 | 39.68% | 580 | 0.21% | 55,512 | 20.42% | 271,870 |
| Totals | 1,393,197 | 59.32% | 948,190 | 40.37% | 7,119 | 0.31% | 445,007 | 18.95% | 2,348,506 |
Eisenhower's home state for the 1956 Election was Pennsylvania
State and district results of the1956 United States presidential election | ||
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