1928 United States presidential election in Tennessee

← 1924 November 6, 1928 1932 →
All 12Tennessee votes to theElectoral College
Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith Party Republican Democratic Home state California New York Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph Taylor Robinson Electoral vote 12 0 Popular vote 195,388 167,343 Percentage 53.76% 46.04%
County Results Hoover   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Smith   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100%
President before election Calvin Coolidge Republican Elected President Herbert Hoover Republican

Elections in Tennessee
Federal government U.S. President 1796 1800 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Presidential primaries Democratic 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Republican 1976 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 U.S. Senate 1796 1798 1803 1809 1823 1826 1829 1833 1835 1841 1844 1847 1851 1853 1858 1866 1867 1875 1877 1883 1887 1889 1893 1895 1899 1901 1905 1907 1911 1913 1916 1918 1922 1924 1928 1930 1934 1936 1940 1942 1946 1948 1952 1954 1958 1960 1964 1966 1970 1972 1976 1978 1982 1984 1988 1990 1994 1996 2000 2002 2006 2008 2012 2014 2018 2020 2024 2026 U.S. House 1796 1797 1799 1801 1803 1805 1807 1809 1811 1813 1815 1817 1819 1821 1823 1825 1827 1829 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1842 1843 1845 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1865 1867 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Special elections Senate 1797 1798 1799 1809 1811 1815 1817 1819 1821 1825 1829 1838 1839 1840 1843 1857 1877 1898 1905 1913 1930 1934 1938 1964 1994 House At-large 1797 1801 1st 1910 1961 2nd 1815 1891 1939 1964 1988 3rd 1939 4th 1837 1874 1875 5th 1814 1975 1988 6th 1939 7th 1932 1939 2025 8th 1845 1958 1969 9th 1940
State government State elections 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 Gubernatorial elections 1796 1797 1799 1801 1803 1805 1807 1809 1811 1813 1815 1817 1819 1821 1823 1825 1827 1829 1831 1833 1835 1837 1839 1841 1843 1845 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1863 1865 1867 1869 1870 1872 1874 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1958 1962 1966 1970 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 State Senate elections 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026 House of Representatives elections 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026
Ballot measures 2006 Amendment 1 2014 Amendment 1 2022 Amendment 1 Amendment 3 Nashvillemeasures Nashville Charter Amendment 1 Let's Move Nashville
Local elections Hamilton County mayoral elections 2018 2022 2026 Chattanooga mayoral elections 2013 2017 2021 2025 Knox County mayoral elections 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Knoxville mayoral elections 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 Shelby County mayoral elections 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Memphis mayoral elections 2007 2009 (sp) 2011 2015 2019 2023 Montgomery County mayoral elections 2026 Clarksville mayoral elections 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Jackson mayoral elections 2015 2019 2023 Rutherford County mayoral elections 2026 Murfreesboro mayoral elections 2014 2018 2022 2026 Nashville mayoral elections 2007 2011 2015 2018 (sp) 2019 2023 Williamson County mayoral elections 2026
Government
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The1928 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 6, 1928, as part of the1928 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12 representatives, or electors, tothe Electoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

For over a century afterthe Civil War, Tennessee was divided according to political loyalties established in that war.Unionist regions covering almost all ofEast Tennessee,Kentucky Pennyroyal-alliedMacon County, and the fiveWest TennesseeHighland Rim counties ofCarroll,Henderson,McNairy,Hardin andWayne^[1] voted Republican – generally by landslide margins – as they saw the Democratic Party as the "war party" who had forced them into a war they did not wish to fight.^[2] Contrariwise, the rest ofMiddle and West Tennessee who had supported and driven the state's secession was equally fiercely Democratic as it associated the Republicans withReconstruction.^[3] Afterthe disfranchisement of the state's African-American population bya poll tax was largely complete in the 1890s,^[4] the Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united,^[5] although unlike the Deep South Republicans would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support. When the Democratic Party was bitterly divided, the Republicans did win the governorship in 1910 and 1912, but did not gain at other levels.

The 1920 election saw a significant but not radical change, whereby by moving into a small number of traditionally Democratic areas in Middle Tennessee^[6] and expanding turnout due to the Nineteenth Amendment and powerful isolationist sentiment,^[7] the Republican Party was able to capture Tennessee's presidential electoral votes and win the governorship and take three congressional seats in addition to the rock-ribbed GOPFirst andSecond Districts. In 1922 and 1924, with the ebbing of isolationist sympathy and a consequent decline in turnout,^[8] the Democratic Party regained Tennessee's governorship and presidential electoral votes.

Early in the campaign, Tennessee was seen as a "puzzle" for political pundits, and the state was viewed as "doubtful".^[9] Smith made a major battleground of Tennessee in his October campaign after Republican nomineeHerbert Hoover visited earlier in the month and was confident of carrying Tennessee,^[10] criticising Hoover's campaign as "vague".^[11]

By the beginning of November it was thought by pollsters that Smith would carry the state,^[12] but as it turned out the state's votes went quite clearly to Hoover, despite the powerful Democratic loyalty of whites in West Tennessee.^[13] Hoover benefitted from a substantial Republican trend in normally rock-ribbed Democratic but heavily white counties of Middle Tennessee. Although Hoover managed to flip onlyHouston County – where he was the only Republican victor untilMitt Romney in 2012^[14] – and heavily populatedDavidson and "Little Confederacy"Sullivan Counties where he was the first Republican victor sinceUlysses S. Grant in 1868,^[14] due to a powerful Prohibitionist anti-Catholic vote he gained very strongly compared to Coolidge's 1924 showing in many white counties that remained Democratic,^[15] and this added to the mountain and Highland Rim GOP vote ensured Hoover won the state.

This would be the best Republican performance in Tennessee between Grant's 36.85% 1868 landslide andRichard Nixon's carrying the state by 37.95% in 1972.^[16] Tennessee would not vote Republican again untilDwight Eisenhower narrowly won the state in1952.

In 1925, Tennessee gained national prominence due to the "Scopes Monkey Trial" which aimed to outlaw the teaching of evolution in this powerfully fundamentalist Protestant state with a strongKu Klux Klan,^[17] and a populace extremely hostile to the Catholic faith of most urban immigrants.^[18]

However, with most other Democrats sitting the 1928 election out due to the prevailing prosperity,^[19] the nomination of CatholicNew York GovernorAl Smith was always a foregone conclusion from the beginning of the election campaign. Once Smith was nominated – despite his attempt to dispel fears by nominating "dry" Southern DemocratJoseph T. Robinson as his running mate^[20] – extreme fear ensued in the South, which had no experience of the Southern and Eastern European Catholic immigrants who were Smith's local constituency. Southern fundamentalist Protestants believed that Smith would allowpapal and priestly leadership in the United States, which Protestantism was a reaction against.^[21]

Nevertheless, fear that the Republicans would place the heavily black regions of West Tennessee under the influence of "Negro bossism" and possible abolition oflynching meant that whites in the far western region remained all along extremely loyal to Smith^[22] although in East Tennessee where many communities had becomesundown towns or counties^[23] it was believed that Smith was unacceptable because the Catholic Church officially opposed social and political segregation of the races.^[24]

• 1928 United States Senate election in Tennessee
• 1928 Tennessee gubernatorial election

• 1928 Tennessee elections
• 1928 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Tennessee

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