1928 United States presidential election in Wisconsin

← 1924 November 6, 1928 1932 →

Nominee Herbert Hoover Al Smith Party Republican Democratic Home state California New York Running mate Charles Curtis Joseph T. Robinson Electoral vote 13 0 Popular vote 544,205 450,259 Percentage 53.52% 44.28%

County Results Hoover   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Smith   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%

President before election Calvin Coolidge Republican Elected President Herbert Hoover Republican

The1928 United States presidential election in Wisconsin was held on November 6, 1928, as part of the1928 United States presidential election. State voters chose 13 electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

Wisconsin had since the decline ofthe Populist movement been substantially aone-party state dominated by the Republican Party.^[1] The Democratic Party became entirely uncompetitive outside certain German Catholic counties adjoiningLake Michigan as the upper classes, along with the majority of workers who followed them, completely fled fromWilliam Jennings Bryan's agrarian andfree silver sympathies.^[2] As Democratic strength weakened severely after 1894 – although the state did develop a strongSocialist Party to provide opposition to the GOP – Wisconsin developed the direct Republican primary in 1903 and this ultimately created competition between the "League" underRobert M. La Follette, and the conservative "Regular" faction.^[3]

The beginning of the 1910s would see a minor Democratic revival as many La Follette progressives endorsedWoodrow Wilson,^[4] but this flirtation would not be long-lasting as Wilson's "Anglophile" foreign policies were severely opposed by Wisconsin's largelyGerman- andScandinavian-American populace.^[5] Subsequent federal elections saw the Midwest desert the Democratic Party even more completely due to supposed preferential treatment of Southern farmers,^[6] and in1920 Wisconsin's status as a one-party Republican state was solidified asJames M. Cox won less than a sixth of the state's presidential vote and Democrats claimed only four state legislative seats, all but one of which would be lost in1922. ConservativeSouthern DemocratJohn W. Davis would do even worse, winning less than one-twelfth of Wisconsin's1924 presidential vote, and there would never be more than two Democrats in the state legislature between 1922 and 1928.

Nonetheless, in that 1924 election Wisconsin's popular long-time Republican Senator La Follette would via prevalent isolationist and progressive sentiment carry the state's electoral votes, and when La Follette died the following year his family did not endorse a Republican, but rather New York CityCatholic DemocratAl Smith.^[7] The nomination of Smith – inevitable with other Democrats sitting the election out^[8] – aligned the Democrats towards Wisconsin's sizeable Southern and Eastern European immigrant population, and Smith's Wall Street connections helped reconnect the isolationist, conservative German Catholic areas of eastern Wisconsin who had completely deserted the Democrats over opposition to Wilson's foreign policies.^[9]

When SenatorJohn J. Blaine endorsed Smith in late September,^[10] it became clear that La Follette's endorsement of him had been shared by other prominent Progressives,^[11] despitehis son urging that sides not be taken.^[12] Polls in October, after both candidates had campaigned in the state, viewed Wisconsin as close but leaning toward Smith.^[11] However, when the polls closed, it became clear Hoover was showing greater strength than expected even in the pro-Catholic eastern region,^[13] and when returns from Milwaukee came in later Smith did not receive the projected two-to-one majority.

Hoover thus carried Wisconsin by a comfortable 9.24 percentage point margin, still a remarkable transformation from 1920 when the state had been Cox's weakest andHarding won by over 55 percentage points. Smith recouped theThird Party System Democratic counties: in entirely CatholicMarshfield Township which typically gave pre-1916 Democrats over ninety percent but gave Cox only 4 percent, Smith won all but two percent.^[9] Hoover's ability to take the La Follette vote in anti-Catholic Scandinavian areas of western Wisconsin was critical in winning him the state.^[13] As of2024^[update], this is the last election in whichDouglas County voted for a Republican presidential candidate.^[14]

• Adams
• Ashland
• Barron
• Bayfield
• Buffalo
• Burnett
• Chippewa
• Clark
• Columbia
• Crawford
• Dane
• Dodge
• Door
• Douglas
• Dunn
• Eau Claire
• Fond du Lac
• Forest
• Grant
• Green
• Green Lake
• Iowa
• Jackson
• Jefferson
• Juneau
• La Crosse
• Lafayette
• Lincoln
• Marquette
• Monroe
• Oconto
• Oneida
• Pierce
• Polk
• Price
• Rusk
• Sauk
• Sawyer
• Shawano
• Sheboygan
• St. Croix
• Taylor
• Trempealeau
• Vernon
• Vilas
• Washburn
• Waupaca
• Waushara
• Wood

• Brown
• Calumet
• Iron
• Kewaunee
• Langlade
• Manitowoc
• Marathon
• Milwaukee
• Outagamie
• Ozaukee
• Portage
• Washington

Starting with this election, voters in Wisconsin no longer chose presidential electors directly. For the 1928 election, Wisconsin adopted the modern "short ballot" whereby one votes for the presidential candidates by name with the understanding that a vote for a candidate is a vote for that party's entire slate of electors. These were the names of the electors for each ticket in 1928.^[15]

• United States presidential elections in Wisconsin

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

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