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 County results Municipality results
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The1940 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 5, 1940, as part of the1940 United States presidential election, held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose 17 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Massachusetts voted for theDemocratic nominee, incumbentPresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt ofNew York, over theRepublican nominee, corporate lawyerWendell Willkie ofNew York.[citation needed] Roosevelt ran withSecretary of AgricultureHenry A. Wallace ofIowa, while Willkie's running mate wasSenate Minority LeaderCharles L. McNary ofOregon.
Roosevelt carried the state with 53.11% of the vote to Willkie's 46.36%, a Democratic victory margin of 6.75%. As Roosevelt was re-elected nationally to an unprecedented third term, Massachusetts weighed in as about 3% more Republican than the national average. Roosevelt's win may have been aided by support in New England for aid to Britain duringWorld War Two, as he maintained his votes better among those of English descent than theGerman-American populations of the interior.[2]
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.[citation needed] Massachusetts voted forAl Smith in 1928, and forFranklin Roosevelt in his national Democratic landslides of1932 and1936. Roosevelt's 1940 victory thus marked the fourth straight win for the Democratic Party in Massachusetts, a state that had voted Democratic only once in its history prior to this series of consecutive Democratic wins. Roosevelt and Willkie would split the state's 14 counties, winning seven counties each. However, Roosevelt won the most heavily populated parts of the state including the cities ofBoston,Worcester, andSpringfield, while most of Willkie's wins were small or island counties.
| 1940 United States presidential election in Massachusetts[3] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic | Franklin D. Roosevelt (incumbent) | 1,076,522 | 53.11% | 17 | |
| Republican | Wendell Willkie | 939,700 | 46.36% | 0 | |
| Socialist | Norman Thomas | 4,091 | 0.20% | 0 | |
| Communist | Earl Browder | 3,806 | 0.19% | 0 | |
| Socialist Labor | John W. Aiken | 1,492 | 0.07% | 0 | |
| Prohibition | Roger Babson | 1,370 | 0.07% | 0 | |
| Write-ins | Write-ins | 12 | 0.00% | 0 | |
| Totals | 2,026,993 | 100.00% | 17 | ||
| County | Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic | Wendell Willkie Republican | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast[4] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Barnstable | 5,351 | 29.53% | 12,659 | 69.87% | 108 | 0.60% | -7,308 | -40.34% | 18,118 |
| Berkshire | 32,620 | 55.40% | 25,973 | 44.11% | 287 | 0.49% | 6,647 | 11.29% | 58,880 |
| Bristol | 97,571 | 61.60% | 60,143 | 37.97% | 677 | 0.43% | 37,428 | 23.63% | 158,391 |
| Dukes | 1,014 | 37.98% | 1,643 | 61.54% | 13 | 0.49% | -629 | -23.56% | 2,670 |
| Essex | 125,998 | 51.69% | 116,134 | 47.65% | 1,603 | 0.66% | 9,864 | 4.04% | 243,735 |
| Franklin | 9,472 | 39.92% | 14,137 | 59.58% | 119 | 0.50% | -4,665 | -19.66% | 23,728 |
| Hampden | 89,477 | 57.80% | 64,502 | 41.67% | 817 | 0.53% | 24,975 | 16.13% | 154,796 |
| Hampshire | 17,823 | 52.86% | 15,651 | 46.42% | 241 | 0.71% | 2,172 | 6.44% | 33,715 |
| Middlesex | 218,662 | 47.18% | 242,658 | 52.36% | 2,116 | 0.46% | -23,996 | -5.18% | 463,436 |
| Nantucket | 624 | 37.89% | 1,015 | 61.63% | 8 | 0.49% | -391 | -23.74% | 1,647 |
| Norfolk | 67,654 | 40.75% | 97,525 | 58.74% | 838 | 0.50% | -29,871 | -17.99% | 166,017 |
| Plymouth | 34,481 | 41.24% | 48,617 | 58.15% | 508 | 0.61% | -14,136 | -16.91% | 83,606 |
| Suffolk | 243,233 | 63.32% | 138,575 | 36.07% | 2,337 | 0.61% | 104,658 | 27.25% | 384,145 |
| Worcester | 132,541 | 56.62% | 100,468 | 42.92% | 1,099 | 0.47% | 32,073 | 13.70% | 234,108 |
| Totals | 1,076,522 | 53.11% | 939,700 | 46.36% | 10,771 | 0.53% | 136,822 | 6.75% | 2,026,993 |
State and district results of the1940 United States presidential election | ||
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