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 Parish Results Roosevelt 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% 90–100%
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The1944 United States presidential election in Louisiana took place on November 7, 1944, as part of the1944 United States presidential election. State voters chose ten[1] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.
Ever since the passage of a newconstitution in 1898,Louisiana had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party became moribund due to thedisenfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as Louisiana completely lacked upland or German refugee whitesopposed to secession.[2] Despite this absolute single-party dominance, non-partisan tendencies remained strong among wealthy sugar planters inAcadiana and within the business elite of New Orleans.[3]
Until the rise ofHuey P. Long, post-disenfranchisement Louisiana politics was dominated by the New Orleans–based "Choctaw Club",[4] which overcame Socialist,Wobbly, andProgressive challenges from the outlying upcountry, Imperial Calcasieu andAcadiana regions between the late 1900s and early 1920s.[5] The three presidential elections between 1916 and 1924 saw a rebellion in Acadiana over sugar tariffs andWoodrow Wilson's foreign and domestic policies; however, the nomination of CatholicAl Smith in 1928 rapidly restored their Democratic loyalty without causing significant upheaval in the remainder of the state, which was too focused on control of black labour to worry about Smith's Catholicism.[6]
Following the 1928 gubernatorial primary, Louisiana politics untilBrown v. Board of Education would be governed by a system of coherent"Long" and "anti-Long" Democratic factionalism,[7] as the administration of Huey Long introduced significant economic reforms, which were strongly opposed by the remnants of the old Choctaws. During the first term of Roosevelt, Long sought to capture the Presidency for himself under a "Share-Our-Wealth" program involving the confiscation of wealthy fortunes, family allowances, and government storage of agricultural surpluses.[8] The Long and anti-Long factions would compete intensely in subsequent primaries, with many controversies, most critically involving New Orleans election officer Patrick Classic's attempt to count ninety-seven ballots for anti-LongHale Boggs in a House of Representatives primary in September 1940,[9] whichreached the Supreme Court and established the right to regulate primary elections. Three years later, Louisiana's lily-white one-party politics was shaken bySmith v. Allwright, which ruled white-only primaries as unconstitutional, and to which Governor Sam Jones responded saying:
We've always handled that question [black disenfranchisement]—and always will.[10]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Franklin D. Roosevelt (inc.) | 281,564 | 80.59% | |
| Republican | Thomas Dewey | 67,750 | 19.39% | |
| Write-ins | — | 69 | 0.02% | |
| Total votes | 349,383 | 100% | ||
| Parish | Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democratic | Thomas Edmund Dewey Republican | Various candidates Write-ins | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Acadia | 4,439 | 81.27% | 1,023 | 18.73% | 3,416 | 62.54% | 5,462 | ||
| Allen | 2,205 | 86.78% | 336 | 13.22% | 1,869 | 73.55% | 2,541 | ||
| Ascension | 2,291 | 86.29% | 364 | 13.71% | 1,927 | 72.58% | 2,655 | ||
| Assumption | 1,419 | 76.91% | 426 | 23.09% | 993 | 53.82% | 1,845 | ||
| Avoyelles | 3,789 | 92.53% | 306 | 7.47% | 3,483 | 85.05% | 4,095 | ||
| Beauregard | 2,226 | 74.57% | 759 | 25.43% | 1,467 | 49.15% | 2,985 | ||
| Bienville | 1,801 | 71.87% | 705 | 28.13% | 1,096 | 43.74% | 2,506 | ||
| Bossier | 2,430 | 79.59% | 622 | 20.37% | 1 | 0.03% | 1,808 | 59.22% | 3,053 |
| Caddo | 12,896 | 68.56% | 5,885 | 31.29% | 29 | 0.15% | 7,011 | 37.27% | 18,810 |
| Calcasieu | 7,861 | 80.81% | 1,867 | 19.19% | 5,994 | 61.62% | 9,728 | ||
| Caldwell | 1,142 | 69.34% | 505 | 30.66% | 637 | 38.68% | 1,647 | ||
| Cameron | 1,025 | 92.26% | 86 | 7.74% | 939 | 84.52% | 1,111 | ||
| Catahoula | 1,208 | 80.59% | 291 | 19.41% | 917 | 61.17% | 1,499 | ||
| Claiborne | 2,266 | 79.68% | 578 | 20.32% | 1,688 | 59.35% | 2,844 | ||
| Concordia | 974 | 82.89% | 201 | 17.11% | 773 | 65.79% | 1,175 | ||
| DeSoto | 1,858 | 77.55% | 538 | 22.45% | 1,320 | 55.09% | 2,396 | ||
| East Baton Rouge | 14,757 | 82.99% | 3,025 | 17.01% | 11,732 | 65.98% | 17,782 | ||
| East Carroll | 925 | 72.15% | 357 | 27.85% | 568 | 44.31% | 1,282 | ||
| East Feliciana | 869 | 79.80% | 220 | 20.20% | 649 | 59.60% | 1,089 | ||
| Evangeline | 3,029 | 91.68% | 275 | 8.32% | 2,754 | 83.35% | 3,304 | ||
| Franklin | 2,476 | 80.57% | 597 | 19.43% | 1,879 | 61.15% | 3,073 | ||
| Grant | 1,939 | 77.72% | 556 | 22.28% | 1,383 | 55.43% | 2,495 | ||
| Iberia | 3,661 | 76.24% | 1,141 | 23.76% | 2,520 | 52.48% | 4,802 | ||
| Iberville | 2,265 | 83.98% | 432 | 16.02% | 1,833 | 67.96% | 2,697 | ||
| Jackson | 1,840 | 81.52% | 414 | 18.34% | 3 | 0.13% | 1,426 | 63.18% | 2,257 |
| Jefferson | 10,268 | 85.21% | 1,782 | 14.79% | 8,486 | 70.42% | 12,050 | ||
| Jefferson Davis | 2,329 | 66.83% | 1,156 | 33.17% | 1,173 | 33.66% | 3,485 | ||
| Lafayette | 4,801 | 86.61% | 742 | 13.39% | 4,059 | 73.23% | 5,543 | ||
| Lafourche | 4,980 | 85.06% | 875 | 14.94% | 4,105 | 70.11% | 5,855 | ||
| LaSalle | 2,018 | 79.20% | 504 | 19.78% | 26 | 1.02% | 1,514 | 59.42% | 2,548 |
| Lincoln | 1,705 | 62.29% | 1,032 | 37.71% | 673 | 24.59% | 2,737 | ||
| Livingston | 2,460 | 87.76% | 343 | 12.24% | 2,117 | 75.53% | 2,803 | ||
| Madison | 764 | 69.33% | 338 | 30.67% | 426 | 38.66% | 1,102 | ||
| Morehouse | 1,859 | 79.55% | 478 | 20.45% | 1,381 | 59.09% | 2,337 | ||
| Natchitoches | 2,536 | 69.59% | 1,105 | 30.32% | 3 | 0.08% | 1,431 | 39.27% | 3,644 |
| Orleans | 90,411 | 81.74% | 20,190 | 18.25% | 7 | 0.01% | 70,221 | 63.49% | 110,608 |
| Ouachita | 6,329 | 70.67% | 2,627 | 29.33% | 3,702 | 41.34% | 8,956 | ||
| Plaquemines | 1,755 | 83.97% | 335 | 16.03% | 1,420 | 67.94% | 2,090 | ||
| Pointe Coupee | 1,436 | 84.12% | 271 | 15.88% | 1,165 | 68.25% | 1,707 | ||
| Rapides | 9,132 | 84.21% | 1,712 | 15.79% | 7,420 | 68.42% | 10,844 | ||
| Red River | 975 | 70.45% | 409 | 29.55% | 566 | 40.90% | 1,384 | ||
| Richland | 2,087 | 81.05% | 488 | 18.95% | 1,599 | 62.10% | 2,575 | ||
| Sabine | 2,048 | 66.34% | 1,039 | 33.66% | 1,009 | 32.69% | 3,087 | ||
| Saint Bernard | 2,044 | 96.23% | 80 | 3.77% | 1,964 | 92.47% | 2,124 | ||
| Saint Charles | 1,945 | 91.79% | 174 | 8.21% | 1,771 | 83.58% | 2,119 | ||
| Saint Helena | 683 | 86.35% | 108 | 13.65% | 575 | 72.69% | 791 | ||
| Saint James | 1,387 | 83.96% | 265 | 16.04% | 1,122 | 67.92% | 1,652 | ||
| Saint John the Baptist | 1,324 | 87.16% | 195 | 12.84% | 1,129 | 74.33% | 1,519 | ||
| Saint Landry | 4,423 | 84.94% | 784 | 15.06% | 3,639 | 69.89% | 5,207 | ||
| Saint Martin | 2,384 | 93.97% | 153 | 6.03% | 2,231 | 87.94% | 2,537 | ||
| Saint Mary | 3,591 | 86.97% | 538 | 13.03% | 3,053 | 73.94% | 4,129 | ||
| Saint Tammany | 3,450 | 83.07% | 703 | 16.93% | 2,747 | 66.14% | 4,153 | ||
| Tangipahoa | 4,419 | 73.76% | 1,572 | 26.24% | 2,847 | 47.52% | 5,991 | ||
| Tensas | 638 | 79.95% | 160 | 20.05% | 478 | 59.90% | 798 | ||
| Terrebonne | 3,539 | 86.55% | 550 | 13.45% | 2,989 | 73.10% | 4,089 | ||
| Union | 1,765 | 68.73% | 803 | 31.27% | 962 | 37.46% | 2,568 | ||
| Vermilion | 4,684 | 87.39% | 676 | 12.61% | 4,008 | 74.78% | 5,360 | ||
| Vernon | 3,075 | 75.05% | 1,022 | 24.95% | 2,053 | 50.11% | 4,097 | ||
| Washington | 4,810 | 92.22% | 406 | 7.78% | 4,404 | 84.43% | 5,216 | ||
| Webster | 3,655 | 80.26% | 899 | 19.74% | 2,756 | 60.52% | 4,554 | ||
| West Baton Rouge | 1,045 | 92.31% | 87 | 7.69% | 958 | 84.63% | 1,132 | ||
| West Carroll | 1,390 | 70.52% | 581 | 29.48% | 809 | 41.05% | 1,971 | ||
| West Feliciana | 426 | 70.53% | 178 | 29.47% | 248 | 41.06% | 604 | ||
| Winn | 1,403 | 61.43% | 881 | 38.57% | 522 | 22.85% | 2,284 | ||
| Totals | 281,564 | 80.59% | 67,750 | 19.39% | 69 | 0.02% | 213,814 | 61.20% | 349,383 |
IncumbentDemocraticPresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt carriedLouisiana in a landslide, defeatingRepublicanNew York GovernorThomas E. Dewey by a margin of 61.20 points,[12] and sweeping every parish in the state. Nevertheless, indications of protest against Roosevelt's policies were seen in the rural hill parishes where the Long dynasty had been strongest in the preceding fifteen years[13]—for instance in Long's ancestral home ofWinn Parish, Dewey won almost two-fifths of the vote, and in Winn and nearbyLincoln Parish, the Democratic vote share fell by almost one quarter from the 1940 election.[11]
As of2024, this election marks the last time that a Democratic presidential nominee has carriedBossier Parish.[14]Plaquemines Parish andLincoln Parish have both voted for a Democratic presidential candidate only once since—forBill Clinton in1996—whilstCaddo Parish andClaiborne Parish would not vote Democratic again until Clinton in1992.[14] It also marked the end of a 64-year Democratic voting streak; four years later, the state would backDixiecrat candidateStrom Thurmond instead of Democratic nomineeHarry S. Truman. As such, this marks the last time that any presidential candidate would carry every parish in the state.
State and district results of the1944 United States presidential election | ||
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