1944 United States presidential election in Tennessee

← 1940 November 7, 1944[1] 1948 →
All 12Tennessee votes to theElectoral College
Nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt Thomas E. Dewey Party Democratic Republican Home state New York New York Running mate Harry S. Truman John W. Bricker Electoral vote 12 0 Popular vote 308,707 200,311 Percentage 60.45% 39.22%
County Results Roosevelt   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Dewey   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%
President before election Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic Elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt Democratic

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
v t e

The1944 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 7, 1944, as part of the1944 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12^[2] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral 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^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] Afterthe disfranchisement of the state's African-American population bya poll tax was largely complete in the 1890s,^[6] the Democratic Party was certain of winning statewide elections if united,^[7] although unlike the Deep South Republicans would almost always gain thirty to forty percent of the statewide vote from mountain and Highland Rim support.

In 1920 by moving into a small number of traditionally Democratic areas in Middle Tennessee^[8] and expanding turnout due to the Nineteenth Amendment and powerful isolationist sentiment,^[9] the Republican Party captured Tennessee's presidential electoral votes and won the governorship and three congressional seats in addition to the rock-ribbed GOPFirst andSecond Districts; however, these gains were temporary because isolationist sympathy ebbed and turnout consequently fell.^[10] Then in 1928anti-Catholicism against Democratic nomineeAl Smith in this powerfully fundamentalist state^[11] meant thatHerbert Hoover bettered Harding's performance without however gaining significant down-ballot coattails.

Republican gains would be more than reversed in the 1930s due to the impact ofthe Great Depression, which was generally blamed upon the Republican Party's policies during the 1920s. Internal divisions prevented the Republicans taking advantage of a disputed Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1932 betweenLewis Pope andHill McAlister,^[12] and for the next third of a century the Republicans would rarely contest statewide offices seriously despite continuing dominance of East Tennessee and half a dozenUnionist counties in the middle and west of the state.^[13] State politics became dominated byEdward Hull “Boss” Crump, whose Memphispolitical machine would consistently provide decisive votes in statewide Democratic primaries — aided by cross-party voting by Republicans in eastern mountain counties.^[13] Crump would be supported during this era by long-serving SenatorKenneth Douglas McKellar, so that in 1938 when several statewide candidates allied themselves with Tennessee's other Senator,Gordon Browning, the Crump/McKellar machine not merely defeated the collaboration, but even unseated Senator Browning.^[14]

In April 1944,Smith v. Allwright ruled thewhite primary upon which the politics of most Confederate states was based unconstitutional. However, Tennessee's history of substantial mountain Republican opposition meant it, likeOklahoma,North Carolina andVirginia, lacked statewide white primaries, although certain counties did use the white primary.^[15] Consequently, local response to this landmark court case was generally calm;^[15] nevertheless, there had already been a significant reaction to American involvement inWorld War II, in which Tennessee SenatorKenneth McKellar was a significant leader.^[16]

• Bledsoe
• Carroll
• Hamblen
• Knox
• Monroe
• Morgan
• Rhea
• Roane

Early polls sawincumbent PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and new running mateMissouri SenatorHarry S. Truman nonetheless leading inTennessee by the same margin as Roosevelt had won in his previous three elections.^[19] Later polls showed a slight decline, and on election day the decline from Roosevelt's previous three performances was somewhat more marked still.^[20] Nonetheless, Roosevelt still carried Tennessee without any difficulty, pollingwith 60.45 percent of the popular vote, against 39.22 percent forNew York GovernorThomas E. Dewey (R) and running mateOhio GovernorJohn Bricker.^[21]

Roosevelt's 21.23 percentage point margin of victory in Tennessee was the closest that he came to losing any state of the former Confederacy in any of his four presidential runs, but as of 2020^[update], this remains the last time that a Democrat has won more than sixty percent of Tennessee's vote in a presidential election.

• 1944 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Tennessee
• 1944 Tennessee elections

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