1948 United States presidential election in Tennessee

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Nominee Harry S. Truman Thomas E. Dewey Strom Thurmond Party Democratic Republican States' Rights Democratic Home state Missouri New York South Carolina Running mate Alben W. Barkley Earl Warren Fielding L. Wright Electoral vote 11 0 1 Popular vote 270,402 202,914 73,815 Percentage 49.14% 36.87% 13.41%

County results Truman   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Dewey   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Thurmond   40–50%   80–90%

President before election Harry S. Truman Democratic Elected President Harry S. Truman Democratic

The1948 United States presidential election in Tennessee took place on November 2, 1948, as part of the1948 United States presidential election. Tennessee voters chose 12^[2] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

For over a century after theCivil 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 fiveWestern Highland 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 andWest 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.

Between1896 and 1948, the Republicans would win statewide contests three times but only in the second did they receive down-ballot coattails by winning three congressional seats in addition to the rock-ribbed GOPFirst andSecond Districts.^[8] In the early 1910s, prohibitionist “Independent Democrats” fled the party and formed a coalition, known as the “Fusionists,” with Republicans to electBen W. Hooper Governor,^[9] whilst in1920 the national anti-Wilson and anti-League of Nations tide allowed the GOP to carry a few traditionally Democratic areas in Middle Tennessee and with them the state,^[10] and in1928anti-Catholicism against Democratic nomineeAl Smith gave this powerfully fundamentalist state toHerbert Hoover.^[11]

After the beginning of theGreat Depression, however, for the next third of a century Republicans would rarely contest statewide offices seriously, despite continuing dominance of East Tennessee and half a dozen Unionist counties in the middle and west of the state.^[12] State politics during the 1930s and 1940s was 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.^[12] Although Tennessee's delegates at the1948 Democratic National Convention were all opposed toincumbent PresidentHarry S. Truman after his proposal for black civil rights titledTo Secure These Rights, the presence of potentially formidable Republican opposition in East Tennessee and the Highland Rim meant that Crump could not even keep his own machine in line.^[13] GovernorMcCord and even Crump's long-time allySenatorKenneth D. McKellar both broke with him over supportingStates Rights Democratic nomineesStrom Thurmond andFielding L. Wright, with McCord losing the Democratic nomination to Crump foeGordon Browning.^[14] In order to get their electorson the ballot the Dixiecrats had to form a separate state organisation inSomerville,^[13] although three of the Dixiecrat electors were simultaneously on the slate for Truman andKentucky SenatorAlben W. Barkley.^[15] Thurmond won 14% of white voters.^[16]

• Carroll

• Shelby
• Fayette

• McMinn
• Polk

Truman carried Tennessee more comfortably than expected, defeatingRepublican nomineesNew York GovernorThomas E. Dewey andCalifornia GovernorEarl Warren by 12.26 percentage points and Thurmond by 35.73 percentage points. Thurmond did however make significant inroads into traditional Democratic support in theBlack Belt of West Tennessee, where he received over eighty percent inFayette County, and also did well in prosperous urban precincts inNashville.

Truman received eleven of Tennessee's twelve electoral votes, with the other cast in favor of Thurmond by Preston Parks of Somerville, TN, who was also on the Dixiecrat slate.^[15][25] As ofthe 2024 presidential election^[update], this is the last election in whichHamilton County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.^[26]

• United States presidential elections in Tennessee

• Black, Earl;Black, Merle (1992).The Vital South: How Presidents Are Elected.Harvard University Press.ISBN 0674941306.

• 1948 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Tennessee
• 1948 Tennessee elections

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