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The1952 United States presidential election in Vermont took place on November 4, 1952, as part of the1952 United States presidential election which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose three representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted for thepresident andvice president.
Vermont voted overwhelmingly for theRepublican nominee,GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower ofNew York, over theDemocratic nominee, formerIllinois GovernorAdlai Stevenson of Illinois. Eisenhower ran withSenatorRichard Nixon ofCalifornia, while Stevenson's running mate wasSenatorJohn Sparkman ofAlabama.
Eisenhower took a landslide 71.45% of the vote to Stevenson's 28.23%, a victory margin of 43.22%. Vermont historically was a bastion ofNortheastern Republicanism, and by 1952 Vermont had gone Republican in every presidential election since the founding of the Republican Party. From1856 to1948, Vermont had had the longest streak of voting Republican of any state, having never voted Democratic before, and this tradition easily continued in 1952 with Eisenhower's landslide win.
Even as Eisenhower won a comfortable victory nationally, Vermont weighed in as a whopping 32% more Republican than the national average and with 71.45% of the popular vote, this made Vermont the most Republican in the union in the 1952 election.[2]
Eisenhower, a war hero and moderate Republican who had pledged to maintain popularNew Deal Democratic policies, had wide appeal beyond the boundaries of the traditional Republican coalition. While Vermont was one of the only two states in the nation (along withMaine) to vote againstFranklin Roosevelt all 4 times, the GOP margins in the state had narrowed substantially in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly due to the strong Democratic presence in the northwestern part of the state. However, Eisenhower's unique personal appeal brought even that region back into the GOP coalition, and allowed him to break 70% in the state in both 1952 and1956 (Eisenhower's would win with a slightly larger margin in 1956), the first Republican to do so sinceCalvin Coolidge in1924, and the last to date.
| 1952 United States presidential election in Vermont[3] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Percentage | Electoral votes | |
| Republican | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 109,717 | 71.45% | 3 | |
| Democratic | Adlai Stevenson | 43,355 | 28.23% | 0 | |
| Progressive | Vincent Hallinan | 282 | 0.18% | 0 | |
| Socialist | Darlington Hoopes | 185 | 0.12% | 0 | |
| N/A | Write-ins | 18 | 0.01% | 0 | |
| Totals | 153,557 | 100.00% | 3 | ||
| County | Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican | Adlai Stevenson Democratic | Various candidates Other parties | Margin | Total votes cast | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Addison | 6,057 | 78.18% | 1,667 | 21.52% | 24 | 0.31% | 4,390 | 56.66% | 7,748 |
| Bennington | 8,385 | 73.31% | 3,018 | 26.39% | 34 | 0.30% | 5,367 | 46.92% | 11,437 |
| Caledonia | 7,595 | 80.60% | 1,807 | 19.18% | 21 | 0.22% | 5,788 | 61.42% | 9,423 |
| Chittenden | 13,533 | 57.87% | 9,746 | 41.68% | 106 | 0.45% | 3,787 | 16.19% | 23,385 |
| Essex | 1,592 | 69.04% | 705 | 30.57% | 9 | 0.39% | 887 | 38.47% | 2,306 |
| Franklin | 6,949 | 57.82% | 5,018 | 41.75% | 51 | 0.42% | 1,931 | 16.07% | 12,018 |
| Grand Isle | 976 | 59.15% | 665 | 40.30% | 9 | 0.55% | 311 | 18.85% | 1,650 |
| Lamoille | 3,516 | 84.52% | 633 | 15.22% | 11 | 0.26% | 2,883 | 69.30% | 4,160 |
| Orange | 5,610 | 83.49% | 1,082 | 16.10% | 27 | 0.40% | 4,528 | 67.39% | 6,719 |
| Orleans | 5,830 | 74.19% | 2,003 | 25.49% | 25 | 0.32% | 3,827 | 48.70% | 7,858 |
| Rutland | 13,980 | 69.95% | 5,970 | 29.87% | 36 | 0.18% | 8,010 | 40.08% | 19,986 |
| Washington | 11,979 | 72.59% | 4,460 | 27.03% | 64 | 0.39% | 7,519 | 45.56% | 16,503 |
| Windham | 9,774 | 77.60% | 2,790 | 22.15% | 31 | 0.25% | 6,984 | 55.45% | 12,595 |
| Windsor | 13,941 | 78.46% | 3,791 | 21.33% | 37 | 0.21% | 10,150 | 57.13% | 17,769 |
| Totals | 109,717 | 71.45% | 43,355 | 28.23% | 485 | 0.32% | 66,362 | 43.22% | 153,557 |
Eisenhower swept every county in Vermont, breaking 70% in 9 of the 14 counties. The three northwestern counties of Vermont had long been Democratic enclaves in an otherwise Republican state through the 1930s and 1940s, but Eisenhower finally won them back for the GOP. The region still remained the most Democratic in the state, as Eisenhower received less than 60% of the vote inChittenden County,Franklin County andGrand Isle County, while every county outside the northwest broke 60% for Eisenhower and three broke 80%.
Eisenhower, born in Texas, considered a resident of New York, and headquartered at the time in Paris, finally decided to run for the Republican nomination