1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina

← 1952 November 6, 1956[1] 1960 →
All 8South Carolina votes to theElectoral College
Nominee Adlai Stevenson Unpledged electors Dwight D. Eisenhower Party Democratic “Nominated by Petition” Republican Home state Illinois Pennsylvania[a][2] Running mate Estes Kefauver Richard Nixon Electoral vote 8 0 0 Popular vote 136,372 88,509 75,700 Percentage 45.37% 29.45% 25.18%
County Results Stevenson   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Unpledged   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80% Eisenhower   30–40%   50–60%
President before election Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican Elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower Republican

The1956 United States presidential election in South Carolina took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the1956 United States presidential election. South Carolina voters chose eight^[3] representatives, or electors, to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

For six decades up to 1950 South Carolina had been a one-party state dominated by the Democratic Party. The Republican Party had been moribund due to thedisfranchisement of blacks and the complete absence of other support bases as South Carolina completely lacked upland or German refugee whitesopposed to secession.^[4] Between 1900 and 1948, no Republican presidential candidate ever obtained more than seven percent of the total presidential vote^[5] – a vote which in 1924 reached as low as 6.6 percent of the total voting-age population^[6] (or approximately 15 percent of the voting-agewhite population).

This absolute loyalty began to break down duringWorld War II when Vice-presidentsHenry A. Wallace andHarry Truman began to realize that a legacy of discrimination against blacks was a threat to the United States' image abroad and its ability to win theCold War against the radically egalitarian rhetoric ofCommunism.^[7] In the 1948 presidential election, Truman was backed by only 24 percent of South Carolina's limited electorate – most of that from the relatively fewupcountrypoor whites able to meet rigorous voting requirements – and state GovernorStrom Thurmond won 71 percent, carrying every county exceptAnderson andSpartanburg. Despite Truman announcing as early as May 1950 that he would not run again for president in 1952,^[8] it had already become clear that South Carolina's rulers remained severely disenchanted with the national Democratic Party.^[9] Both Thurmond and former GovernorJames F. Byrnes would endorse national Republican nomineeDwight D. Eisenhower^[10] – who ran under an independent label in South Carolina – and Democratic nomineeAdlai Stevenson II only won narrowly due to two- and three-to-one majorities in the poor white counties that had given substantial opposition to Thurmond in 1948.^[11]

During the first Eisenhower term, South Carolina's whites who had supported him became extremely critical because Eisenhower was blamed forBrown v. Board of Education, whose requirement of desegregating the state's schools was intolerable. Consequently, state leaders like Thurmond argued that the GOP could not be a useful tool for opposing civil rights, and most of the state's Democrats endorsed Stevenson for his rematch with Eisenhower.^[12] Byrnes, however, obtained 35,000 petitions for an alternative slate ofunpledged electors, whom he naturally endorsed whenballot access was obtained for that slate.^[13]

In mid-October, the consensus among pollsters was that the state's vote would be sharply split between the three slates,^[14] although polls just before election day suggested that Stevenson was likely to carry the state.^[15]

• Florence

• Greenville
• Marion
• Newberry
• Pickens

• Aiken

• Berkeley
• Allendale
• Bamberg
• Calhoun
• Charleston
• Clarendon
• Colleton
• Dorchester
• Edgefield
• Hampton
• Jasper
• Kershaw
• Georgetown
• Lee
• Lexington
• Orangeburg
• Richland
• Sumter
• Williasburg

UltimatelySouth Carolina was won byAdlai Stevenson II (D–Illinois), running withTennessee SenatorEstes Kefauver by a more decisive margin than polls predicted.^[16] Stevenson gained 45.37 percent of the popular vote thanks to his continued dominance of the upcountry, whilst Eisenhower and the unpledged slate divided thelowcountry vote, with the unpledged slate finishing second with 29.45 percent and Eisenhower – this time running under the “Republican” banner – with 25.18 percent^[17] Wealthier whites left Eisenhower for the unpledged slate in large numbers, but unlike in 1952 when the small number of black voters strongly supported Stevenson, Eisenhower gained substantial, even majority, support from blacks able to vote inCharleston andColumbia.^[12]

The 1956 election in South Carolina marks the second of only three times in the 20th century that an incumbent president has finished third in any state.^[d] As of the2020 presidential election^[update], this is the last time that a Republican has been elected president without carrying South Carolina, and the last time thatGreenville County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. It is also the last time thatLexington County was not carried by the Republican candidate.^[18]

• 1956 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in South Carolina
• 1956 South Carolina elections

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