United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1956

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1956
November 6, 1956

 
Eisenhower official.jpg
AdlaiEStevenson1900-1965.jpg
Nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower Adlai Stevenson
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Pennsylvania[lower-alpha 1][1] Illinois
Running mate Richard Nixon Estes Kefauver
Electoral vote 16 0
Popular vote 1,393,197 948,190
Percentage 59.3% 40.4%
County Results
  Stevenson – 50–60%
  Eisenhower – 50–60%
  Eisenhower – 60–70%
  Eisenhower – 70–80%
  Eisenhower – 80–90%
President before election

Dwight Eisenhower
Republican

 Elected President

Dwight Eisenhower
Republican

The 1956 United States presidential election in Massachusetts took place on November 6, 1956, as part of the 1956 United States presidential election, which was held throughout all contemporary 48 states. Voters chose sixteen representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Massachusetts voted decisively for the Republican nominee, incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower of Pennsylvania, over the Democratic nominee, former Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois. Eisenhower ran with incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon of California, while Stevenson's running mate was Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee.

Eisenhower carried the state with 59.32 percent of the vote to Stevenson’s 40.37 percent, a Republican victory margin of 18.95 percent.

As Eisenhower won a decisive re-election victory nationwide, Massachusetts weighed in for this election as about four percent more Republican than the national average. This remains the last presidential election in which Massachusetts voted more Republican than the nation,[2] as the state would trend dramatically toward the Democratic Party beginning in 1960.

Once a typical Yankee Republican bastion in the wake of the Civil War, Massachusetts had been a Democratic-leaning state since 1928, when a coalition of Irish Catholic and other ethnic immigrant voters primarily based in urban areas turned Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island into New England's only reliably Democratic states. Massachusetts voted for Al Smith in 1928, for Franklin Roosevelt four times in the 1930s and 1940s, and for Harry S. Truman in 1948. However General Dwight Eisenhower, a war hero and moderate Republican who pledged to support and continue popular New Deal Democratic policies, was finally able to appeal to a broad enough coalition both to win back the White House and to flip Massachusetts back into the Republican column.

In his initial 1952 campaign, Eisenhower won back Massachusetts by a closer 54–45 margin, but the popular incumbent, who governed in a very moderate way that appealed to New England voters, was able to more than double his margin of victory in the state in the 1956 election.

Eisenhower carried thirteen of the state’s fourteen counties, Stevenson’s only victory coming from urban Suffolk County, home to the state’s capital and largest city, Boston.

No Republican would carry Massachusetts in a presidential election again until Ronald Reagan won the state in 1980. Since this election, no Republican has ever carried the counties of Bristol, Hampshire and Middlesex.[3]

Results

United States presidential election in Massachusetts, 1956[4]
Party Candidate Votes Percentage Electoral votes
Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower 1,393,197 59.32% 16
Democratic Adlai Stevenson 948,190 40.37% 0
Socialist Labor Eric Hass 5,573 0.24% 0
Prohibition Enoch A. Holtwick 1,205 0.05% 0
Write-ins Write-ins 341 0.01% 0
Totals 2,348,506 100.00% 16

Results by county

County Eisenhower# Eisenhower% Stevenson# Stevenson% Others# Others% Total votes cast[5]
Barnstable 23,472 83.23% 4,672 16.57% 58 0.21% 28,202
Berkshire 41,355 61.75% 25,361 37.87% 257 0.38% 66,973
Bristol 109,542 57.85% 79,357 41.91% 466 0.25% 189,365
Dukes 2,618 82.85% 541 17.12% 1 0.03% 3,160
Essex 166,115 60.09% 109,671 39.67% 667 0.24% 276,453
Franklin 19,779 72.09% 7,574 27.61% 83 0.30% 27,436
Hampden 104,689 55.87% 81,743 43.63% 935 0.50% 187,367
Hampshire 26,361 61.93% 16,119 37.87% 84 0.20% 42,564
Middlesex 343,125 61.12% 216,668 38.60% 1580 0.28% 561,373
Nantucket 1,582 83.26% 317 16.68% 1 0.05% 1,900
Norfolk 152,747 66.41% 76,656 33.33% 593 0.26% 229,996
Plymouth 75,575 71.19% 30,377 28.61% 209 0.20% 106,161
Suffolk 162,836 45.78% 191,245 53.77% 1,605 0.45% 355,686
Worcester 163,401 60.10% 107,889 39.68% 580 0.21% 271,870
Totals1,393,19759.32%948,19040.37%7,1190.31%2,348,506

References

  1. ↑ "The Presidents". David Leip. Retrieved September 27, 2017. Eisenhower's home state for the 1956 Election was Pennsylvania
  2. ↑ Counting the Votes; Massachusetts
  3. ↑ Sullivan, Robert David; ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’; America Magazine in The National Catholic Review; June 29, 2016
  4. ↑ "1956 Presidential General Election Results - Massachusetts". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved 2013-02-07.
  5. ↑ Scammon, Richard M. (compiler); America at the Polls: A Handbook of Presidential Election Statistics 1920-1964; p. 215 ISBN 0405077114

Notes

  1. ↑ Although he was born in Texas and grew up in Kansas before his military career, at the time of his election Eisenhower was president of Columbia University and was, officially, a resident of New York. During his first term as president, he moved his private residence to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and officially changed his residency to Pennsylvania.
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